Visiting Grandpa Éd's Gravesite

My Grandpa Ed passed just about a few weeks before we left for China.  So many emotions during that time.  We were finally able to make it up to see his gravesite.  He's buried at the Veteran's memorial cemetery up in Portland which is about an hour and a half north of us.  What a beautiful place, every time I visit I'm amazed at how they keep it so nice.  We were able to leave some flowers and let a balloon go up to him in Heaven.   When we were leaving my grandpa's gravesite we turned around to hurry Zoe up and found her on her knees in front of his head stone talking to him.  She brought us all to tears!

Grandpa Ed's Burial service

Today completed the burial for my Grandfather.  Yesterday was the service in Grants Pass and today we traveled to Portland to the Veteran's Cemetery.   Both service were great and truly Honored my Grandfather.  We will miss him deeply but we rest assured we will someday see him in Heaven.
The first pictures are from the first day in Grants Pass, and then the last few are from the service in Portland.

   My Aunt Connie and Mother Shirley

 Connie, My mom, Brother Sean and Zoe

 Me, My mom and Brother

My Litte Brother

 Zoe

 Zoe loves Sean's outfit

 The family including Joanne and Cindy from Georgia (Joanne is my grandpas sister)

 My Aunt, My cousin Danny, his daughter Brianna, Cousin Travis and his girlfriend Ashley

 Zoe & Bri

 The girls playing with Chase

 Our family

 Parker

 Danny & Sean

 Geneva & Andrew

Labor day weekend in Grants pass

So we went back to our hometown this weekend.  This will probably be our last weekend home before our trip to China.  We started out Saturday on the river.  We had a nice bouncy ride down the river since the water was low. 

 Zoe was pouting when we first started off

 The beautiful Rogue River

 I missed this little man.  He was with his grandparents all week and boy did they spoil him rotten.  He even got a new haircut.

 Steve's sister and her friends also went down the river in their own boat

 Swimming afterwards

 No visit is complete without a visit with my Grandpa.  It is never easy to see him in this state.  He has advance Alzheimer's and broke his hip last February and has since been wheelchair bound

 I love the love my kids show him.  Zoe kept kissing his hands

 Later that night we let the kids skip rocks at the river.  We seen four jet boats go by when we were there.

Chase and Great Grandma

Visit with Grandma

Last night we stayed the night with my Grandma.  It's been awhile since we've stayed at her house.  She's been through a lot over the last year and at one point didn't want anything to do with her family.
We continued to pray for her during this time and after my Grandpa landed in the hospital in February with a broken him she started reaching out towards family once again.  Relationships are still on the mend but I feel good about the future. My Grandpa has advance stage Alzheimer's and is now bed ridden since his broken him was inoperable.  The kids really enjoyed our night at grandmas and we took the kids to the river to skip some rocks.  Then today we had a nice visit with my Grandpa at the nursing home.