Holy cow, it's late!

You know, as funerals go, the one today was really great.  It was so wonderful to have Brent and Zelma stay here last night.  We stayed up until midnight talking and catching up!  Then today both their boys were at the funeral, so I got to see them,   Then Brent's sister and her husband were there as well as their two boys.  I loved seeing all of them.  Brent and Celia are Don's sister's children.  We used to work with Brent and Zelma, so we were very close for many years.  I meant to take pics at breakfast this morning, but I was scurrying around getting it on the table and getting ready and didn't get pics done.  I got this one after the funeral today, though.  This is Lee, who is a first cousin to Cotton's (the widow of my brother-in-law's brother, the 'honoree' at the funeral) first husband.  I know that sounds complicated, but it was so interesting to be at the funeral with 2 sides of the family.  Brent is in the blue shirt, then his wife, Zelma, and then Junior, Celia's husband.  Chloe is Brent and Zelma's granddaughter; she's in the front.  Now, I know all that was complicated, but I did my best to explain how everyone fits and is important to me.

After the funeral in Roosevelt, we came back to Hobart for the interment.  Then we all went back to Roosevelt for a wonderful dinner that the church provided for the family.  After all that, Lee and I came back to the house and got into hiking garb and headed to the Refuge.  Well, that was a great idea.  We thought it would be a good time to see the lights from the city from the top of Mount Scott.  I've never seen them because I can't drive in the dark, plus I don't go hiking by myself.  But, Nate had been camping at the refuge a few weeks ago and he got pics of the lights from the top of Mount Scott at night, and I thought it would be a great adventure  Well, it was!  They ran us off Mount Scott at 9, but we did get to see the lights first.  We headed back toward Hobart and the road was blocked because of wildfires.  So we ended up driving about 40 miles out of the way to get back to Hobart.  We saw herds of buffalo in the road as well as deer.  I don't think I ever want to go there at night, again.  That was kind of scary.  The fires were pretty scary, too.  We did make it home, but it's way later than I meant to be.  It was a great adventure, though.  I'm sure glad I didn't have to drive it.

I thank God for the opportunity to see lots of great family and friends, today.  I even saw one of my favorite students; I guess we're just nearly related and I had no clue when I had him in class.  It was a great day to honor James and celebrate his life.  We'll miss him, but I'll treasure the memories of today..