Arizona

 This Month Is Not Going Like I Had Planned...

I did plan on going to Arizona.

...but a Grandpa who was supposed to be on the trip with us, getting hospitalized & passing on was not in the plan.

It was a great trip, don't get me wrong, but my Grandpa Schaefer passing away while we were gone definitely put a damper on things.

Early morning before we were even out of bed on Friday, January 9th we got a call from my brother, Kevin, telling us that he (my Grandpa) got taken by the paramedics to the Emergency Room after a struggle he'd had that morning. A lot of the signs to us sounded like a stroke but he'd passed a stroke test. We were worried, but went on with our day cuz it was Nate's Birthday.

As the day progressed we learned he had quite a few things wrong with him, all things, however were completely curable. Things weren't looking too serious, he just seemed to be really sick. The hospital figured a few days there and he would be fine, sadly though, things got worse from there.

He ended up in ICU...still we were positive, and figured he'd recover.

But by evening things weren't looking up.

Early evening he told my aunt that he was going to go quick.

I don't think any of us knew how serious he was. We still figured he could and would recover.

But by late evening...his heart stopped.

A nurse performed CPR to bring him back, but at that point it was decided that when it happened again, we would let him go. A little before 1am Saturday morning, he did go.

It was a shock to us all, but the hardest part was knowing that my aunt had been the only one in Utah & she gone through it all basically alone.

Luckily, she flew out shortly after he passed on and was able to fly out and be with us for the whole reason we all went to Arizona, which was for my cousin, Melissa's, wedding.

Here are a few shots from the event:

 

 

No offense to the groom.

I didn't cut him out for any reason other than I wanted a close up of her.

She looked so beautiful & so happy!

Besides the wedding we also went to a baby blessing for my newest cousin, Baby Mia.

I look a little scary, no makeup due to a morning full of tears with my family.

I decided I'd be better off not putting any on until RIGHT before the wedding.

I had puffy red eyes from crying & apparently he did too.

I realized after...I never even held her. Couldn't believe myself.

That shows how crazy the weekend down there was!!!

Last but not least we celebrated Nate's Birthday.

We went to Breakfast.

FREE breakfast at Denny's for the birthday boy!

...And a FREE ice cream sundae. EVEN at 10am.

We also went and saw Alvin & the Chipmunks.

Arizona is full of Snowbirds...and apparently the old folk didn't wanna see this flick.

Nate pretty much had the theater to himself.