Laid to Rest and Fun in the Pool

It has been a long week. We celebrated Labor Day on Monday in Waterloo with my family. The day started at Maple Grove Cemetery where we laid my dad's ashes to rest. My brother directed the brief service where we shared stories, songs, and scriptures to celebrate my dad's life. I was able to share some from my blog from the month of June and how God has worked in my life to help me through the grief process. It was a meaningful time for me. I was kind of dreading it because I knew that I was going to be standing in front of the graves of the 3 people that had had the most impact on me growing up - my dad, my mom, and Grandma Hansen. I miss them all terribly but God proves Himself faithful time and time again.

Afterwards we headed down the street to my Grandparents' house for a brunch picnic. Here are a family picture of us and with Russ and Camy. The kids spent most of the afternoon in the pool playing with cousins and having so much fun. Caleb got to play with Kyle which he loved and the girls got to spend time with Ehren and Ali. Caleb is getting better at swimming. He still doesn't have the greatest form but it is getting better. He jumped off the diving board for the first time on Monday and swam to the shallow end. I wasn't sure if he was going to make it or I was going to have to jump in with my clothes on to rescue him the first time but he became a little fish by the end of the day. We have missed not living so close to Grandma and Grandpa's pool this summer. I can't believe it was the first/ only time we got in it this year! My Grandpa said that it was worth having the pool just for that day since everyone was enjoying it so much. It was good to catch up with family members too that we haven't seen in a while.

This last picture is of Caleb on his new bike that we bought off Craigslist last Sunday for $15. It was a belated birthday present which we are so excited about (he is too, can you tell?)