I mentioned before that we ran out to Utah in February right after that ridiculous snowfall to celebrate my favorite Uncle Chip. He was so larger than life, it’s hard to describe- but if you know my mom– picture her but also a little bit of a hick and turn the volume up to eleven. He was so kind and genuine and loved everyone he met, even the homeless at McDonald’s he would occasionally bring home. He loved his people, he loved the Lord, and he loved himself some diet coke.

I was so honored that my aunt asked me to play the harp at his service. I couldn’t bring my own harp (it takes up an entire car) so I texted my old harp professor to see if she knew someone down in the area that I could rent from for a couple of days. BLESS HER. She delivered one of her own personal harps to our VRBO, complete with stand, bench, string bag, tuner, everything- and she arranged for one of her students to take it back up to Farmington right after the funeral. *cry face emoji* She completely and totally saved me and it was one of those things I’ll never forget, I was so thankful for her kindness when we were in a bind and so extremely short notice. She is one of the best.

Anyway, we drove out on a Friday, spent Saturday and Sunday together as a family at a big house we rented (so much cheaper than hotel rooms for 23 people). The service was Monday and it was everything good and sweet and funny, just like he was. The facility where the open house was held said that they had more visitors for his service than they had ever had before, and I believe it. One of a kind. We saw so many friends and extended family members we haven’t seen for such a long time!

Tuesday we spent seeing Jazz’s family, we had pizza lunch together and hung out at Britta’s new house with her kiddos. And her cats, my children love her cats. Thatcher took a nap on the floor like the best baby that he is. I’m so glad they could squeeze us in while we were there! Wednesday we headed home and were very thankful the roads were clear enough for us to drive- we did end up using 4WD through some snow there at the end!

The best part of the trip was the rental house- everyone stayed together, kids played together and napped there and we did lots of takeout and chicken nuggets. After all the babies went to bed we sat around this huge table, ordered fresh warm cookies, talked about how much we love Chip and how BUMMED we are that he has gone on ahead of us. Zach shared some hilarious stories and we laughed until we cried some more. The whole weekend was sad but also uplifting and joyful and it made me so thankful to be there with my family.