A Bittersweet Weekend

Greg's "Uncle Ernie" passed away a few weeks ago. (He is actually Willy's cousin, but the kids in Greg's family always just called him "Uncle Ernie," so that's what I know him by.) I believe that 102 is a good age to die and anytime before that is just too young, so losing him at 63 was a bummer. He had a stroke after a fairly routine heart surgery and never woke back up.

After waiting in the 2 hour viewing line (Ernie was a popular guy), we headed to La Casita for dinner. Ernie LOVED La Casita, so Greg figured it was the least we could do for him. :) Greg used to love to eat there when we lived in Mapleton. Garrett was also a fan and ate an entire bowl of salsa with a spoon. He also learned the phrases, "You guys are a bunch of idiots," and "Oh F," during this dinner. Thank you, Uncle Eric and Dad.

After dinner, we drove by Ernie's shop. He was a mechanic and ran a shop in Springville. We visited him often when we lived in Utah County and he was always full of jokes. Greg would always bring up the fact that I had been a BYU co-ed and he would quickly launch into his routine of BYU jokes. Something about his enthusiasm and grin would make me laugh every time.

On the way home from the funeral, we took a trip down memory lane and drove by our first two apartments.

Here is our first apartment in Spanish Fork. We loved this little place! The bottom left apartment was ours.

Here is the back view of our Mapleton apartment. We lived in the basement of this house and we also loved it there. (Our kids were at my cousin's house and we needed to hurry and pick them up, so we quickly drove through the cul-de-sac, but didn't stop for pictures of the front because we didn't have time to visit if we saw anybody we knew.) The back shot really doesn't do this place justice, but oh well.

We also made a quick stop at the Spanish Fork Cemetery and visited Greg's grandparents' graves. (Terrible picture, I know.)
We headed back to Salt Lake and attended the Taylorsville Dayzz Celebration that evening with the Phillips fam.

We took the kids to ride a few rides and kill some time before the fireworks started. Garrett saw this little piece of machinery and just had to sit on it. It took us a good 5 minutes to convince him that it wasn't a ride and wasn't going to do anything if we put money in it.

Garrett was so excited when he saw the Carousel and just had to ride it. He kept saying, "I'm just like Mary Poppins!"

Time for the fireworks!!!

We spent the night at Grandpa and Grandma's house and Garrett was spoiled with a nice breakfast of "Woreos and Melk."

Abby-Cakes was so cute in her little dress. I just love getting her dressed up on Sundays!

Willy's sister, Sandy, invited the whole family over that evening for a BBQ. She is the sweetest person ever and has the most amazing yard you could possibly imagine. Like I'm talking they could film a chick-flick in her backyard--it's that good!

The batteries died in my camera and I only got a few pictures of the night, so you'll just have to trust me when I say it was awesome.

Coolest scarecrow ever!Meg and Sandy

And here's where the batteries died and I missed getting pictures of the rest of the family. Sad. :( We had so much fun and I am already looking forward to our Girls' Night when we watch "Father of the Bride" on the big screen in the backyard. I'll bring the tissues.