Hey y’all 🙂
We are back home in Denver after spending about 4 days in Oklahoma with my family to celebrate my Papa’s life. I had a long post planned out with a lot of writing and insight, but to be honest I think it would be more fun for all of us if I left myself out of this as much as possible and allowed y’all to just check out the photos 🙂
This is me, my grandma, and my sister. Grandma is one of the funniest, spunkiest people I’ve ever met, and I love her.
This is just a fraction of my family that was there all weekend. I come from a WAY bigger family than I thought!
This is my sister, my dad, my mom, me, and Nate in the chapel of the church my grandparents were married in 68 years ago. 68 years ago. 68 YEARS AGO. Sorry to shout, I just think that’s amazing!
My Papa was in the Navy, and this was a roster that was hanging in the church with the names of all the men from the church who have served over the years. Papa’s name was on there along with 2 of his 5 brothers.
His mom was a brave, brave woman.
There were horses nearby and we walked over to say hi 🙂
Then did the picture thing…me and my sister Salah:
Salah and Nate:
Me and Nate:
And we were celebrating the party cup here. Because no occasion is complete without the red party cup.
And this?
You guys, this is where I come from.
No, I wasn’t born here…but this is the land that my family has farmed for over a century.
It’s amazing and perfect.
We hung out with the drooly farm dogs.
I think I’m in love with this guy.
This is my Papa’s youngest brother, Charles. He is hilarious and amazing and being around him made me love my Papa even more and miss him like crazy.
We got to go through a TON of my family’s old recipes…some of them were so worn you couldn’t actually read them very well, but I’m going to try to recreate them. You guys will see those in the coming weeks 🙂
And then, as if all this wasn’t enough, some of my 2nd cousins own a fudge/candy/bakery shop. You can imagine I almost died.
Or maybe I did and then came back to life.
I can’t be sure.
They had tons of syrup…
Locally made peanut butter (drool……..)…
OH.
MY.
GOSH.
The cutest jars of pie fillings…
Dried fruit (sorry, Nate says I look mean. I just like my dried fruit)…
Candied popcorn….
COOKIES!!! Perfect for me as I am a chocolate lover 🙂
More syrup…
And did y’all realize there are this many different types of pecans? These aren’t even all of them!
And, well, obviously the fudge. I’m shocked that somehow I didn’t get a picture of that…probably because we ate it all before I could snap one 🙂
I’m not excited about the reason for the trip and still find myself crying at odd times. I know it’s hard to let a loved one go, but as I said in Friday’s post my Papa left an amazing legacy behind and I am so proud to be part of it. I have an absolutely amazing family, some of which I didn’t even know I was related to, and everything good about me I see in all of them.
Remember, tell the people you love that you love them before you can’t!
I love you guys 🙂
what a recap. i think i want to move in! its so nice that you were able to celebrate his life with all that family. xo
what a sweet post! i love country living. that reminds me of my dad’s side of the family. he grew up on a farm and knows how to do EVERYTHING because of his experiences growing up there. i think everyone should have to live and work on a farm for at least 6 months before they are allowed to be considered a “grown up.” 😉
Heather, thank you for sharing some of your beautiful family with your readers. Looking at those pictures and reading your descriptions made my heart swell.
Now I’m going to make sure everyone I love KNOWS I love them!
Heather what a nice post — and your family is HUGE! But I bet if I got together with all of my relatives I would say the same thing.
salad??? hahaha, nice….I love these photos 🙂 e-mail them soon?
I saw “Salad” too and had to laugh 🙂
What lovely pictures! Your grandma is looks so sweet. I’m sorry for your loss.
Awww how fun! your family is BEAUTIFUL! so glad you had such a blessed weekend heather, you deserve it!
Looks like a memorable weekend filled with an amazing family. I know its so hard what you are going through right now because I am going through something similar. My Papa has stage 4 cancer and isn’t doing well. So we are all cherishing the times we have with him…actually today was his birthday. So my heart goes out to you and your family. You guys are all in my thoughts and prayers.
so sorry again for your loss, but really glad to see you were able to enjoy the trip!
Aw what a special time. Thanks so much for sharing such an important trip with us! Gorgeous photos!
What a great weekend for you! Love the pictures! 😉
What a wonderful family weekend! I adore my family so much. Thank you for the reminder!
I can’t wait to see what’s inside that awesome-looking vintage recipe box. Those things always hold some seriously great concoctions!
Your family looks like it has such spunk. I love all of your pictures and your story. I’m glad you were able to get home to celebrate your papa’s life.
I love the red party cup dance.
Thank you for sharing a piece of yourself with us. The passing of a loved one gives everyone time to stop and reflect on all the goodness. Now you can take it with you and continue to share that with the ones around you, to start building your own legacy. Much love to you and your family!
Beautiful family!! I’m sure your Grandfather is looking down at all of you and smiling 😉
I am going to do this today – tell people I love them.
<3
thank you for sharing – it all looks incredible! (I love farm dogs!!)
I look forward to those recipes…
Thanks for sharing this special time with us! You are definitely blessed with an awesome family and it looks like there was a lot of joy and celebration of a great life. Hope y’all are having a relaxing Sunday at home!
You guys are so beautiful. Very glad that you had some time with your family.
Wow…the scenery there is just breath-taking 🙂
So glad you’re getting to spend this time with your family– it looks like a great way to remember your grandfather’s life!!
Looks like a trip filled with great memories! Glad you were able to get back home and spend the time with family. 🙂
Aw what a great photo journal post. Love it, Heather. Glad you had a great time with the family. Your grandfather would have loved it, I’m sure. You’re in my prayers 🙂