Helping with Grandma and Grandpa Hafen

Rick and I traveled to Vegas twice in the last couple of weeks to help care for my mom and dad.

My dad had surgery to replace the post in his femur (from his knee replacement)because it was making its way out of the bone.  The first time we went we stayed for a week.  Rick stayed int he Rehab with y dad and I stayed at home with my mom.  Both my mom and my dad's mental capacities are waning.  Dad could not keep track of where he was or what was wrong with him.  There were times that his mind was more keen than others.  I have to thank Rick so much for his loving care for my dad.  We both wanted to give Scott and Kathy and others a break from there full time service for our parents.  Rick stayed right there by my dad helping with whatever was needed...and sometimes that meant for some REALLY long nights.

I took my mom out to the rehab to visit each day...sometimes twice a day.  It's hard because after the visit neither one could remember that they were there.  Both my mom and dad were really emotional during the visits.  They really missed each other!

 

  My dad had come home from the hospital the night before we left (on Saturday).  He came home with a picc line to helps give his meds twice a day.  By Tuesday he was not doing well.  He was swelling all over and his cognitive skills were continuing to decline.  Scott took him back to the hospital and the dr.'s thought that he had pneumonia and a UTI.  We drove back on Friday to spend another five days.  Rick spent each day in the hospital while I again spent the time caring for my mom.  

Saturday morning I was able to attend Kathy Nelson's funeral. (Boyd's mom)  It was a beautiful service.  Her children gave her a beautiful tribute!  Jeanette gave the eulogy, her oldest grandchild shared memories, three of her grandchildren played a musical number (flute, piano, and flugelhorn) her daughter, Debbie, sang a solo and Boyd gave some thoughts.  Kathy was a valiant and faithful servant of God!  A beautiful and tender moment was when Benny walked behind the casket.  After breaking his femur and suffering some real health challenges in the last few months it was a tender sight to see and a wonderful tribute to his wife.  When getting to the front of the chapel he tenderly placed his hand on her casket.  Oh, how I love these people from my youth!  They were always so good to me.

Back to my parents.  My dad was struggling cognitively again and just wanted to be home.  I took my mom up to the hospital each day to see him.  He was able to come home on Tuesday.  After getting home around 2 in the afternoon, Scott wanted to give him a shower.  Rick assisted in that and then my dad slept for 2 1/2 hours quite peacefully in his chair.  Rick was not feeling well so he went to lay down for an hour or so.  In that time, Paul and Vickie had come over for a visit.  Paul was rubbing his feet and then noticed that blood was coming from his bandage.  Scott and Kathy arrived as well as Boyd and Mare.  At 7 the home health nurse, Muhammad, was coming to help administer the meds.  When he got to the house there was a steady stream of blood coming out of my dad's bandage.  He checked it and could see that something was wrong with the knee apparatus and suggested getting him back to the hospital.  My dad was crying because he had just gotten home!  We called for an ambulance and it was such an emotional time.  Both my mom and dad were crying, as well as myself and Mare and Kathy.  Boyd and Paul were able to give him a quick blessing and off he went.  By the time he got to the hospital his knee had ripped open.  Pretty gruesome!

They scheduled surgery for the net morning.  Rick and I were in a quandary as to what to do but felt like it was ok to head back home.  Plus, I had my own knee surgery scheduled for the next day. We could turn around at anytime, if needed.   His surgery was supposed to be an hour but it took three.  My dad did well throughout the procedure and was able to come home the very next day.  He is in a splint and cannot bend it for two weeks.  It has been a roller coaster of emotions and health care for the past couple of weeks.

Easter Saturday

Here are some random pics of last weeks big Easter Egg Hunt.  We had a lot of kids come for the fun.  We provided donuts and milk and juice for the occasion.  The littlest kids 0-3 found eggs right around the pavilion.  The 4-7 year olds found them behind brad and Ruth's house.  The 8-11 year olds found them behind Aunt DeeAnn's house.  Then the oldest 12 and up search in the front yards.   Everyone had a lot of eggs in their baskets and were so excited to get the goodies and toys from the eggs.  

