My hands are cold but my heart is warm

I spent quite a bit of time with my grandpa in the last week and every time he sees me he shakes my hand and then goes "brrr... you're hands are cold!!" he gets this really cute face and then proceed to hold my hands to get them warm. I then ask him how come his hands are so warm, he said "cause i have the heat turned up" and points to his heart. Then he suggests that if I rotate my earrings maybe I can turn my own heat up a little bit. hehe...No... it didn't work! :( My hands are still cold, and I'm afraid they always will be, but spending time with him did warm my heart.

I'm sad to say that I've never been terribly close to my grandpa and grandma clark, Elmo and Iva Lou. Elmo, my dad's father, got divorced from my biological grandma, Faye, when my dad was just a little boy. My dad lived with Faye until she passed away when he was 22 or so. (I'm so excited to meet her in heaven!) My grandpa remarried Iva Lou and shes the grandma I've always known, but because of the distance between my father and his father, we never spent much time with them. Plus they live down here in Utah and we lived up in Oregon. So... with all of this in mind I didn't think it would be too emotional to go visit my grandpa this week. He was recently put into a care home, which i knew... what i didn't know is how bad his dementia has gotten. It was harder than i ever imagined when he didn't even recognize me. After a while he started too, for which i was grateful, and by the time i left on sunday night he was doing a lot better. Its just so sad to see what old age does to someone. I'd ask him a simple question and 9 times out of 10 his response was "oh i don't know..." But i continued to ask questions and got him to tell me some things about his "younger years." It was good to be able to spend time with him and i hope i'll have time to go up and visit again soon.

(left) My dad and grandpa... I got them BOTH smiling!
(right) Too bad i didn't get him to smile in this picture with me.

(left) The whole gang! (minus david... tear)
(right) Happy 30th Anniversary!


This weekend we celebrated Easter, my dad's birthday, and my grandpa and grandma's 30th anniversary. Also, Saturday night Tyler's girlfriend Hilary was in a ballet showcase so we celebrated after that as well. Then tonight for FHE we had an easter dinner so that was quite a feast. Can you imagine how much food it takes to feed 20 hungry college students? half of which are guys! haha. It was so good though! YAY for reasons to party!

Life is a party! Live it, love it!