My Florida Trip

A few weeks ago I went to Florida for a week to be with my sister and her family and to go to her husband, Mike's, funeral. I was able to fly down on the same flight with my siblings Anna, Dillon, Jason, and Gerry and his wife, Jill, and two of their kids, McKinlee and Gavin. It was nice to be able to travel together instead of having to make the trip on my own. We were also able to share a couple of rental cars so that worked out really well. We got to Heide's at about 2:00 in the morning. Heide and Colton and my mom were all still awake. Heide still isn't sleeping much but wasn't sleeping at all for the week I was there. I kept trying to dose her up with some Tylenol PM but even that didn't help her very much. The night we got there we ended up talking until almost 6:00 in the morning! I probably haven't stayed up all night since I was 12! There were some tears and even some laughs, lots of sharing and good ol' bonding time.

Heide lives out in the middle of nowhere. Well, the 10 people who live there would probably not call it nowhere. It's actually called Haw Creek and it is absolutely gorgeous. This is a picture of Heide's backyard. The front yard looks pretty much the same. Let's just say you can't hear the neighbors when they yell at their children in this neighborhood!

Because this is Florida and because it's out in the boonies there is A LOT of animal/insect life! The first morning we were there we saw this cute little guy had wrapped himself around the bench and was peaking in the window watching my niece, Tess, who was asleep on the couch. Of course, my brother Dillon, the wildlife biologist of the family had to get an app to identify it. Turns out it's a harmless little guy called a Black Racer. Zac would have absolutely loved to just hang out on Heide's back porch for a day or two! Besides the snake there were tons of frogs, tiny little lizards, and the biggest wolf spider I have ever seen in my life!

After that first night we spent our nights in a home in Palm Coast that belongs to Heide's friend.  They rent it out to tourists since it's so close to the beach, but it was empty the week we were there.  They wouldn't let us pay for it though.  They just wanted to do it to help Heide and the kids. I saw a lot of amazing acts of kindness and generosity during the time I spent in Florida! My room was the Flamingo room and it was PINK!  Very, very pink and covering in flamingos! I'm sure it's meant to be used by 5 year old girls but I slept just fine in there too.

We went to the beach twice while we were there. The first time it was almost sunset and the water was so warm and the waves were huge! There was an incredible full moon too. I had fun playing with my niece, 7 year old Millie, in the waves. Don't mind my hair.  The Florida humidity was having a hey day with my natural curls!

This is me and 4 of my siblings.  That good lookin' model in the middle is my nephew, Colton.  He made the rest of us look like old, un-tanned Utahns but we still love him!

My mom kept getting knocked down in the waves and I was the only one who came to her rescue.  I hope she remembers that when she's trying to decide which one of us is her favorite child!

We did a few other things but I didn't take a camera so I don't have pictures of them.  All these pictures were either stolen from Dillon's blog or emailed to me by my mom.  But one day Jill, Anna, and I took Heide to get a pedicure and manicure. It was Heide and I's first time. It was so nice! And it was good to see Heide almost enjoying herself for just a few hours. I also went to the flea market one day with Anna, Brittney and James. We got their kind of late though and they were just about to close. We did all find a pair of sunglasses before they closed up shop.  Mine are supposedly Dolce & Gabanna, but I'm guessing that for $7 they're probably knock-offs!

This is a picture of me and all 7 of my siblings.  It's not the greatest picture but I love it because it shows how much we love each other and how important we believe family is. Even though all of us, except Heide, live in Utah or Nevada we dropped everything and came to support our sister and try to comfort her. We all had to make arrangements for the care of children or jobs (or both) left at home.  Tyson had the kids by himself all week and he did a really great job! I came home to happy, healthy kids and a clean house!

This is Heide and Millie on the day of the funeral.  I thought they looked so great. Heide is one classy lady and she really held it together.  Tess and Colton looked very nice too and Colton gave an amazing talk at the funeral.  I don't know how a 17 year old could speak in that big of a crowd at such a sad occasion but he was incredibly.  I was very impressed with Colton all week.  He really stepped up to help take care of his sisters.  Heide's son, Anthony, was not able to be at the funeral. He is on an LDS mission in Utah and chose not to come home.

The funeral was very sad but really special too. Mike had a lot of friends and touched a lot of lives.  The whole church was completely packed with people and there were more people standing out in the hall.  Mike worked with a lot of Hispanic people and so many of them came even though they don't speak English. My brother, Jason, did get up and give a short talk in Spanish so they would know how much Mike cared about them.  There was a dinner afterwards with so much food that we barely made a dent in it.  I was so amazed at all the things people did for Heide and the kids. Early in the week I started to feel that my purpose for being there was to help eat all the good food people brought so it wouldn't go to waste!

Dillon, Anna, and I had to leave shortly after the dinner was over.  We had to fly out early the next morning so we got a hotel in Orlando.  We got there at midnight and the hotel we had reserved on Priceline turned out to be pretty sketchy! The toilet didn't work in the first room so I asked them to move us.  Then we got the room pictured here! So finally we were moved to the "suite" side of the hotel which was much better.  It only had roaches in the bathroom and an air conditioner that only worked on the "freeze your butt off" setting and sounded like an airplane landing in your room! Needless to say, I didn't sleep a wink. And I really mean I didn't sleep a wink! That was a good thing though because the front desk didn't do our wake up call and we would have missed our 6:00 a.m. flight.

 

I was so tired by the time I finally arrived home around 4:00 p.m. the next day.  But I am so glad I got to go and be with my family during this time.  I learned a lot of things about my siblings.  Heide is so strong, and classy, and a great example to all of us. Gerry J. is really good at putting his arm around you when you're bawling your eyes out while watching a slideshow set to country music. (Why do country music lyrics have to be so expressive!) James has the patience to drive three women all over the place to go shopping and only gets upset if you put your pistachio shells back in the bag with the uneaten nuts. Anna got me to go to my first pedicure which is really saying something since I'm not a huge fan of having people touch me. I may have liked it enough to go get another one someday though!  Dillon turned out to be our "Gunther." That's a term I just learned on Grey's Anatomy. The Gunther is the person who steps up to take charge during an emergency. Jason can get all kinds of grumpy but when he does you just "need to get that boy some nuggets!" And Sara has the best waterproof eyeliner. I've got to get me some of that!

We are all going to really miss Mike and I so wish he would have been able to stay around to help raise his family.  But sometimes life just doesn't work out that way. Heide has a long road ahead of her but she is a strong woman and has an amazing support system. I love you sis!