Playing catch up!

Since my last post about Elia's first birthday a lot has happened......Our little family finished off the month of February pretty calm.......but then came March...  My sister started working for Jetblue at the beginning of the year, so she had the idea that Elia and I can use some buddy passes to fly out to UT for her big 30th birthday, go to the Living legends show and attend the General Young Women's conference. As we started planning my dad called me up Tuesday the 13th, a week before I was going out to UT to inform us that my Grandpa had passed away and that the funeral was going to be on Saturday.  So my sister started to look for flights and I started packing sooner than what we had planned.... We flew from SAC to Long beach Thursday morning with no problem- but the flight from LGB to SLC was impossible to get on at least for stand by.  Lets just say Elia and I waited for 12+ hrs in a small, under construction airport...it wasn't as bad as I thought because thanks to my daughter and her bubbly social skills I made new friends and had people to talk to as the hours passed.  To make a long story short I couldn't get on any flights that day and there was no way I was going to get on the flight for Friday, so to get us to UT in time for the funeral my dad bought us a flight out.  We got to SLC late Thursday night.  Saturday morning my Dad, siblings, granddaughters and I headed up to Preston, Idaho for Grandpa Wilson's funeral.  It was such a wonderful, intimate, spiritual grave site service.  Those in attendance were close family and friends.  My sister in-law was asked to sing, my dad shared stories and my oldest brother Malcolm was asked by my grandma to dedicate the grave-which was very special for him and our family.  My grandpa was in the service so they were able to salute him and present my grandma was the American flag....and there is something so special about that..and that is where I lost it and started crying.  Also they had roses to put on the casket, so Elia and I went to put one on and as we leaned over to place it on top of the casket, I put my hand on the casket then 2 seconds later I see out of the corner of my eye Elia's little hand reaching for the casket and she starts patting and rubbing it....wow! now at that point is where the tears started flowing!!!!  Needless to say it was a great day spent with family remembering an amazing, fun-loving- hardworking person who has blessed my life and taught me many lessons.                
            Typical picture of Grandpa sitting outside the house with his "Wilson" sweat shirt and stocking cap

We also enjoyed time with Bis-abuela Alicia- she liked reading to Elia in spanish and kept saying "su nena es muuyy inteligente" (your daughter is very intelligent"  while pointing and shaking her finger at me.

We then went to the Living Legends show to watch Tia Katie dance.....oh how it brought back so many wonderful memories.... Although the show hasn't changed much, I still get excited and chills when I watch it and pretty much have the opener narration memorized...lame I know!  I just feel so blessed to have been a part of the group as a dancer/choreographer... being in the group literally changed my life in so many ways.... my husband was my first partner in many of the dances.... now he is stuck with me as his partner for ETERNITY!!! ji ji.. oh and Elia enjoyed it very much, she wouldn't stop dancing, clapping, even yelling during the show.... my arms sure got a work out holding her for the 90 min. show

On Saturday my sister, mom and a friend from Paraguay, Belen and I all got to go to the General Young Women's conference.... My sister was YW president in her Spanish branch for 4 years, I am currently the 2nd coun. in my Spanish ward, Belen is the 2nd coun. in the Stake YW presidency in Paraguay and my mom went along for the ride...  What a blessing it was to be in the same room and hear the wonderful counsel to our youth (and us leaders) from our beloved Prophet and the YW's presidency.  It was so uplifting and a re-energizing experience to know how to better help our youth.  and a shout out to my sis-inlaw Rachel for watching Elia... Thanks

Sunday we had a family/friend get together for my sisters 30th birthday... it was nice to be around family and have all the kids play together.  Monday morning  I was off to the airport to try to head back to CA.  Once again I faced the same problem of not getting on a flight and spending 10 hrs at the airport until my dad  again brought me a flight out to Long Beach.  My father inlaw then picked us up for the night then took us back to the airport the next morning to get on a flight to SAC...  and so the nightmare of staying at the airport all day continued.  Normally the flight from Long Beach to SAC are not full and it's easy for stand by to get on, but not that morning...... just my luck, my father in law drops us off at 5:40 am and to my surprise Jetblue canceled a flight to Oakland so many people were upset and to accommodate them they put people on the SAC flight, which kept bumping us down on the list to get on....Other stuff happened that I was not happy about with the reservation consultants and I didn't get on the flight and the next one out wasn't until 5:20pm.  yes, another 12 hrs spent at the airport.... I walked outside called Danny and had a breakdown!! I was crying and annoyed to spend all day at the airport with a half sick baby.... We found a place to take a nap then decided to leave the airport and take a 6 mile walk there and back to Walmart and enjoy the CA sun.  Finally we got onto the 5:20 flight with a whole row to ourselves, which was nice and finally arrived to SAC around 6:30pm.  It was so nice to be home and see Danny... I'm grateful for the buddy passes that my sister got me, beggars can't be choosers right?  I now consider myself an experienced waiter/flyer.

Our crazy month of March doesn't end there... After I got home Tuesday night a couple day's later Danny told me that his 16 year cousin from UT was hit by a car walking his bike in a crosswalk and passed away.  We weren't sure if we could make it out there and put the baby through more traveling but now in a car.  But Danny's dad called him Friday afternoon and told him that pretty much everyone from the Bair family in SAC were heading out to UT, so we talked about it and made the last minute decision to drive out to UT.  After we cleaned the chapel, we packed within an hour and started our drive to UT leaving at 10pm and getting into Provo 9:45am Saturday morning (with a 1 hour nap stop).  The service was beautiful.  It was touching to see so many people come together so support and show their love. I was able to get to know Andrew a little more through what was said/ read about him... He was a remarkable young man and was an amazing example to those around him, especially his friends. Our heart and prayers are with the Tolman family.  After the family lunch in Danny and I started our drive back home...... and lets just say it's sooo nice to be home. What a trip!!!