Thanks for waiting, the pictures are loaded and I'm ready to brag about the amazing family I have.

Wednesday evening the kids and I went to the airport to pick up Brooke, Dana and Eva as they were flying in from San Diego to come home for Grandpa's funeral. Max was so excited to get to go to the airport and since leaving he has been back to visit the airport many times while playing pretend! Brooke and I had to get the kids in the bathtub together of course.

She has a picture of all us kids in the tub together when we were little. If she decides to go forward with her blog post idea of posting both the past and present bath pictures, I promise to link up to it, as I know you want to see itty bitty adorable little Ashley in the tub with her sisters and cousins. (Hee hee!)

Thursday we headed up to my parent's lakehouse where Judy met us as she was bringing Brooke, Dana and her grandbaby, Eva, home with her. Thankfully, Granny Judy was willing to share her attention not only with Eva but with Max and Rory too. They wouldn't really leave her alone!

The funeral was very nice. A lot of the family was able to make it, including all of the grandchildren and great grandchildren. Max fell asleep on Grandma towards the end of the ceremony and while Auntie Andrea sang Amazing Grace, Rory attempted to sing along with her. After the funeral we had a nice lunch and were able to take quite a few pictures.

My family:

Grandpa and Grandma's children, minus Aunt Jeannie:

The Grandchildren, minus Pat Jr. who did attend the funeral but wasn't able to join us afterwards:

Later that evening, Uncle Tom took us out to a bridge that was upstream of Grandpa's fishing hole. Apparently, this fishing hole was well known as John's fishing hole and no one would dare fish it but instead would go around it. It was cute to hear that story.

Uncle Tom also brought a bottle of Brandy so we could all take a shot for Grandpa, which was his drink of choice. I had my tripod with and used the self timer on my camera for the first time. This is the first picture, prior to anyone taking a drink. (Reminder, to see a larger image, click the photo.)

Here is the fourth and last picture, after many had taken a shot. (Lots of us shared because a full shot of Brandy was too much to handle.) Needless to say, Grandpa can still out drink a lot of us!

After the shot, Uncle Tom sent the ashes over the bridge and talked about how they would end up in Lake Superior so Grandpa could fish the lake trout. They will also leave some ashes at his deer stand, because you know Grandpa isn't one to miss hunting opener. Speaking of which, that very next day was rifle opener, and my mom, the kids, and I were greeted by three deer right outside our window that morning!

It was a busy few days. We had a great time seeing family and celebrating the life that Grandpa and Grandma made but it's also great to be home. Max even said, "thanks for the house" to me when we arrived home this afternoon. I think we all were feeling the need to snuggle down in our beds and attempt to relax before Thanksgiving approaches.