Last weekend we took a trip out to Utah. The purpose was two fold: originally it was scheduled as a short weekend jaunt out for an Olsen family reunion slash 90th birthday celebration for my Grandpa, but two weeks ago Braeden's dad was in a serious accident so we also went out to see him in the hospital and help out there.
The reunion was really fun: I don't know the last time we were all together in the same place. My cousin Adrienne put together a beautiful and amazing book with pictures of our Grandpa (aka Peanut) and our Grandma growing up and their family, up to and including us. She also made a great slide show with some of the pictures from the book to show at the birthday luncheon along with a movie with clips of family members talking about Peanut and the things we love and remember about him. It was really incredible.
For our part, Braeden and I bound an edition of seven books of my Grandma's poetry. My aunt found a series of legal pads with her poetry on them, and we made them into a book (see below).
The books were a huge success, if I do say so myself, and we were pretty pleased with how they turned out.
And, although I brought my camera, the pictures of the books (which I took before we left) are all I have to show from our trip.
On Sunday the Olsen family started to disperse and we went to visit Braeden's dad in the hospital. He looked much better than we were expecting and doing really well, and, perhaps most importantly, was in incredibly good spirits. Two weeks previous in a freak accident his own car rolled over him in the church parking lot. It was a new car and had all kinds of automatic sensors (headlights automatically turn on at night, windshield wipers automatically turn on when it rains) but didn't have one to keep the car from moving when no one was in the driver's seat (rise of the machines, anyone?). His left hip was fractured, spleen and part of his intestines burst, 9 ribs were broken, and he had nasty road rash on his knee. We saw him post abdominal and hip surgery, and he was actually able to come home Monday afternoon, several days earlier than expected. We extended our stay (we were supposed to leave early Monday morning but left Tuesday afternoon instead) so we could help with the transition and ease the burden on Braeden's mom and sister. We were glad we could be there. Also glad that my parents bought our tickets with frequent flyer miles so that we could change them free of charge. (Thanks, Dad!)
And that's been our life the past little while. Now we have to make the transition back into normalcy and it's not going as smoothly as I'd hoped. Good thing Spring break is next week: maybe that will give me some more time to figure out what my priorities really are.
The reunion was really fun: I don't know the last time we were all together in the same place. My cousin Adrienne put together a beautiful and amazing book with pictures of our Grandpa (aka Peanut) and our Grandma growing up and their family, up to and including us. She also made a great slide show with some of the pictures from the book to show at the birthday luncheon along with a movie with clips of family members talking about Peanut and the things we love and remember about him. It was really incredible.
For our part, Braeden and I bound an edition of seven books of my Grandma's poetry. My aunt found a series of legal pads with her poetry on them, and we made them into a book (see below).
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| See more pictures of the books here. |
And, although I brought my camera, the pictures of the books (which I took before we left) are all I have to show from our trip.
On Sunday the Olsen family started to disperse and we went to visit Braeden's dad in the hospital. He looked much better than we were expecting and doing really well, and, perhaps most importantly, was in incredibly good spirits. Two weeks previous in a freak accident his own car rolled over him in the church parking lot. It was a new car and had all kinds of automatic sensors (headlights automatically turn on at night, windshield wipers automatically turn on when it rains) but didn't have one to keep the car from moving when no one was in the driver's seat (rise of the machines, anyone?). His left hip was fractured, spleen and part of his intestines burst, 9 ribs were broken, and he had nasty road rash on his knee. We saw him post abdominal and hip surgery, and he was actually able to come home Monday afternoon, several days earlier than expected. We extended our stay (we were supposed to leave early Monday morning but left Tuesday afternoon instead) so we could help with the transition and ease the burden on Braeden's mom and sister. We were glad we could be there. Also glad that my parents bought our tickets with frequent flyer miles so that we could change them free of charge. (Thanks, Dad!)
And that's been our life the past little while. Now we have to make the transition back into normalcy and it's not going as smoothly as I'd hoped. Good thing Spring break is next week: maybe that will give me some more time to figure out what my priorities really are.
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