Sigurd...

Raymond's grandma Marilyn Dastrup passed away, it was a happy reunion for her and her husband who passed away about 7 years ago.  It is always sad to say goodbye to those we love but I was also happy to see her free of her bodies ailments.  She has been weak and feeble since I met her, her mind had started to lose its way and she wasn't as comfortable as you would have liked her to be.  She was however always sweet, kind, loving and had an undying faith in the Lord. She definitely was an example to all of us!  Love You Grandma!

She had 15 kids (13 still living), 82 grand-kids and 108 great-grand-kids with 14 on the way this year.  She was definitely a woman who commanded an army.  It was so cool to be able to see the mass amount of family who came to celebrate her life.  Family alone took up the entire chapel and we were all a bit squished!  There were about 250 family members present for the funeral.  47 rooms were booked at the Holiday Inn Express in Richfield all for family...and there were many that stayed at relatives houses or at other hotels!  It is a crazy amount of people!  

My family were very sweet and sent flowers to the funeral, they were beautiful. 

It was so fun to spend Thursday and Friday night at the hotel with ALL of the Rodger & Camille Whipple family.  We had fun swimming in the pool, eating cake & cookies in the conference room, wandering through the halls and realizing nearly every guest we walked by was related, and having some yummy BBQ with several of siblings.  Before leaving Sigurd we went by Grandma's house to visit one last time.  If you ever wondered how you fit 15 kids in one house, look at the bottom right picture below, the boys had "barracks"...a bed with about 3 feet next to it was each kids "room" with a open locker at the foot of the bed for their belongings which also helped form the rooms. 

One favorite from Grandma's house in the "Teeter Totter of Death".  I have been nearly killed on this thing a couple times (both a result of my husband wanting to show me what they did as kids!).  The teeter totter goes up and down and around, it is built on a trailer axle and trust me the adults have more fun on it than the kids!  Jerry was trying to push Ben and Ray in a circle and ended up getting clothes lined by it, Raymond got nearly thrown off, Kyle and Blake couldn't stop laughing...of the fun we have on that thing!

It was such a fun weekend, a nice get-away from the stresses of life at the moment.  When we got home Saturday night we went over to a friends 30th surprise birthday party and had a fun night as well!  By the way, I love road trips...even if they are only 4 hour away ones!