Then We Went to Idaho to Say Goodbye-Part I/Boise

Ingenius ways to add oil to the Dodge.

Yes, that is a real drum stick.
This is what happens when I go inside the gas station for five whole minutes.

We took lots of photos in between funerals.

Rad places in this little town.

Gramps

This post took me a long time too.

Grieving takes a long time guys.

Yes, I had pink hair once.

I was so punk rock back in the day.

****

My Grandfather passed away the day after Dani.

Two funerals in three days is intense.

So is losing losing two best friends within 24 hours.

That was a lot to handle.
It still is.

****

My Grandpa and I became very close over the last few years.

I have fond memories of him as a child, but I have even fonder memories in the last few years.

We would talk on the phone often....about everything.

That guy really liked to challenge me.

We are both pretty stubborn so you can imagine how that went.

Those stubborn moments always ended in laughter.

I loved that.

He let me be me.

The last time I saw him I went on a walk in the crisp Idaho air whilst listening to Local Natives (specifically the song Airplanes, which is about his Grandpa). I knew it was one of the last times I would have such precious moments with him.

I prepared myself.

****

I have so many memories of my Grandfather.

Like:

-When we made pinwheels together (pictured above) and I was trying to convince him to give me the recipe. He would not give it to me, because he already gave it to one grandchild. Obviously you are the favorite Michelle, because you are the keeper of the flame. Jokes, I super sleuthed and got it out of him. Success!

-When he would pass me the butter and push it into my hands like a jokester.

-The rope swing he built for us grandkids. That thing was so fun and we all did some phat tricks off of it.

-Nat Soo Pah adventures.

-Camping adventure. The camper!

-The night we watched The Brady Bunch Bowling special together and both decided that they are all terrible bowlers. "Come on!!!!" would say to the T.V. We also decided we were waaaay better bowlers than those kids.

-Our long talks and his incredible advice.

-When I would call him every couple of weeks and the first thing he would say was, "You never call and you never visit." That always made me laugh because it was false.

-The chalkboard by the phone.

-How he remembered my birthday every year with a card.

-How I didn't know how to talk to him after my Grandma passed away because I was so close to her. We had a great conversation about that.

-How being around him and being in Idaho felt like being home.

-Horseshoe tournaments.

-Backyard baseball.

-The many days we spent discussing his history and life story.

-The day I told him how I felt many years ago when he had his first heart attack. How I couldn't live without him. He had tears in his eyes listening to the story, and he told me that he will always be here and that I can go on without him.

-The continual (maybe a little pushy Gramps!) that I need to find a good man. Maybe he forgot just how independent I am.

-When he told me, "Vegan food is gross!"

-The day I found a shot glass in the cupboard and asked him if he is a closet drinker, to which he replied, "Yes, we have the bishop over and drink with that shot glass." Guess who still cherishes that very shot glass? Yours truly.

-His faith and conviction. Truly beautiful.

-His passion for genealogy.

-Listening to him talk about the crazy lady next door to him in the nursing home that would come in his room and demand he drive her around town.

-The day he told me he was a pilot, and that he soloed in 8 hours...in a taildragger. Amazing. We also talked about my great uncle that broke records flying in 1920 ish. One of my favorite conversations with him.

-The endless amounts of awards that adorned his walls.

-The wooden woodpecker on the fridge that he would make start pecking when I was talking about the struggles my life. He would point to the sign next to it that said something like, "Keep on pecking at life." Wise guy.

-The endless games he would play with us. Spoon, Donkey, Pit, and all the rest.

-The day I was playing the organ for him and he looked at me strangly. I asked him what that look was for, and he told me he had heard better organ playing. Hahahaha. He was right, I was so rusty in my piano and organ skills.

-How he could always make me laugh.

-How I wanted desperately to see him one last time, but getting pneumonia twice in a row halted that idea. I had it in my calendar to be there the weekend he passed away. Even though I could not be there. My heart and love were with you in the last days Gramps. I was honored you asked of me even in the end. I miss you terribly.

-Singing at your funeral with the girls nearly pushed me over the edge. I did it for you Gramps. I knew you would have loved it.

(Thank you to uncle Brent who recognized my near breakdown and told me I was very brave to get up there. Incredible uncle.)

****

So much love for this great man.

Thank you for being an amazing Grandfather for 32 years.

I love you dearly.

Dani. Gammy D. Creative Director. Danimal.

This post took me a while.

***

The day after Thanksgiving I received a phone call from Jordan that Dani was hit and killed by a drunk driver.

Do. Not. Drink. And. Drive.

All I remember, besides the blinding white light in my brain, was that I cancelled my clients, called my Mom and Nate for advice (thank you), and somehow drove to Jordan's house. The drive that seemed to last 3 hours. The next 15 or so days after that are a complete blur of trying to cope with extreme grief, crying, no sleep, the heart wrenching experience of packing up her room, losing my Gramps, traveling, and funerals. Jordan spoke at her funeral. It was beautiful. I was so proud of him. It was not easy.

