Grandpa Jim and Our Cincinnati Trip

As I briefly mentioned earlier, my Grandpa Jim, my dad's father, started getting really sick and was in the hospital through Thanksgiving. My parents and youngest sister Andrea were there in Cincinnati for the break and able to visit with him, which was good, but still a hard, sad visit. His health has been slowing for quite some time, but due to the medicine he'd been taking to fight an infection, it made his already bad kidneys worse. Almost the whole family was able to visit with him during this time, and my parents and sister got to say goodbye since we all knew he wouldn't be able to last much longer. A few days later (on Andrea's birthday) Wednesday, November 28, Grandpa Jim had his family surrounding him as he slipped away. He lived to be 90 years old.

He was a good man, a WWII veteran, and always so kind, and funny too. I wish that I had more time to spend with him. The last time I saw him was just over 2 years ago at Erika's wedding reception. So it was a good opportunity for us to go to his funeral and at least see family again that I hadn't seen in years. It's about a 19 hour drive from Denver to Cincinnati, but I think in the end it was still worth it.

 These pictures describe the drive fairly well- the boys started out excited and happy, tried to keep them occupied with movies on my kindle and games on my iphone, then they'd get cranky, especially Blake though the pictures are deceiving, we'd give them treats and toys, and every once in awhile they'd finally fall asleep! Overall they did well, it was a long, long drive!

 Haha here was Jacob covering his ears during one of Blake's screaming fits!

The first day we made it past Kansas City, but not quite to St. Louis. We got a hotel for the night and were exhausted but the boys still had a lot of energy. So we didn't get a lot of sleep, since I ended up sharing the bed with Blake and Jacob slept with Luke. But the next day we got on the road and made it into Cincinnati by 6pm Saturday evening.

 Every night we would go to Grandma's house, eat dinner, and visit with family, and it was really good to see everyone again, and I know everyone was anxious to see the boys. My parents, Andrea and Erika were there, along with all my aunts and uncles and almost every one of my cousins.

On Sunday there was a viewing. There was a slideshow of pictures of Grandpa's life, and my mom helped make these two posters that were also on display.

 It was a little sad to see my Grandpa one last time but I was glad to be there, and there were a lot of people who showed up, and it was nice to hear about many people who had helped my grandparents over the years. My mom and sisters also helped a lot with the boys so that they were out of the way.

 Afterwards we went to Steak n Shake- which we loved! We really wish they had them in Colorado. They had lots of stuff for the kids, and everything was really cheap and the burgers were really good!

And the boys had been doing such a good job on the trip that we treated them to a shake- to share :)

 Monday was the funeral. It was held at the catholic church my grandparents have been going to for 61 years, and it was a nice service. My Uncle Mark said some really nice words about grandpa, my dad and cousin Nevin did some readings, all us granddaughters read some prayers and Luke was one of the pallbearers. The hardest part was actually just trying to keep the boys quiet in a large church that echo's, and we did the best we could. Luke and I were glad we were at least able to be there and participate.

Afterwards we drove to the cemetery, but instead of meeting at the gravesite, we met in a little room there, where two soldiers honored him for his service with the taps trumpet tribute and presenting of the flag to my grandma which was really sweet. Then we all took our turns to say goodbye, and this was the saddest time for me. Jacob saw everyone crying at the casket and asked what was happening, and I quietly said that we all needed to say goodbye. Poor Jacob never really understood what was going on this trip, but he was such a trooper. 

Afterwards, we went to a luncheon provided to us and were able to visit some more and say goodbye to family members who were starting to head home.

My dad with his brother Mark and Grandma Joyce.

We went to Skyline for dinner that night, just to try it out since it's the Cincinnati thing to do, and then we went to Grandma's house one more time Monday night and had a chance to visit say goodbye to everyone else before taking off the next morning.

After getting up so early every day, we were all exhausted the next morning. And these boys are bed hogs! Luckily we had the couch so Jacob could sleep there and Blake took a whole queen bed to himself every night. Putting them to bed in hotels was kind of a pain, so we were looking forward to getting them back home.

So after saying goodbye to my parents and sisters at the hotel, we took off for the long drive back, this time taking the "scenic" route through Cincinnati and Louisville.

The boys seemed to do better on the drive home and seemed to sleep slightly more too. We ended up driving halfway to Kansas City the first day, getting some dinner and a hotel for the night there. Jacob had been in the car all day so I took him swimming and he had so much fun.

We finally made it back home by Wednesday night. It was a lot of traveling for a short trip, but I told everyone it really was worth it to come see everyone and to be there to support my dad and his family. I was grateful for a chance to say goodbye to Grandpa though I wish I had more time with him while he was still here. I'm grateful that he lived such a long healthy life and for all that he passed down to us. When we were at my Grandma's house one night someone found a DVD of an interview my cousin Laura did of him in high school, asking him questions about the war. We all sat around and listened to stories that none of us had ever heard before and it was really neat to hear of all the amazing things that he's experienced in his long life and remembered with such great detail. I know that his family will remember him with all the good experiences and memories, and not just the hard ones at the end. We love you and miss you already Grandpa Jim!