We had our Sister's Weekend again this year the 2nd week of September. It is sure fun to be home with my Mom, Dad and Sisters without kids for a few days. We started Thursday night with a visit to my Grandmother's house and then a quick bite to eat at Sonic and barely made the play Les Miserable at Toucan. The show was fantastic and we had so much fun.
On Friday we went to get pedicures in Mesquite and decided we would make that a tradition each year. My Dad even got one but made sure that they didn't put any nail polish on his toes. He told my mom he wouldn't mind coming to get one of these every month. It was very relaxing. Then we went to Beall's and everyone did a little shopping. My Dad and I were ready to go a lot faster than everyone else, but they got some cute cloths. Then we went to eat and headed back to my parents house. The rest of the night consisted of eating and watching movies. 
It was so relaxing my Dad fell asleep a few times.
Saturday we all made a pack that we could shower but no make-up or hair. So the rest of the day we made hair bows, watched movies and of course ate. I brought my Cheese Fondue Pot and Chocolate Fountain and boy did we eat. We laughed and talked and got chocolate and cheese everywhere. Everyone decided that too needed to become a tradition. My Dad thought it made a great dinner. 
On Sunday we went to church with my parents and had dinner and then had to head back to our real lives. It was sure a much needed weekend for us all. 
On September 5 a day shy of his 90th Birthday my Grandfather passed away. He has always been such a wonderful example to me of someone who lives his life for service and always strives to be Christ like in all that he did. He will be greatly missed but I know he is happy and is no longer in pain. I loved him so much! All eight of his children spoke at the funeral and I realized how many lives he had touched. I had to give a talk using Elder Holland's Conference talk The Ministry of Angels and this is part of it that talked about my Grandpa: Elder Holland describes these angels as “ Indeed heaven never seems closer than when we see the love of God manifested in the kindness and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind.” As I read this statement I thought about my grandfather who passed away this September a day shy of his 90th birthday. I always knew what a great man he was but I realized what an angelic person he was as each of his 8 children spoke about him during the funeral. They all told stories of his life on earth that seemed to have the same theme. He was always finding ways to serve other people. One example that was shared stuck out in my head was every morning during the cold months before his widowed neighbor woke up he would go stack wood up by her back porch so that she wouldn’t have to cut the wood herself but still be able to have a fire to warm her house. My uncle went with him a few times and never understood why he had to go early and keep it a secret from her. On one fast Sunday this sister was baring her testimony and thanked this angel, as she called him, for always making sure she had wood and how much this blessed her life and made things much easier on her. My uncle leaned over to my grandpa and asked why he didn’t just tell her it was him and he responded with,” it is not important who does it what is important is that its getting done and that I am helping other people.” What a great example of an angelic person acting for the Lord. At the end of his life after all those year and being an angel to others, he received an angel in his last days. He was very sick and had been brought home from the hospital until he passed. He was in so much pain that he had to be sedated all day and night for about 4 days. My grandma was heartbroken and didn’t want to see him in pain anymore, so she decided to be his angel and ask my uncle to give him a blessing to be released from this life and all of the pain he was in. So on Thursday all of his children gathered together to give and listen to this pray and all the grandchildren and great grandchildren prayed and fasted for him as well. Through those angels in my grandpa’s life on Friday morning he was able to leave his earthy life of serving as an angel to so many others to being able to continue serving as an angel on the other side of the veil.
Here are the pictures of all the sons and son-in-laws and my brother Brent standing in for my Dad carrying the casket to the grave site. 
My Grandpa always wanted to be buried on the Arizona Strip where he grew up but since that wasn't possible due to quite a few reasons my Aunt went out to the Strip and collected dirt. Anyone who wanted could sprinkle the dirt under his grave so that he could be layed to rest on the dirt from the strip. Here is a picture of my Grandma putting the first bit of dirt under his casket and the second picture is of me taking my turn. 
This is most of my Mom's brothers and sister who also went back to the grave site to be with my Grandma. 
I will miss him greatly but I have so many memories that will remain with me forever. He always gave our family the same advice: Listen to the Prophet, live the commandments and get out of debt. I will try my hardest Grandpa I love you!
Then we went to see one of the places Maile work at when the White House doesn't need her and had lunch. After that we walked all over the place and saw the White House and many other things,
By then it hit how tired we were from being up all night (as you can see from the above picture of Cody on a bench in the museum) so we went back to the hotel to have a nap. After a couple of hours of much needed sleep we met up with Maile and went to a really nice restaurant that overlooked the city. It was delicious and the view was amazing. The pictures below were just some we took of things as we were walking.
The next day Rich hired a van to drive us around the city and show us all the sites. It is definitely the way to see everything in one day without having to absolutely exhaust yourself. The first stop was at the Union Station. Cody made us pose like the statues. Then he ran through all the pigeons like you see on TV. There were a lot of them. 
Here we are at the home where President Lincoln was shot.
Here is Cody standing by the Lincoln Memorial. 
We stopped for lunch with our tour guide at a seafood place just outside of the old torpedo factory.
This picture is the outside of the oval office. The window is down the hall behind us.