God.

Doesn't she look beautiful in the photo above?

I remember the day it was taken like it was yesterday.

Only Dani would wear that incredible get-up to a summer bonfire.

I also love that the photo is classic snapshot of our relationship back in the day.

Despite our ups and downs I will always love her like a sister.

A true sister.

I have only had a couple true sisters in my lifetime.

Kind of a big deal.

***

Dani, remember all of the great times we had?

Like:

1. The time we thought it would be a great idea for me to stop writing my paper after a paragraph and turn it in with a note that said, "Dear Teach, I am in the middle of a lawsuit so this will have to do." This was also the time you proved to me you know Taylor Swift songs by singing them at the top of your lungs while I made fun of the music videos.

2. The days we listened to Psychic City while we made caesar salad and faux chicken sandwiches. We were My Two Mom's in those days.

3. The time we went out on the town until the wee hours. As we rounded the corner to Jordan's house on our bikes one of us said, "Do you think Dad is awake?" And he was sitting on the porch. We laughed so hard and then he made us those delicious vegan grilled cheese sandwiches.

4. The time I told you all about Handsy Tuesday and how ridiculous it was.

5. Endless driving in your truck that always included the windows down (even if it was freezing), the smell of your truck, and a Wendy's stop.

6. The time Nate and I bought you that silly ceramic mad lib decoration and filled it in with fake swearwords like fuzzy cuzzy. I loved that you still had that hanging in your room when we packed everything.

7. The time we came up with a T-shirt launching business with K2-Kev and Mike.

8. The day I was laid off and you came over to Nate's house where I was house sitting and made sure I ate something and then lip synced Strawberry Wine & Travelin' Soldier to cheer me up.

9. How you used to always say that you were in a Mendenhall sandwich, or that the Mendenhall eyes were getting to you.

10. The many times (every month) I went over in minutes because of our endless conversations about life.

11. YTDE texts.

12. Doublemint gum.

13. The time you wrote me an actual check for one billion dollars and you told me it was for Will Smith's greatest hits. Why? To cure the blues. I still have that check.

14. The time you convinced Nate to make us a last minute incredibly delicious steak salad. How did you do that? Then we took shark head pictures and drank coffee out of bowls. Laughing the entire time of course. One of the best nights.

15. How you are one of the few people to make the trek to my house...multiple times.

16. When we went to Modest Mouse with Becca.....life changing. You put your arm right around me when that one song came on and I was losing it as memories drained away.

17. The night someone was dramatic and kicked me out of their house in the middle of the night. You let me stay at Jordan's and made the annoyance wall out of sticky notes just to make us both feel better.

18. The time I texted you about something saucy that happened and it went to you and somehow Twitter. I didn't even deleted it...we just laughed.

19. The many mornings we would sit outside of Reuel's after a night at The W. We would talk and laugh about nothing. We were convinced we needed a reality show. We thought we were that funny.

20. Fighting like sisters.

21. The time you were super excited about me dating and you were very supportive, because as you said, 'you never get excited about anyone.'

22. Listening to the live version of Heartbeats by The Knife over and over on Keith's porch.

23. The cupcake dress.

24. The time we found the girl giving make-up tutorials that kept saying, "if you can last three hours you can last a lifetime."

25. How you thought the saying was "play it by year."

26. The time you ran your bike right into an obvious pole on state street.

27. Sing/dancing to Spice Girls with Tiff.

28. Our amazingly witty text exchanges.

29. The day we got a beer, a pizza, and watched Sex and the City in the middle of the day.

30. Our heart to hearts about anything and everything.

31. Listening passionately to the most random music.

32. The time you had a crush on my brother via cyberspace and you were scared to tell me that you two were going to hang out.

33. You sending me lyrics to Bob Dylan's Lay Lady Lay and Paulo Nutini's Last Request. Worked every single time.

34. How you could understand and empathize about anything...even stuff you had no clue about.

35. How you would always dress me up. It usually started like this: 'You are not wearing that.' Said with love of course. Not getting dressed up was never an option. You always told me I would feel better and beautiful. You were right.

****

Who would have know that one sarcastic exchange at the register at Nordstrom would have turned into all of this.

You will never be forgotten.

You were truly one of the most incredible people I have ever met.

I am so grateful we shared so many precious moments.

Thank you.

I miss you.

You are everywhere.

I wish we were able to discuss our 21/31 issues before you left, but I think we both have an understanding now.

I love you forever.

Au revoir.

Thanksgiving 2010

Before Thanksgiving dinner we picked up a dryer.

Thanks Stace!

Best friend ever.

This is how my Mom helped.

What?

She is delivering their paper.

That is what she told me anyway, and I laughed really hard.

