A Closing Generation

August 20, 2009 we left Great Falls and spent the night in Idaho Falls at my Aunt LaDene's house. We woke up early to head to Preston, Idaho for my grandma Chatterton's funeral on

August 21, 2009

12:00 noon

She was 93 years old and will be sorely missed.

Her funeral was lovely and I was amazed at the memories of her and what a unique wonderful woman everyone remembered her to be.

She was such a character and I am so grateful that she was my grandma.

She had this uncanny ability to know all her children, their children and their children's children

She knew what everyone was up to and truly made each one of them feel so important.

"grandma Dean" with Mara.

There were 16 pallbearers-- All of her grandsons.

And 9 honorary pallbearers, her sons and son-in-laws

All still living. In fact of all of her 9 children and their spouses and her 43 grandchildren, and her 124 great grandchildren and 24 great-great grandchildren, only one of them has preceded her in death. That is amazing! She had many other trials, and I am truly in awe at what life circumstances she dealt with and lived through.

Charlie, Ian, Mike, Matthew, Brandon

Max, Camden, Caleb, Spencer

All of my family was able to be there. Behind us is the farm where my mother grew up.

The cemetery sits at the bottom of the hill that leads up to my grandparents farm.

As kids we used to play in the cemetery-does that explain any of my personality. It was a beautiful day, and I know it is just where my grandma would like to rest.

Trying to explain to Mara...

It saddens me that she will not know this amazing woman who is so strong.

At the funeral, my cousin commented on how even though he was a Thomson, all his sisters were "Chatterton" women. Chatterton women are tough. It is obvious by the strong women that come from my mom and her sisters. We all carry traits from the strong grandmother that we have.

I am so sad Mara will not know her laugh and her quick whit and her ability to work work work.

But I am certain that Mara will be like her, it's just the way it is.

Mara and Emma are already strong willed and determined little souls and I know that comes from generations of strong women who preceded us.

In loving memory.

I will miss how she really cared

I will miss how she could throw together a huge meal at the drop of a hat. Her pantry was always full and her creativity at meal time was amazing.

I will miss how butter tasted at her house

I will miss the "cub river diet" which included a jar of mayo, a cube of butter and a "salt lick"

I will miss green apples with salt and soda

I will miss her yelling at us to "shut the door...there are flies"

I will miss her warning us to not jump off the porch-we did it anyway!

I will miss how she could out shop all the girls at the girls party.

I will miss how she was the last to go to sleep and the first to wake.

I will miss her!

My grandparents grave marker.

My cousin Darin from Seattle. It took Emma a while to warm up to him, but eventually she let him hold her.

After we ate at the church...Thanks to the relief society for the huge amounts of food it took to feed all our clan. Emma sure enjoyed the cake as you can see.

We went to Idaho Falls to stay the night and swim at the hotel. We left early Saturday morning to drive the rest of the 5 hours home.

It was so much traveling in the car, but we listened to "Dragon Rider" on CD and the kids made anklets out of embroidery floss the whole time.

Just outside Butte, Ryan all of a sudden yells...That guys naked.

Sure enough on the south bound side of the road was a man completely naked...not even shoes standing on the side of the road. Thankfully he had his back turned to us.

We laughed and laughed...Who does that? I am pretty sure my grandma would have gotten quite a chuckle out of that one also.

Needless to say that was every ones high for the day! and low.

(Ryan wanted me to mention in lue of the last post,

that he was not the naked man on the side of the road.)