Great-Grandma Wilkes

Last Wednesday morning, we received the sad news that Landon's Great Grandmother, Lucy Wilkes, had passed away. While it was not unexpected (she was 96!), it was somber news. Grandma Wilkes was a firecracker! I have always felt so blessed to be part of Landon's family - none of my grandparents were still living when Walt was born, and Landon has such a large extended family full of great examples for all of us to look up to! We will cherish this 5 generation photo taken in 2012:

We both wanted to be there to celebrate her life, but for some reason my doctor wasn't wild about me driving 13-hours in a car and being out of the state at 34 weeks pregnant. :( So Landon hopped on a plane (thank goodness for tax refunds!) and headed to SLC, where he caught a ride with his brother Dallin to Idaho for the weekend.

I was probably more jealous about this than anything else:

Landon got to meet our new(ish) nephew, Brigham! Brigham was born in January, but we were unable to make it down to Utah over the break, and neither of us had seen him in person yet. Landon gave him lots of love from both of us, though.

I also felt bad because, except for Walter and I, the entire Burgener Family was gathered.

I wish we could have completed this photo and spent that time with everyone! It's sad to miss out on memories like that. Hopefully we'll all be able to meet up this summer.

Meanwhile, in Seattle, Walt and I were trying to live it up. :) Well, you know, the best way a largely pregnant woman and an (almost) 3-year-old know how...attending ward parties, egg hunts, and hanging out with our friends! (Have I mentioned enough times how grateful I am for my friends here??)

On a whim, Saturday morning I took Walt to the mall and we visited the Easter Bunny. I've never taken him to see Santa or anything like that - I am too cheap to blow $40 on photos and I wasn't really sure if Walt would even like it. Plus, although I definitely went to see 1 or 2 mall characters in my childhood, it wasn't a huge tradition for us or anything like that. But, I was trying to make the weekend fun for us, so we did it anyway.

Apparently I am the worst mom ever because Walt LOVED it. He gave the bunny a big hug and kept patting his face and saying "hi!" He talked about it for the rest of the day. And the photographer was very nice about the fact that I didn't want to buy pictures, so it wasn't nearly as embarrassing as I thought it might be for me. They even emailed me the proofs, so at least I have these low-res memories of the event. :)

Landon got back late Monday night and we are SO happy to have him home. We're grateful for the knowledge that families are forever and happy that Landon could spend this time with his.