our trip to CA to remember Matt

We got home from our cruise Friday night at 10pm, went to bed, got up the next morning at 6am, took Brian's mom to the airport, unpacked our bags, re-packed our bags, and head out to CA at 11am. We arrived that night in CA and went strait to the hotel and to bed. Carli was a horrid sleeper. The kids all fell asleep around 9pm but not Miss Carli. She was up until 12:30 and then she woke up at 4:30. UGH! The kids all then woke up around 6am. We got dressed and ate breakfast and then started driving around and looking for parks for the kids to play at. Finally got a hold of my parents and they told us to go to my aunt and uncle's house. We arrived and all of the cousins were there. My kids LOVE those cousins so much, just as I love my cousins so much. After being there for a couple of hours, the cousins had a race around the block, to get some fresh air and to get the wiggles out.

Even Carli was getting in on the action! They ran around the block several times and it was good exercise and a breath of fresh beautiful air!

I didn't see it, but I was told that when Carli and her BFF saw each other, they hugged for 5 minutes. They were inseperable the whole entire weekend. If I ever couldn't find Carli, I just would look for BFF and there she was!

Later that day, we all took the kids to a little zoo in Loomis.

All the cousins... I wish they all lived closer together but most of them live in Hawaii!

I don't know how my cousins feels about me posting pictures on my blog from this tragedy, so this is the only one I will post. The funeral was beautiful. There were tears and there were smiles as Matt was remembered. His sister and his best friend gave fabulous talks. They both remembered funny moments with Matt and also expressed their heartache too. One funny thing that his friend said is, "If Matt were here, he'd hook me up with some Valium!" And a tender moment is when he said, "I didn't look up to Matt. I just looked by my side and he was always there." Matt's sister expressed that Matt was her hero and how much her kids loved and admired him. Matt is truly a soul that will never be forgotten and he was absolutely admired in his profession, in his family, and with his friends.

I wish we could have spent more time in CA with this family but unfortunately, we had to head home. We love you guys SO much! Words can't even express...

Some of my memories of Matt:

When Jeff and Matt were younger, they caught frogs. Jeff named his Frog Matt, and Matt named his frog Jeff.

Matt at a very young age wanted to be a doctor (like 10-12 yrs old) and this one time we were driving in my cousins brown station wagon and we memorized that he wanted to be an "Anesthesiological Pulminary Profusionist." I still remember that long word and I'm not even really sure if it's the name of a profession or just 3 really long words that sound cool!

When my mom and I moved to Utah for a summer so my mom could attend BYU, my dad and Jeff stayed in CA. Matt and Jeff played a lot that summer together and I remember Jeff told me that they had a mac n cheese contest, to see which one of them could cook up their box of mac n cheese the fastest AND eat it. He said the noodles weren't even really cooked, haha!

Our families spent MANY MANY days together, since we only lived 10 minutes apart - at the beach during the summer and sometimes winter, sleepovers, family parties, skiing trips, trips to Utah etc...

Matt used to tease his sister and call her "Cricket." One time there was a cricket in his parents house and he said, "Hey Cricket, there's your brother!" ;)

My friends in CA were always commenting that they wished they had as close of a relationship with their cousins as we did. We can owe that closness to our Mom's who were best of friends, therefore, us kids were best of friends too.

When I was in college, Matt and his sisters and I all lived within walking distance from each other. We got together and had dinners together sometimes, or we would run into each other, we would fly home to visit our families on the same flights, etc... Those were some great times and I don't think I would have survived my first time away from home without the comfort of my cousins.

Last summer, we took our kids to CA to visit and stopped in to see the cousins in Loomis. Looking back now, we are so grateful that Matt was home and we were able to talk and laugh with him. We harassed him about his mom doing everything for him and he just took it and laughed like he always did.

Then we saw him again in Bear Lake later that summer for a few days. It was such a blessed family reunion, one that we all had really been looking forward to. He was there, all smiles and laughter. I know he was looking forward to Bear Lake again this summer.

**

I know that many hearts are broken. Only time will try to heal these broken hearts but he will never be forgotten. "Well done, thou good and faithful servent. Enter into my rest"