Wish You Were Here

For Memorial Day Weekend we continued a long standing tradition of decorating graves. I have spent many a Memorial weekend in Cache Valley participating in this family tradition. In years past I didn't find much pleasure in it and had to contrive my own entertainment.

(Insert mental picture here of my sis and I as teenagers laying in front of a headstone with our arms crossed over our chests, pretending to be dead.)

Now that I am a little older - and hopefully a little more mature - there is something really special about going to the mortal resting place of your ancestors, cleaning their headstones, and placing flowers there. It is special to me that I know the names of many of my great-grandparents and great-great grandparents.

This year was especially meaningful because we were also able to honor some of Shem's ancestors. We knew his grandpa was buried in Millville and that this was somewhere in Cache Valley. With the convenient help of a Blackberry we were able to find the phone number for the cemetery, get directions, take a pit stop at Kim's house in Nibley only a few minutes from the cemetery (It was so great to finally see your cute house, your cute baby, and the cute you!), find the grave site, clean it, and decorate it. We learned new things, like Grandpa Martin is a WWI veteran. He is buried next to his sister Dora and his parents.

Since Millville is only four miles south of Logan we will be adding this stop to our annual visits. Our kids are not too thrilled about a..n..o..t..h..e..r cemetery, but when they are older they will thank us for it.

Here is Grandpa Shaffer's headstone.

This is Shem kneeling in front of Grandpa's headstone with his great-grandparents Martin and Matilda in front. This got me thinking, if my MIL had been there we could have had five generations. With a little peek-a-boo magic...

Yeah, I have a twisted sense of humor.

(Look closely at Shem's face, it is just too perfect.)

So, the remainder of the weekend was spent dipping in the hot tub, playing Guitar Hero and Settlers of Catan, and swimming. I just wish we had time to stop in Woodruff on the way home for this...