My Pops and I dealt with the dryer.

One great thing about growing up with only brothers is that there is little baby-ing.

Likes this.

We went to Jordan's new house for dinner.

He chose some sweeeeeet tunes.
Carpenters christmas album?
All-time favorite.
He also made us vegan pumpkin pie.
It is to die for.
This one is such a domestic goddess.

I played trucks with this little one.
Mischievous smile?
I think so.
Love him much?
More than anything.

We did not have napkins so we improvised.

I love it.

Leave it to Josedo to find a creative opportunity in everything. Ron is turning into a gamer.

So 2011 of him.

Seriously.

He means business.

How much do you love this gamer's static hair?

Probably the most.

I could just hug him all the live long day and night.

Family.

Love.

I was so sick I almost didn't make it to Thanksgiving, but I am so glad I did.

This was one of my best Thanksgiving's to date.

It was simple and full of everything it should have been.

Thank you to Josedo for making it happen in your new kick ass house.

Thanks pneumonia steroids for making me unrecognizable, and thanks to Sam for letting me vent about it via text at least a thousand times.

On the way to dinner my parents were talking about their lives pre-kids.

This is rare.

My Dad took a year off when he was 35-36 ish.

To do what?

Play tennis.

Yep. I asked and that was the answer I got.

Awesome.

He came out of his year break early because a company convinced him to.

He is a kick ass businessman if you didn't know.

In demand if you will.

On our drive to Josedo's house my Mom says to my Dad, "Do you remember Susan (her best friend at the time) coming to your house late and knocking on your door late at night when we were dating?"

"Vaguely," my Dad said.

"Susan wanted to know who 'this guy' was that I was dating so she convinced me to tell her where you lived in Provo, you know, at your condo. I made her park really far away because I was so embarrassed. She walked to your apartment and asked for fake directions. She told me you looked healthy because you were eating an apple."

Bwahahahahaha.

An apple.

This really happened and I was in heaven every second.

It was like my parents went back to their giddy, giggly, madly in love stage of dating even though they have been married for forty years or something insane like that.

Spruce Goose Adventure Part II

After a long morning of travel we finally made it to the Spruce Goose.

We had 2 hours before closing time.

Not very much time for this place.

I mean, just look at it.

If you are not an aviation nerd like yours truly you will not care about any of these photos.

The Spruce Goose is so big that it is hardly noticeable when walking in the museum.

You think I am joking, but I am not.

Your eye immediately goes to the tiny planes surrounding it.

At first I thought it was just like being at work.

Um, hello Spruce Goose Museum, I have seen all of these airplanes.

Where the hell is the Spruce Goose? Oh, there you are towering over everything.

Inside the Spruce Goose

Someone can fit into a t-shirt for a 12 year old.

Yep.

This was one of the employees that took a lot of our pictures.

We named him Trent.

Doesn't he look like a Trent? Sure does.

In this photo he was checking the light.

Nice one Trent.

Spruce Goose Adventure VII

Oh yeah.
There was a lot of dancing that happened.

Someone with a brilliant memory sent me this hilarious email:

Top ten best things about the Spruce Goose
Well...the first three hours anyhow....
1. Our captain in also a tour guide. A boring as tour guide and an arrogant ship commander. Damn pilots.
2. The 12 year old boy in 28F wearing a Blue Snuggie
3. Guy in 27B who is 3x uber larger than a midget on a midget's shoulders on a midget's shoulders who gets husband on the year award for being in the middle seat next to his little wife. (He is feeding her chocolates though. Bet he is attempting to make her larger because misery loves company.)
4. Props to Fesik the gate agent for accepting a wink as a bribe and giving me a seat instead of that Delta Guy.
5. So glad we missed our first flight, otherwise we would have missed Dominatrix Tiffany and her rants.
6. Props to being single and not married to the guy at our 6 o'clock who reminds us of the positive things of divorcing our previous hopes and dreams of never getting a good lay again. Bahahaha!
7. To Em and her "stockings" that got her a future coffee and 'R' date with the TSA dude.
8. To the canceling of our Orbitz Reservations. Because then we made our next flight due to Murphy's Law. And when we re booked, we saved 89 cents.
9. For playing the same angry birds level for 1.5 hours instead of taking a nap because my 4 year old asked me to pass that level.
10. That we, Katy P. and Kristen B. are so chill that we considered Plan D to be Phoenix for a three-some with Triple G.

Spruce Goose Adventure Part I

This is the time in November that Kathe and I decided to take a quick trip to see the Spruce Goose in Oregon.

Only one of the longest standing items on my list of things to do.

There are a lot of pictures and a movie.

Beware.

*****

We were flying standby, which meant we got up at the crack of dawn and waited around a lot.

We couldn't get on the first flight out.

The second flight was questionable.

We almost switched our plans to another adventure destination.

But!

We got on the second flight miraculously.