The week from hell that allowed me to say goodbye... (part 3)

So, the visit with my family was bitter-sweet. It was fantastic getting to meet my brother Joe's family for the first time. I loved getting to see my other brother, Jared's, girls all grown up (or at least almost there). My brother Josh was a constant joy to be around. It was the first time we've all been together in over 10 years.

I spent my time not doing school work and enjoying my family. The day of the memorial service, Aaron, Josh, and I desperately tried to finish the video for the service. My brother is a composer and we wanted to use his music for the soundtrack. Unfortunately, my mom didn't give him the message (part of her memory loss problems at the moment) and so he didn't bring it in the easiest format to use... We were cut short on time, so we weren't able to get his music files to work. Our back-up plan was put in action. We made it to the service minutes before it started...

Needless to say, it was a very emotional service. My brother, Jared, was in his military dress uniform. Cousins, aunts, uncles, and friends filled the church. My grandmother was very beloved. We all cried, we all laughed. We all made our peace with my grandmother's passing. I still miss her, but the grief is no longer overwhelming...

Aaron was very supportive during the whole thing. However, that night, he recognized the grief that I felt and I'm sure it reminded him of when his grandfather passed away a few years ago, and we were unable to attend the memorial service for him. He was very close to his grandfather. He desperately wanted to see his own grandmother. So, we cut the visit with my family short by a day and drove the 4 hours to ABQ to see his grandma. We arrived around noon and were immediately welcomed. I love going to his grandma's house. She is such a special lady and it eased the pain in my heart some to know that we still have a grandmother here. We were treated to Posole as soon as we got there... Much better than I can make here with fresh ingredients and pork that had roasted all day... I'm drooling now as I write this thinking about that Posole...  Anyway...

We reconnected with Aaron's Uncle Tony, who took us around ABQ on the "Breaking Bad" tour. Aaron LOVED getting to see all the places where they film the show - one of which is blocks away from his grandma's house :) After the tour, we took Grandma Dora to Uncle Ernie's house, where we met Grandma Dora's sister and had a nice family dinner. Of course, this was a Sunday, so we all stayed to watch "Breaking Bad."

Our flight left from Denver the next morning, so we left immediately after "Breaking Bad" to head back to Denver. Driving through the night was exhausting, but worth the visit with Grandma Dora. We took two-hour driving shifts and made it to Denver around 4:30 AM. We were wiped, but that was OK. The travel gods smiled upon us that day. Aaron was jump-seating all the way, but my ticket was for 5:30 PM. We both made it stand-by on the flight out of Denver for Seattle and made it on the flight from Seattle to Juneau with literally minutes to spare. By the time we deplaned in Seattle, they had called for final boarding on the Juneau flight. We still had to list for the flight. Again, the flying gods smiled on us. We were 2 gates apart. Normally, you have to go from C or D concourse to N when traveling to Juneau, which adds time on the train in Seattle...

We made it home and bailed Noni out of jail, finally ate breakfast, and then took a nap. Aaron got to take it relatively easy the next day, but I had to work a 10-hour shift...