Darts?

For Christmas this year, Santa brought a dart gun for Crue and one for his daddy, so they could have fun together. Smart choice. They love them (yes, even Jared has fun shooting people). I'll refer back to this at the end. It's pretty dang funny. My grandpa passed away a couple of days before Christmas. While this is sad, I was kind of expecting it and it's been a good thing. He had fallen and broken his hip and had surgery on it. He was 90 years old. We had a birthday party for him in October and it was fun to see lots of people, especially ones I hadn't seen in years. My grandma has Alzheimer's and doesn't know what's going on. She remembers most of her kids, but beyond that, she doesn't remember anyone or much of anything. I was lucky enough to grow up with my grandparents so I remember all the fun times with them. At the time of his birthday, my grandpa couldn't see (I think he could barely see but not see details so you always had to tell him who you were). He's been in a wheelchair for a while. He's been strong to hang on for so long but he was definitely slowly going. He was starting to not remember things, like some of the grandkids. I was lucky enough to be one of the ones he remembered. When I would see him and tell him who I was, he always said "Oh Kendra!" with a smile and you could tell he knew who I was. I was glad. Sometime after his surgery, maybe a month or so, my dad called to tell me grandpa was having congestive heart failure. According to my dad, his heart was basically just a worn out muscle and not able to keep up with demands anymore. Two days before Christmas, he passed away. He lived a good life. I will always miss him. It was a good thing because now he has perfect health and is in a better place where he can be the fun grandpa that I remember. He also has a daughter that was born while he was fighting in World War II with his first wife (my grandma was his second). He has now been able to meet her and is helping raise her. So while he will be greatly missed here on earth, I know he's doing great things and enjoying being with his daughter. I can't wait to see him again.

Now for the funny part. We went to his funeral in Wyoming (my cousin got married in Las Vegas on Friday Dec. 31, we had a birthday party in St. George the next day, then the funeral in Wyoming Monday). Because he had been in the war, they did a 21 gun salute at the graveside service. I held Crue so he could see (he went shooting once with Jared and between that and his dart gun, he likes guns). After they were done Crue asked, "where's their darts?" Nothing like a 3 year old to bring some laughter for his mom at a funeral. I did get one of the shells from the salute, so that was pretty cool. Jared has one from his grandpa too.