Kissing Cousins.

I took Seth and Gavin to Colorado for my Granddaddy's funeral. We spent most of the week keeping the 8 cousins who were there busy. As you can see, Gavin loves him some baby cousins, and it looks like Anna loves him right back. We spent a lot of time at Abby's house, we celebrated Mother's Day with my mom and aunts. On Monday we were up early and went to the military funeral. My cousins Bill and Becky were there, and it was so good to see them as I had lost touch with them for quite a while. It was also to see my other cousins. I sang at the funeral - There is a Balm in Gilead. I had to learn the song for the funeral, but it is one my mom and her siblings remember Granddaddy singing often as they were growing up. My brother Pete accompanied me on the guitar (unfortunately one of the pegs was broken and we discovered it late the night before when he was changing out my strings - I still have to get a new peg, fortunately we were able to borrow a nice guitar from a neighbor of Abby and Greg.) The kids all did well with the military ceremonies, even the 21 gun salute. After we drove from the cemetary chapel to see the gravesite where my grandmother is already buried. The church my grandparents attended hosted a meal for the family, which was really nice (and yummy, too.) The meal was in the same room my aunt's wedding reception was in (when I was a kindergartener), and I realized that that will probably be the last time I will be at that church as no one in my family still attends there. I have a lot of memories of visiting there. Because so much of the trip was spent with the little kiddos, and not with people who knew and loved my granddaddy I am still struggling with closure (he was cremated and the boys thought that they were going to get to help bury the urn after the funeral service.) I am thankful for the people here who have let me talk about things with them, even though they didn't know him.