SLC, Utah Trip; Moments of tears, memories, excitement, joy, & blessings

We en-devoured off to Utah just a couple of weeks ago
on short notice for the funeral services of my grandfather John Langeland. He was almost 92 yrs. He married my grandmother Louise over 7 years ago. It was wonderful to have a grandfather figure again since both my  grandpas have been pasted away for many years.
John made her soo happy & he was so incredibly loving to her & us.My grandma will not be in any of the photos since she passed away 2 yrs. ago from some form of stomach cancer, which no one ever thought she'd pass before John since he was about 12 yrs. older than her & she tried to live very healthy. Since there were no direct flights to Ut. from Ar. we had to get a flight to Az. were it worked out well since we dropped off all 3 kiddos at Gmoms & Gpa Stapleys house for 4 days.Which is no small task! Thanks again greatly to my in-laws for taking great care of our boys. In the above pic, Cole was helping daddy open his early B-day gifts from his mom the night we arrived since we'd be traveling during his Birthday & since we don't live there anyway. :)

This trip was also the 1st time in almost 2 yrs. that we'd been without the kids for more than a day.

 We are at Tucanos enjoying their awesome meats & sweet grilled pineapple! Oh yum!

Jace on the chairs as the Tucanos staff  sings a Happy Birthday song to him in Portuguese.

Green means - Bring it on, baby! More amazing meats!

On Sunday, we slept in, took our time getting ready, & then walked the temple grounds & went into the south visitors center & stood in line to see this amazing replica model of the Salt Lake Temple.

It truly is a beautiful temple!

That night was grandpa Johns funeral viewing. We met up with my parents there & enjoyed visiting with them & seeing again Johns very gracious children as well as watching a video of his life. Its very strange to see someone you know & look at them & not hardly recognize them. I don't think we look the same without our spirits with us. When we got there we'd just barely missed seeing Elder Bednar, whom we'd have loved to have met since I'd just been listening to an interview he  & his wife had done with Sheri Dew a couple of days early & was grateful to get to know more about him in a day to day setting. He also was the Stake Pres. over the area of  NW. AR. that we now live in before he was Pres. of BYU Idaho.

Early Monday morning, Jace & I attended the SLC Temple & truly enjoyed the live sessions they do. It had been about 5 yrs. since we were last at the SL Temple for a live session. They are so neat to experience & help keep you more awake since the lights aren't dimmed.

We had fun doing model poses for each other on the temple grounds since we were all snazzed up.

My grandfathers funeral was one to be remembered! I knew John knew a lot of the bretheren from his church service through out many years & being temple president over the Swiss Temple some years back , as well as being president of Zions Bank for many years, but I didn't expect the prophet to be in attendance. Especially with his busy, busy schedule. Pres. Monson spoke where I learned that He & John had known each other since 1976. Elder L.Tom Perry was in attendance & spoke as well, telling fun stories of John & him & sharing scriptures with us off of his iphone.  John was an amazing man who lead an amazing life. He was originally from Norway, where he joined the church by the influence of his beautiful girlfriend at the time who became his wife, had 6 amazing children, moved to Utah with hardly any money, & served well in the church & influenced strongly the missionary programs in the church & so much, much more. Here's a short life bio on him HERE.

Meeting the prophet, was for me, an amazing thrill that I'll never forget. Better than meeting any celebrity on earth. A few months prior, I felt a strong desire to get to know our prophet better, so I bought the new video that's about his life called, "On the Lords Errand", which is fabulous by the way, & was grateful to learn more about him. I even felt & had planned to write Pres. Monson just thanking him for the amazingly exemplary life he's lead. And that I am a better person from getting to know our prophet a little bit more. When the services were over, the family files out of the chapel first, so we were outside waiting for others to come out when Pres. Monson came walking out. Without a second thought, I beelined it for the prophet.  I shook his hand & expressed gratitude & thanks to him for his life. I told him I purchased the new video out about him & he said, "Oh, I've been on many errands for the Lord!" I told him that our 3 yr. olds favorite part of the video was when He was a young teenage boy floating down the river in an inner tube when he came upon a family screaming because their daughter was drowning, but nobody knew how to swim, so he grabbed her up by the hair as she went under again & then carried her over to her family on the shore. Where her parents kissed on him for saving her, but he was embarrassed by being kissed my a bunch of older people, so he quickly left. And of course he recalled the story. He was so friendly, gave me a hug, & met my hubbie as well. When Jace walked up he said, "Well we're in the presence of greatness!" & Pres. Monson said, "Where?" And Jace continued, "Right here!( pointing his hands at me." It made the prophet laugh, since he's the one used to hearing that about himself. Then Jace just bragged on me for a moment. He told us we were a beautiful couple, & when we asked for a picture with him, he said, "Go stand by your wife young man".  In the background behind Jace is the prophets body guard. He was very nice to all the people around wanting to meet & shake hands with the prophet. This may not mean much to somebody else, but for me, I was on cloud nine! I love our prophet dearly!

Here are a couple of my cousins & our spouses that I've not seen for a couple of years or more. On the left is my cousin Melanie & her husband Sterling with their new baby girl who live in Boston right now, then Tyra & her husband Hugh with their youngest boy who live in Utah, & us of course in AR.

Jace taking pics of me at the Joseph Smith Memorial building & having fun listening to the beautiful piano music being played with my awesome hubbie while we wait for our dinner reservations on "The Roof" of the building.

Jace & I hanging out a bit more, enjoying wonderful conversations with each other with out any interruptions from kiddos. Ah, so nice!

A small sample of our incredible meal. Fantastic food! And of course, all drinks are alcohol free. :) There was great food, sweet conversation, eating, talented piano music in the background, dancing with my hubbie, more eating, taking pictures, & dessert!

Aaah! The desserts! Too, too many tantalizing options.

This, is Margaret. It was her 80th birthday that day. As she was walking past us, she'd been watching us dance, & said to Jace, "I loved your dancing guys, & I would have danced too if you'd have asked me (all in a smiling, fun way). So Jace offered right then & there & absolutely made her day! She was a sweetheart! And my husband is too, for his kindness to her. We had more conversation with her & later I remembered that we had gone to the Church Distribution store  right before dinner & still had with us some pictures of the different Temples with us to give to our boys & a copy of the video, "The Testaments", so we wrote a happy birthday wish to her & gave her a pic of the SL Temple & a copy of that video. She could hardly believe it & kept thanking us. She even invited us to come & stay at her home in Texas with our boys since she loves being a grandma & has plenty of visiting room with 5 bedrooms. We've already had email correspondence with her.

We had a wonderful evening together & chatted it up with the pianist, making requests of which he could play all songs, met a young man & his girlfriend which was their last evening out together before he left for his mission the next day to OK. City (which is only a few hours away from where we currently live), talked with our server & he became our "photographer", & of course met Margaret & her daughter too. It certainly is different how your focus on others can extend so much further with others when you don't have your 1st priority with you (kids & hubbie of course, but we had plenty of focus time on each other).

The sun setting on the Temple. Our view from our table at "The Roof".

I love this man! He is my best friend. He takes care of me well. And we have lots of fun together.

Since we were flying back to Arkansas from AZ. with all the kids on Jaces birthday, we celebrated a couple of days later with a home made oreo brownie, cheesecake frosting cake which Cole helped me make. Cole was upset here because he wanted to blow out the candles already.

Then Cole gave daddy his homemade birthday card made on construction paper & with paint pens. Cole also gave Jace a book called, "Dad's Big Idea" for them to read together. And they both enjoyed it. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY!! And Grandpa John, you will be greatly missed! You were such a hilarious & wise, wise man.