Remembering

A couple of weeks ago I had a cousin call me and ask if I would send her the pictures from dad's funeral. That reminded me that I hadn't posted any pictures from the funeral. So I opened up my funeral folder and tried to e-mail them to her. For some reason I couldn't get them to send. Then I thought that for Memorial Day I would post them. This has been tougher than I thought. Every once in awhile I get to thinking of dad and wishing I could make him laugh once more. HE was the funny one but for some reason he would laugh at my jokes. I just loved him for that. No, dad wasn't perfect and neither are ANY of us but he was a good man. He was always willing to help anyone who needed help, especially if they had car problems. He loved to camp and fish and joke around. He loved family around.

At the funeral we had a "Share Your Memories" time. This is when I found out that dad use to like to jump horses. I never knew that. And a few other things about dad.

This is a picture of dad when he was a teenager I think. If I remember right, the horse on the right was his favorite.

This is dad on one of his MANY fishing trips. I remember camping and fishing with dad. He was so patient with me and laughed at me because.......I LOVE to fish! However, I would not bait my hook with real worms, NOR would I touch the fish when I caught them. But I would sit there with my pole all day if I had to. And you know what? I am still the same. I like to fish but I will NOT bait, touch the fish, OR eat fish. Yuck, yuck, yuck.
This is my brother Jon, dad, and me. We are SO DANG CUTE!! What happened? We are vacationing in Jackson Hole.This is my dad in grade school. What a handsome boy. Now you know where my brother got his good looks from. And his beautiful skin.This is how most of us remember him for the last several years. I miss his eyes and his smile lines. It was so nice at the funeral home that he still had those smile eyes. And I could swear that he had a little bit of a smile.Dad died on a Monday morning. Doran was in Florida for work. He flew out the day before. We debated whether he should go or not but we didn't know dad would go so fast. Anyway... we all went to the mortuary and decided to have his funeral the next Monday. Doran would fly home on Sunday and that would give other out of towners time to make arrangements to come. That was the LONGEST and HARDEST week of my life. I didn't know someone could cry from the debts of your gut.
My nephew Jordan was in the football playoffs for his school and their final game was on Friday night. We all decided that dad would not want Jordan to decided whether to go to his funeral or play his final game. Dad always wanted us to do good in whatever we were in so we all went to the game and scheduled the funeral for the following Monday.
Here is mom and Stan at the game.

Mom, Jon's two buddies and Jon.Denise and her friend.Me and Cortney. She must get her weirdness from her dad!

And guess what........THEY TOOK STATE!!!!! Yeah JORDAN!!!

My favorite brother and me.

Jon and Stan. Stan is so awesome! He has been so wonderful for our family! Especially during this time.

Miranda giving Cortney a piggy ride.

Now Miranda gets a ride. You girls are just too cute!

And look what I taught my girls how to do. (However I didn't teach them to lose) Jordan has both Cortney and Camri in a headlock. Yes, yes, Cortney is in a dress but sometimes you just don't have time to change for these things. Doran would always tell us to "take it outside" when then girls and me would start to wrestle in the house. Ha ha....good times I say!

For my dad.

This is little Monkey. My dad actually held her and hugged her before he died. Here she is 19 days old. I think dad did some angel talking to her that week especially.

Doran and I with Cookie.

This is the good part. Everyone knows that dad had a sense of humor. We thought that this was one of his final "jokes". When the funeral was over and his casket was taken out to the hearse we found that the doors were locked with the keys IN the car, with the car running. I am sure the mortuary was so embarrassed but we were ALL having a good laugh. Dad probably locked the car himself. Here is Jason and Jordan trying to unlock the door. They ended up calling a locksmith.

Doran, John, Jon, Jessie, Jordan, Jason

Doran dedicated the grave.

Bananie. Dad loved the kids. He always wanted them to come out and spend the night.

Aren't these beautiful

Cousin Mike, Aunt Rose, Jon, Cousin Barbara, Cousin Steve grabbin' Jon.

Barbara's hubby, Kelly and Cousin Robert (everyone calls him Pickle) He is a ham. He, out of all my cousins, reminds me of my dad. He has quick whit and is always laughing.

Jon and Steve

Our life-time friend Ricky.

Camri and Cortney

My mom and Cousin Sally

Miranda, Barbara, Jordan

Aunt Mary, Cousin Lisa and her hubby and little boy.

Jon, Cousin Elbert Lee, Jody, Aunt Rose

Cousin Eb, Cousin Lloyd, Jon, Jody, Cousin Wayne, Cousin Mike, Cousin Pickle, Cousin Sally. I don't know where the rest of them went.

Camri and Jody

See we take after dad. They make me do these things.

Camri and dad, Doran

This is my favorite picture.

I miss you dad!!! I miss your smiles and laughs the most.

And I miss when you tell me you love me!

Ah heck, I just miss you for every reason.

I am glad that you can run with both feet now!

If you want to go back and read what lead up to his passing you can go here.