Grandpa's Funeral

After Dad's retirement celebration, we had two days to pack up and prepare for a big trip to Michigan for my Grandpa's funeral (Dad's dad - yes, my dad retired and had his dad's funeral all in the same week - crazy week!).  We left early Saturday morning for our 9 hour car trip to Kalamazoo Michigan. 

The kids are amazing travelers, and we filled our time with eating breakfast and lunch in the car, listening to Bible stories on CD, taking turns answering questions to family conversation starters, doing sticker books, reading, etc and watching DVD's we rented at the library!

 When we arrived in Michigan, we had dinner with a bunch of extended family, and then went back to the pool at the hotel to get some wiggles out.  We swam every day, and the hotel pool was such a blessing allowing the kids to expend energy between sitting still and quietly through church, visitation, funeral, and internment.

On Sunday morning, we headed to church as a family.  Then we went to the park to play before lunch.

Grandpa gives the best underdogs!

 After lunch and more swimming, we headed to the funeral home for the visitation.

It was both fun and emotional to look at old pictures and watch the my Uncle Scott put together.

So proud of my grandpa serving in WWII

My Aunt Nancy and Uncle Paul (my mom's brother and wife) drove from Chicago to come support my Dad - so sweet.

The kids did an amazing job being respectful, looking at all the pictures, playing quietly, and eating dinner.  Part way through the visitation, we pulled out a Paw Patrol DVD for the kids to watch :)

Monday was funeral day.

We love you GiGi-ma and are so sorry for your loss.  You led by example loving and respecting Grandpa for 62 years of marriage!

Minnesota cousins and spouses with GiGi-ma.

Kristin, Jenna, and Nate (cousins) sang at the funeral

Preparing for the funeral.  The pastor and all three of Grandpa's kids had amazing grandpa-honoring and God-honoring comments.

Grandpa's kids and wife at the luncheon

Kristin and Me and Families

Cousins Heather and Laura

More cousins

Aunt Nancy and Uncle Paul and Kent and Beth Schoenherr came as amazing support for my parents.

After the luncheon we headed to Fort Custer, where my Grandpa was buried with full military honors.

 

I loved the way they escorted my Grandma.

Paul and other cousins/spouses serving as pall bearers

Such a cool and emotional and respectful and honoring ceremony.

Here is the video of the ceremony at Fort Custer:

I was so so so proud of these three.  They were quiet, respectful, interested, age-appropriately engaged, and obedient through the funeral and ceremony.  I was so grateful for them.  We headed back to the hotel for an hour of swimming before heading to my Grandma's new home at Storypoint (which Summer and I had seen when we visited a few weeks prior but much of the rest of the family hadn't seen yet.)

Walking around Storypoint with GiGi-ma

We had dinner at Storypoint, and the chef was awesome and came out and even gave the kids their own chef hats!

The cousins all sat at one table with GiGi ma and had a wonderful time catching up.

While my parents' generation sat with the kids one table over ;)

This is Linda, one of GiGi-ma's friends, whom Summer met and formed an instant friendship with a few weeks prior when we visited.  Fun to see her again!

Chef hats!

Full family picture

After dinner, we walked GiGi-ma's loop around Storypoint with her.  From as long as I can remember, our massive family would go on walks together.  Fun to keep this up even though it is a different location.

Then we came back and all the kids (My 3 plus my cousin Heather's 3 oldest) played hide and seek in GiGi-ma's new place.

It was really emotional saying goodbye to an era that I loved so dearly, including my grandparents together hosting everyone at their house for days on end and SO many family memories.  With that being said, I am so grateful my grandpa is no longer in pain and can be worshipping Jesus in heaven in a brand new body.  And, I am grateful for a weekend to see so many of my extended family that I rarely get to see as we are separated by so many miles.