It was an Easter Egg Hunt success!

Daisy and her basket

                        Eric, Henry, Charles, Lincoln, Daisy, and Lilly showing off their spoils.

                                                        

                                                                  Cute families

                                                                    Eric finds an egg!                                                         

 

                                                            Xavier found a purple one!

Logan enjoying a donut!

                                                        The search is on for the littlest ones!

Kallie and cute baby Ricky!

                                                        Merik is finding some eggs!

                                While the kids are hunting their parents are eating donuts and visiting!

                                                

                 That evening we had the adult Easter Egg Hunt.  Out in the Baker and Help yards was more than $400 for the taking.  Everyone was excited to find some cash.  This is a fun group right here and they all searched long and hard.  Sarah and Rafe (who was helping his mom since his dad didn't come) found the prize eggs of $50 each!  A lot of the others found money as well as candy eggs.  Poor Gary didn't come up with any money.  It seems each year he gets the shaft but all in all it was a fun night to be together!

                                                        We love this group of big kids!

Spring Baseball

Last week over Spring Break Rafe had a baseball tournament in Nephi.  Rick and I drove down for his double header on Friday.  Doug and Leesa were there to support him as well as Uncle Burke and his wife Morgan.  They first game was tight but we lost by one point.  The second game was won pretty easily.  That meant that they're going to play the next day.  Brach and Kendra and the kids were staying in a run down hotel called the Nebo Inn.  After the games they went up into the mountains and did some fishing at a lake and just enjoyed the outdoors.  

Rick and I had some errands to run to prepare for the big Easter egg hunt and the weekend in general so we drove up to Salt Lake for the rest of the day.  

We sure enjoyed watching Rafe and his team play!

Baseball is Awesome!

 

Star Valley

On Friday the 3rd, Rick picked me up from Lava Hot Springs as we sisters were checking out of our rental  home.  While everyone else headed towards their homes Rick and I went the opposite direction toward Afton Wyoming.  We have a goal to get to ten new temples this year, and Pocatello was the first earlier that week.  I found out that the Star Valley Temple was just a couple hours away from Lava and suggested that we add that to our list of ten.  We drove through the mountains through Montpelier over to Afton.  It was a beautiful snowy drive.  We loved it so much!  There was SO much snow!  The roads were clear for the most part so that wasn't an issue but everything else was snow covered.  As we arrived into town the temple came into view.  I was very surprised at how small it is.  I think it's one of the smallest I've seen.

Small but nevertheless, beautiful.

We drove into town and stopped at a little restaurant and had a little lunch before going over for our appointment at the temple.

We got to do initiatory work and then spent a little time in the Celestial Room.

 

After leaving the temple we stopped at Star valley Mercantile a cute home decor store.  I found a couple of items to buy.😀  After that we drove around the streets of the town admiring the homes and stumbled upon this cool building.  It is the Afton Tabernacle and was built in 1909.  I wish we could have gone inside, but it was locked.  We stopped and talked to an older couple who knew the building very well and they told us a few things about it.  One thing that is cool about it is the bell tower.  I don't know if there is an actual bell in it but we were told that the Sunday School boys in the early days liked to climb up there.

Anyhow, it was a beautiful building.

                                        The icicles around town were HUGE!

We got to see two herds of elk on the way back to Montpelier where we were spending the night.  

Five of them were bull elk with huge racks.  We saw a total of eighteen.  Pretty cool.

We stayed at the Super 8 in Montpelier and enjoyed a delicious dinner at a Mexican Restaurant next to the hotel and then relaxed for the rest of the evening.  

The next morning we lounged around a bit and went for a swim in the pool and enjoyed the hot tub.  We headed towards Logan where we stopped at the Lazy Ones Outlet and bought some jammies for the grand kiddos.  Then we  headed on home.

In Sardine Canyon we saw this giant snowman someone had built.  You can't see how big it is by this picture but a man's head would come up just to that bottom button.  I have no idea how they were able to get that head on top!  

Fun times with my sweetie!