Funeral....

My Grandpa Zentner passed away Sept. 21, and the funeral was that next weekend Sept. 26. We went to Missoula, Montana, to the funeral. My grandpa had been fighting kidney failure for almost 2 yrs. He had been quite miserable for a while. We knew it was coming, but it is still sad. I'm not a crier, but when I got up there it was much harder than I thought. We traveled all day on Friday and went to the viewing Friday night. Me, my sister, and my brother were in charge of music. It is so hard to sing when you look out there and everyone is crying. Everyone did really good amazingly enough. I was doing pretty good the night of the viewing until Kiersten asked if she could give grandpa a hug and kiss. I lost it and the tears started flowing. I worried that my kids would be scared at the viewing, but they really enjoyed saying goodbye to grandpa. They touched his hands, gave him a kiss on the check, and asked a lot of questions. Kiersten wondered if she would be in a box and look like grandpa when she dies. It was cute. The funeral was beautiful too. My grandma was so worried that no one would be there. They have lived in Missoula their whole married life. I kept telling her that there would be lots of people. Sure enough, the chapel was full and they had to open the overflow. They did a military salute at the graveside. That was really neat, and for me persoanlly, very hard. He was a very loved man. He was a great husband, dad, grandpa, and friend. All of us knew that grandpa loved us. He would help anyone at anytime. He (and my grandma) are the most giving people. He will be truly missed. I was very glad that I was able to be there with grandma and the rest of my family. All of my cousins were there.

Everytime we go to Missoula, we go down to the carousel. The kids think it is great fun and there is a neat park there. After the funeral, we headed down to the park so the kids could get some energy out. They ran for hours, and then we went to a family get together. We don't always have time to see the extended family much, so it was fun to see everyone. The boys and my cousin Amy got a big football game going. It was quite funny to watch. It was all a great and very memorable trip.

My baby is 5!!!!!

Kiersten turned 5 on September 20. I can't believe that my baby is "5". She was our surprise child. She is so funny, talented, smart, loving, flexible, and friendly. Sports, school, friends all come very easy for her. On the other hand, she is the one giving me all my gray hairs. She is by far my most difficult child. BUT, of course, we love her none the less. We had a good weekend with the family. On saturday, we went to Classic Skating with our family, cousins, grandma and grandpa. The kids love to rollerblade, and are actually getting really good. She loves it and had a great time with her cousins. We then had a great BBQ with Kiersten's favorite food. Her favorites were BBQ ribs, potatoes, watermelon, plain Lays potato chips, carrots with ranch, and a chocolate Hannah Montana cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream. She loves Hannah Montana. She knows all the songs from the Hannah Montana movie. It's fun to have girls love music. We gave her a Barbie scooter to match her pink Barbie bike she got for her birthday. She is all about pink. She is such a girl and we love her!

Cheerleading.....

Some of the high schools here have a cheer clinic done by their cheerleaders. They teach the girls some cheers and a dance. My girls wanted to do it with their friends really bad. So we let them. They had so much fun with the cheerleaders and their friends, Gracie and Marissa. They then perform at the high school's football game. It is a fun opportunity to see a glimpse into cheerleading. Witnee isn't in to sports (ie soccer, etc.). She is all about gymnastics, cheerleading, and dancing. Kiersten loves gymnastics, cheerleading, and dancing also, but she enjoys sports too. They did really good and had a great time! It was fun to watch them.