Funeral for Grandma Lee

Family at Grandma Lee's Funeral..

Top row: Her brother's two children Steve and Sharon, Doug and Mark: Her sister Floydene's son, My dad, Susan: Jolinda's daughter, Fred and Bobby: Son and Grandson.

Front row: Sean, Ryan, Scott, Carrie, Cade, Sydney, Mom: Daughter, Kyle, Jolinda: Sister, Janet, CeCe.

After the funeral we went to Southern California for her burial at Rose Hills Cemetery in Whittier, CA...but we stayed with my mom's cousin in Laguna Beach.  This is the view from our room!

And in the morning when we woke up, there was lots of Marine Layer fog!  Kyle sat up in bed, and exclaims, "Mom! Look, the water melted!"

So before the funeral, we headed out to visit Victoria Cove, of course!

Several of us were not so smart and didn't bring flip flops!  And I didn't want to get our real shoes sandy and wet, so we went bare feet...which is PAINFULL!

...Kyle loves to give me flowers for my hairs!

Awww...giving my feet a rest in the tide pools!

Cade loved the sand!

And this is where we almost lost my parents...searching for starfish!  Seriously crazy...my mom was hanging on for dear life...and later, my dad did the same thing...without an arm to hang on to!  Needless to say, we were all yelling at him to get up! 

So the story is....when my mom was a girl, she'd love to look at the starfish....and there were tons!  BUT...she would bring them up to her Grandpa's house and they would die...so for years we didn't see them anymore...so now my mom is so happy to see the starfish are coming back!

She still loves to pull them off and see them, but now she puts them back on to the rocks!

The kids all loved to touch and look at them! 

The gang, missing Mike in Laguna!

Gorgeous!

We love anemones!

But Cade's not as sure about touching them!

My dad saved my feet!  Mom and dad gave us silly shoeless people rides to the soft sand.

Later that day we were able to meet together as a family at Grandma's Burial.

Youngest to oldest, My mom and her two brothers Craig and Fred.

 At the funeral, Cece mentioned she LOVED looking at grandma's music boxes. ..which was one of Grandma's favorite things...and Cece specifically remembered Mrs. Potts!  Well we had several for her to choose from, including Mrs. Potts, so Mom, Syd and I got all excited!  But we forgot after the service to go get it...in fact I think it was at the Masonic Home and they left directly from the funeral.  So we brought it to the cemetery and my mom surprised her with it after it was finished!  It was a very sweet moment.

Then after Grandma's funeral, we went to another section of the cemetery to look for my dad's best friend growing up, who died when I was about 1 1/2.  This is the last picture they have of him...

Cade was so cute...he really wanted to hold my hand and walk...which we did for a while since we had a hard time finding Terry.

But we found him...and my dad was so happy...He's lost a few great friends in his life...and luckily I keep supplying him with more boys and men to be friends with...someday they will all reunite!

Then my parents came back to my house for a few days before they headed home.

So we had a fun afternoon on our hill!

Wonderful memories!

Remembering Grandma Lee

My Grandma Lee, "Lola Lenore Bull Allen" passed away Dec. 26th, 2011.

 We love her and will miss her, but are happy for her to be with my Grandpa Rol and her parents!

Gorgeous picture of her!

I am guessing late 1977 or early 1978. Grandma and me!

1983 or so...My mom and Grandma on the couch...my mom's two brothers kneeling down and my dad standing in the back.  Hilarious that all three guys have facial hair!  My dad had a mustache for years, but not always the beard.

4 Generations!  Me and baby Syd, mom, Grandma Lee and Great Grandma Lilly!

Grandma Lee and Grandpa Rol when they first went to the Temple together!

The Bull sisters! Grandma was the oldest of the 4 sisters and took care of them for much of her growing up years when their mother worked to make airplane parts during World War II.

What great sisters!

During the 80s, my sister and I performed in a group called, "KIDS R MUSIC!"  We had many performances a year...with different shows for different times during the year!  Both sets of Grandparents and Aunt Gina and Aunt Tracy came to our shows all the time!  

Grandma and Me...there's a much better picture of this if I recall correctly.

