Sunday, July 21, 2019

One last family dinner at the ranch after Gramma Dorothy's funeral

The evening of Grandma Dorothy's funeral, the family assembled one last time at her house on the ranch for a family dinner. For old time's sake we drove the New Yorker out there. It had been Elmer's mother's car and the family would enjoy seeing it.



It was so fun to be altogether again.



Ezra and Samuel were obsessed with that blurry monkey.



Kids table.



Some video of everyone chilling.



After dinner we outside for a walk. We had to put on bug repellant first though since there were already a lot of ticks.



The old house everyone originally lived in before the current house was built. Terry's parents, and many other family members in their time, lived here, though not recently obviously. Ha.



Again just like after Elmer's funeral, the boy cousins had to go visit their Fort.



It had fallen down a little since last time (2008).







They're lucky they didn't all fall through and contract tetanus. 



The jar of burned girlfriend photos is on top there...



Terry took and hung this old Fort clock in our garage.





I wondered around the property and managed to avoid the ticks. 



It was such a beautiful night.






Grandma's house.



I took this video for nostalgia's sake.



Then we went into the old shop where Terry and Elmer used to tinker around during the summers until Dorothy would "yoo-hoo!" them inside for lunch.



Ezra and Sarah.




We discovered the old welding cart that crushed Terry's face as a four or five year old...



There it is!



You can see the exact place that fell on his face.



Terry's description of the accident when the cart fell back on him. That's how he got those scars on his face.



Posers.



More posers.



Grampa would've never allowed us to climb on his plane!



But we did it.





Meanwhile the kids were playing in the old pool...



...by sliding down the sides.






We sang happy birthday to all the May born people...except Ezra.



So much family!



We were swapping stories. They were a rambunctious group and got into a lot of trouble.



It was hot in there.



Such good times.

Grandmother Dorothy visitation and funeral

Terry's grandmother Dorothy passed away on April 25th. The visitation was May 2nd. The family is huge. Terry's dad is one of eight siblings, all of whom are still living. 



Here are their senior portraits that used to hang in the ranch house.



The one request Dorothy had for her funeral was to sing this song, Brighten the Corner Where You Are. Terry taught the kids the song before we went home that night. 



Here's all the kids performing during the funeral. 


Getting ready to go out for the funeral. 






Hillsview church hosted us. 






JoAnn opened the funeral.



Terry went next. He made sure to share the gospel, just like Dorothy would've wanted.



Terry and the kids preparing to sing.






Bob went next and then Pastor Ron was last.



The brothers carrying Dorothy out.



We went out to Black Hills National Cemetery for her burial, just like Grandpa Elmer.






Again, just like with Grandpa, all the family put little sticky hearts on the casket.






Saying goodbye.



Once back at the church we had lunch together and then family photos. Roger took them. He took our wedding photos too!



The Six Pack.



The silly Six Pack.



Jesse and Shari's crew.



JoAnn and Herb's crew.



Darryl, Linda, Shannon, Joe.



Jim and Imagene's crew.



Chuck and Barb's.



Bob and Pat's.



David, Jerry, Jim, Dallas, JoAnn, Barb, Bob, Darryl.



Got a nice photo of Jerry and Alice.



A couple complete family photos.



I think I counted 72... Wow. We were missing a lot too.