January

The Funeral of El Nora Mann Naylor (Grandma Naylor)

Bill with his cousin Val

Faith and Ivy at the cemetery (Isaac and Will in the background)

Grandma Naylor's living children and their spouses:
Youngest to oldest, L-R: Robert (Paula) , Joan (Bill), Paul (Mary), Steve (Merla), Dean (Colleen)

Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Evans with Zeke and Stephanie's children: Landon, Lydia, Jacob, Mason
Zeke and Stephanie were in Hawaii enjoying a last hurrah before baby number 5 is born this spring. Stephanie's parents brought their kids to the funeral.

Isaac (Tim's only son) and Will (Bill's only son)

Ivy, Faith and Will. Charmed by the snow. Even the dirty snow.

Jana, Nate and their two daughters, Ella (younger) and Halle (oldest).

Trisha asked me if I got any good pictures of the siblings. I told her, "The ends were good in pretty much all of them, but there was always some monkey business going on in the middle." She replied, "That sounds just about right for our family."
L-R: Billy, Nate, Dan, Josh, Tim, Luke, Trisha

It's hard for the cousins to resist all the monkey business. Everyone wants to join in!

Cousins: Saydie, Faith, Spencer, Maddie

It was a truly lovely funeral. The reading of the obituary was done by Deanne Addis, Grandma Naylor's oldest grandchild.

I was honored to accompany the grandchildren singing "A Child's Prayer." During the song, one of the youngest grandchildren found a light switch to play with, which brought a light-hearted feel to the whole thing. It was really cute. 

Uncle Steve talked about Grandma's early life.  He also talked about the experience of his younger brouther, Val, drowning in the ditch and how that impacted Grandma for the rest of her life. He said that when it happened, he was five and Val was three. He and Val had gone outside and that he saw Val disappear and knew something was wrong. He ran as fast as his little five-year-old legs could carry him back to the house and told his mother, "Val fell in the ditch!" Grandma came running, but was too late to save her son. Uncle Steve said that she and Grandpa never made him feel bad for not watching over his brother. They never blamed him even when I may have blamed himself.  He said that Grandma told him not too long after the incident that she had seen his brother Val. He had come to her, and he wasn't a little boy anymore. It was really tender.

Greg and Trisha's musical number was definitely a highlight. It was beautiful. 

Uncle Bob's memories were really neat. He talked about how Grandma and Grandpa made every decision with their childrens' spiritual welfare in mind. He talked about when Uncle Paul was dating Aunt Mary they were living down south (maybe in Delta?) and they were concerned that Paul had graduated from high school and was going to live in Salt Lake City. He would be living much nearer to Mary, and they were worried that he might be putting himself in temptation's way, so they moved north to Bountiful.  He also mentioned something interesting to me and that is that Grandpa Naylor maintained VOR's in remote locations for a time which took the family to places like Helper and Wendover.  He also spoke of releasing Grandma from this life. It was very tender.

Bishop Anderson spoke of how loved Grandma was. That is the feeling of the whole funeral. She was a very loved lady.

I was so impressed with the size of her posterity by the time she died at 94. That is quite a legacy! Almost all of her grand children and even great-grandchildren were present at the funeral.

I was so impressed with the luncheon that the ward put on afterward. There were almost 200 people at the luncheon and it was not done buffet style. They had salads and dessert waiting at every setting. Then, people came around passing out the main entre. It was quite a production! I thanked the compassionate service leader after the luncheon and she said that they had been told in the past that they would need to prepare luncheons this big, but that until now, that many people hadn't actually shown up. She said that they had just enough food to feed everyone including the people who helped with the luncheon.

Grandpa Evans Turns 63

The day after Grandma Naylor's funeral was Grandpa Evans' 63rd birthday. We went to Centerville to help celebrate.

These girls were so excited to have a baby to love!

When Ivy was a new baby Grandpa Evans sang to her in his beautiful voice, "Oh Ivy, little Ivy Jane. . ." We have always sung it to her ever since then. In fact she thinks it's her song.

 

Flying With Papa Fred

 

The next day (Monday) Nana Patty and Papa Fred helped us kick off the vacation part of our travels with...an Airplane Ride! Everyone loved it and it gave me and Mom a few extra minutes to be together.

 

Pre-ride excitement

I thought it was fun to get a picture of Nana Patty taking pictures :)

Don't you just love these two?!

I just loved this because it shows Papa Fred instructing Ivy where to look for the seatbelt.

The ground is no place for these two.

After ride glow!

 

Brian Head

 

On Tuesday we went skiing at Brian Head. We put the kids in classes. Will and Ivy were full day and Faith got two hours of a serendipitous private lesson in the morning. Bill and I were hoping for a couple hours of happy skiing together without even hoping that the kids would enjoy it...but they ALL LOVED IT! It was a success.

 

Me and Bill on the ski lift in the morning. Bill was way too hard for me to keep up with, but it was fun to watch him just GO.

Bill at the top of the slope.

I skied with Faith after lunch and she did amazing for her first day!!

We got Will an orange hunting jumpsuit to ski in and we were so glad we did that all day. He was so easy to spot!! Ivy is the one right in front of him.

Ivy's teacher said that she is good at her turns and is nervous about certain areas of the hill, but doesn't need to be. He said that Will could use some work on his turns. He likes to go as fast as he can!

Me and Faith on the ski lift

 

Wednesday, January 21, 2015 - Faith's 14th Birthday

 

Faith's 14th birthday was spent hiking at Zion National Park. It was beautiful!