We made the trip up to Idaho last weekend for my grandma's services. We left Vegas in true Gouker fashion- at 3am, and after stopping for breakfast in Provo, got to Burley around 1pm. The trip up was non-eventful, that is until right after we crossed into Idaho, when it began raining- which then turned into snow. Great. It's snowing, and I am wearing flip flops. Anyway, we got there, checked into the hotel, and promptly went swimming. It was so nice to relax in the hot tub and let the boys burn off some of their pent up energy for a while. The rest of my family- my parents, my sister and her family, my aunt and uncle, and 3 cousins with their wives and families- got to town a few hours later, and we all went out to dinner together. That evening, Sunday, was my grandma's viewing at the funeral home. It was open house style, with a lot of extended family there. One of my cousins had also made a slide show using pictures of my grandma, and that was really neat to see, as I hadn't seen most of the pictures of her as a young lady. I'll tell you what, my grandma was a dish back in the day!! After the viewing, most of us all went swimming again. It was nice to just sit around and visit with everyone. Monday morning, all of us at the hotel had breakfast together, and then started getting ready for the next service. My grandmother was buried in Pocatello, and so we all checked out of the hotel around 11:30 to drive there. We got there around 12:30 and my parents, sister, niece and us went and had a small lunch before the graveside service. Due to the weather being so cold and rainy, they decided not to do a service at the graveside, and instead only did the dedication. My grandma's brother, Roy, said the opening prayer, and my Uncle Mike gave the dedicatory prayer in LDS style, which had me bawling. After that was done, everyone headed over to the luncheon. There, my great aunt Gladys (my grandma's sister) did my grandma's life sketch. Her brother Wally sang a beautiful song called "That Wonderful Mother of Mine," which had the whole room in tears. My uncle Kevin and his daughter and grandkids also sang some songs as well. My sister and I both lost it when he played "You are my Sunshine," as that is the song my mom sang to us, and I have sung to each one of my boys. They refer to it as "their" song. After the luncheon and memories were done, we headed home around 3:30, and got home to Vegas right about midnight Monday night. It was a very short trip, but it was really nice to be able to go. The services were both tasteful and very respectful, and that makes me very happy. I am very grateful that we were able to go as a family.
My dad and his siblingsL-R: Aileen, Mark (my dad), Maxine, Stephen, Kevin
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