Unexpected

Daniel had to work this Thanksgiving so we knew that going home wasn't an option. We also knew that he'd be working Christmas Eve so we knew heading that way wasn't going to happen this holiday season. I was pretty bummed out about not going home, but I ended up suddenly going the week before Thanksgiving. My mother's brother Mark passed away very unexpectedly. Now I've talked about my cousin Caleb and his wife Steph a lot and this is Caleb's father. This is my Uncle who hauls hay and trains horses, this is the Uncle who I always thought looked like James Coburn and Arnold Schwarzennegar combined. He was really tough, the Steele's just are but Mark was what you'd call a man's man. Anyways this was so sudden, I couldn't believe it and my heart went out to my 7 cousins who just lost their father. Daniel couldn't leave he had a wedding he was the best man at so LaRae and Adam and the boys got my sister in laws Excursion and along with me and the kids we went on up there. It's sad that it takes a death to get so many people together but it was neat how many cousins were in attendance. Counting Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, cousins children, and other relatives there were over 180 relatives at the funeral...did I mention my family is huge? The funeral was really great and the kids spoke and sang they did a fabulous job (yup their tough, who else can speak 3 days after you lost your dad?) One neat thing was that in Mark's patriarchal blessing it had said he'd work every day of his life. Mark had put in more that full days of work the day before he passed, he wasn't meant to grow old and weak and spend time with walkers and wheelchairs, I found that very comforting.

So my brother Will and his wife Leslee and their kids came too so it was like we had our own little holiday with most of the family there. The night we got there we went to my town's Bingo night and had a bunch of fun. We also went to a craft fair that weekend (good job Denise :) We got to see friends and family and Snow. Caleb rode back with us and we hit a few storms. We also got stuck in a huge traffic jam not moving for at least 2 hours and then the next hour going under 25. We found out that it was a 22 car pile up and sadly a little baby girl died in this accident. I was sure glad that Adam was very cautious, and even though LaRae and I were both past our limits of patience with the kids after sitting bumper to bumper for over 2 hours and adding 4.5 hours to our trip I must hand it to Adam who was very patient and actually laughing at LaRae and I for being ready to rip our hair out. Though it was a sad reason for us to go home I was really glad that we got to go and to see so much family. I really am blessed to have such a great family and extended family.

I love my very large family!

2 of the cousins Katelyn and Keili. All of the little girl cousins had a girls night and Shayla was the baby sitter. Addy had fun!!

This is my cousins daughter Adelaide. My great grandma's name was Adelaide so here are the two Addy's. Both beautiful girls.
Our schedules were so messed up, we had to take naps where we could.
Will brought his dog Tippy. She is a portuguese water dog and is really talented and soooo soft. Addy loved her.

breakfast of Champions. My mom went up to a community Bazaar and bough 6 dozen cinnamon rolls, 5 pies, and had apple crisp and ice cream out. We laughed when she said here's breakfast. Needless to say the kids were in heaven.


How we made it with four babies on a 11 hour drive.