Grandma and Grandpa -1970s

My favorite!  Grandma and Grandpa 1999 at my Wedding!

Aunt Jo, Grandma and me!

Me with my Grandma's!  LOVE LOVE LOVE them!

Mom and Grandma, 2001

Some favorite memories of Grandma Lee:

• When we were younger, she would play records and dance around...with a little la da da in her voice.
• She took us to Oak Glen during the Fall...I remember riding in the back of her car on a road that was hilly like a roller coaster...and I remember following the painted bear footprints somewhere there...even though we were there for apple stuff, I remember some taxidermy bears and the painted bear footprints.
• A few trips to Solvang.
• Her cooking...always yummy food, but especially the sauteed yams...in a sweet sauce that made everything taste like candy!
• She was such a hard worker...working several jobs at a time to support her three children in a day when divorce was rare...she worked from age 10, taking care of relatives and sisters.
• She loved to dance, taught ballroom dancing when she was younger...
• An excellent seamstress!  Made my mom gorgeous formals!
• {How did she have time to become an excellent seamstress, cook, dancer and tend her sisters and work so much?  What a renaissance woman!}
• Coming to all our shows!  There were lots!
• Teaching us manners...napkins on laps.
• Taking us out to eat...and getting dessert!
• Her regular Friday night group date with Grandpa and their Las Vegas friends to In-n-Out...Scott and I got to tag along a few times.
• Seeing her dressed in white with other family the first time I went to the Temple.
• Flocked Christmas trees.
• Bouncing Ryan on her knee the first time she met him when he was 6 months old.

It brings me so much happiness to know she can once again dance and talk and be with her loved ones!

 Sean with Grandmas 2007

Kyle with Grandma Lee ~ Christmas 2008

 *Our last visit with Grandma Lee was sweet.  We sang some Church songs and Christmas songs to her.  The older boys knew they probably wouldn't see her again.  But as I sat with Cade on the edge of her bed, he shimmied up onto her bed, and pretty much on her lap and laid across her for a while.  It was very cute.  She wasn't moving around and he wasn't nervous about her, in fact, he looked up at her face and smiled and was being very cute.

Love you Grandma!

Merry Christmas to all of the NIGHT!

And a Merry Christmas it was! We got to spend time with Scott's brother and his family and his sister and her family and the parentals.  It was a fun few days!  First we all went to see lights...Dovewood style!

A new display this year...Christmas Football!

Cousins and lights!!!

The M and M brothers kids.

Christmas EVE

Granny and the Great grandkids who were there...bummer that Bryce and Alyssa had left!  Oops.

Ryan just LOVED holding baby Reagan!  Every chance he could!

Scott adoring a little girl! And Cade was finally ok with one of his parents holding another baby!

Grandma making snowman ornaments with the kiddos.

Kyle started making a really funny face...and kept doing it over and over again on demand!

Sean as Joseph....who is apparently 90 years old~

Grandma Narrating Luke 2 for the kid Nativity.

Georgia as our Angel!

The cute cousin Nativity...sans Camryn ~ Erica stepped in as Mary for her.

Cade loving his multi passes.

Happy Reagan!

Christmas Day!

This baby looks how I felt!  Took him a while to wake up that morning!  He was eating stocking candy half asleep...even though we made the kids wait until 7:10...after they started coming into our room at 4:30!  

NO JOKE!

Then 6:30...at which point Scott set his alarm on his phone and told them they could come get us when it went off!  Thanks babe!

{We won't talk about what time we went to sleep!}

Kyle enjoying all the PEZ his brothers didn't want!

Ryan and Sean with their Christmas golf clubs! Whoa...big time!

Kyle and his cute gift bag he decorated for us at preschool!

We discovered Christmas morning ... Scott and I had matching gift tags...in different languages!

More lights!  This is a fun house Grandma and Grandpa discovered this year in Granite Bay!

Disney characters GALORE!  Almost every one...at ONE HUGE house!

Cade loves the Martinelli's!

Later we got to watch the New York City Ballet Nutcracker on TV!  

We all loved it!

As Kyle would say, "Merry Christmas to all of the night!"