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.