Miles had his first orchestra concert.
It was all simple stuff that he figured out a long time ago. TMS has new directors this year, but I was glad to see that they kept the tradition of the beginners doing the "This is so easy we can play it lying down" thing.
Miles has already learned a lot in just a few months, I'm excited to see how good he gets in the next few years.
The day after the funeral I went with Alex's family to do some activities around Provo. We started off by hiking the Y.
They were all troopers and made it to the top without much trouble.
The plan was to go from there to one of the ski resorts and take a tram to the top to see some snow. We weren't sure about timing and were about to try when we got a text from Eric who went there first and said it was closed. That saved us a wasted trip, so instead we basically did the same thing I did during my last visit to Provo.
We had lunch at Creamery on the 9th, then I took them on a tour of BYU.
They hadn't been before, and they endured my tour a lot better than my kids did a few months ago. We saw almost all the buildings on the upper campus.
We still had some time afterwards, so we drove to Sandy so Niya could see her mom's grave.
It was a fun day and I enjoyed getting to know Alex's younger kids better.
That night those of us still staying with Marisa decided to go out to eat together. We let Marisa decide where to eat, and of course, she picked the same Brazilian place we went to last time. I got a pizza this time, and it was really good, too.
While we were on our London trip, I started getting news that mom wasn't doing well. They kept saying she would probably die within the next few hours, but she didn't pass until several days later. I bought plane tickets while I was there, and flew to Utah six days after we got back. We had already taken the kids out of two days of school for the trip and they weren't that close to her anyway, so I went alone.
I flew in on Sunday (on the same flight as some of Dan's kids) and stayed at Marisa's house in Orem. Most everyone had already arrived because the viewing was that night.
Lisa, who planned most of it, wasn't sure how much we should do because she wasn't sure how many people would come. As it turned out, pretty much the whole immediate family came with their families, plus lots of extended family and other family friends who were close by in Utah. It was good to see so many people that I hadn't seen for years.
My mom looked good. They said she didn't eat much at the end and wasted away a little bit, but they did a good job getting her looking good for the viewing, which I know she would appreciate.
I rode with Eric and Karen back to Marisa's house. Heather, Eric, Warren, Alex, and I were all staying there and it was fun to spend time together.
The funeral was Monday morning in Bountiful. Lots of people showed up again and filled the funeral chapel. There was a photo montage that Warren prepared, and lots of music. In addition to some congregational hymns, Eric, Russell, Dan, Warren, and I sang Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy while Jason accompanied, and the grandchildren sang I Am a Child of God.
My mom's sisters all said a few words. Kim and Kay went up together, and Judy also spoke. Most of my siblings didn't want to speak, so Heather and I both spoke on our memories of mom. I wasn't sure if I would be able to talk while crying, but I got through it and it was well received.
After the funeral we drove to the cemetery for the graveside service. Russell dedicated the grave, and all the sons were the pall bearers.
We took a lot of pictures. This may be the last time all eight of us are together for a long time.
Afterwards we drove back to Orem, where Marisa hosted a lunch.
It was a big crowd for several hours as people reconnected.
It was a sad couple of days, but I'm glad my mom is back together with my dad. Her quality of life the last few years was not great. She lived in a pretty good facility, but it was nearly impossible to communicate via phone or video chat, the dementia meant she didn't remember people even if they visited, and her physical impairments meant she couldn't even do her favorite things like play piano or crochet.
It's been a long, slow decline, so I was more prepared for this than my dad's death, but it's never easy. She was a good mom and I'll miss her, weird quirks and all.
We had such a fun time last year that we decided to do the Zombie Run again this year.
The weather was much better this year, but there's still something about this race that makes it seem harder than a normal 5K. It's probably the zombies. I timed myself this time and got 28:40, which was good enough for a 3rd place medal in the men's group. Carmen got a cramp, but wasn't far behind and got 2nd in the women's group.
On Monday morning we got up very early and trudged to London Bridge station one last time.
Then we did one last transfer to get on the Elizabeth line to Heathrow.
I had read that it is possible to get money back from the Oyster transit cards if it is below a certain amount. We tried to do it at the kiosks without success, but the kids' cards had only £0.10 left and the adult cards £3.75, so it turned out ok.
We actually arrived too early to find our gate, so we waited at a random gate until ours was assigned, then boarded without issue.
It was a 10-hour flight back. They served a full English breakfast, then we watched a lot of movies to pass the time. After we landed, we took the shuttle back to our van and drove home. We were exhausted, but Pepper was happy to see us.
The poor kids had school the next day, so we all went to bed early.
Sunday was our last full day in London. We slept in, then walked a little over a mile to the nearest church building for church. It was a really interesting ward. Most of the members were immigrants, mainly from Africa but also Europe and South America. We met some very nice people.
We walked back home and had beans on toast for lunch.
We'd pretty much seen everything we wanted to see, so I convinced the kids to walk with me to the nearby ruins of the Roman Wall we'd missed on previous days. We walked the now familiar path over the Tower Bridge and past the Tower of London.
Just north of there is the remnant of the original wall built around the Roman city Londinium around 200 AD.
There is another section that can be found by going around some buildings into another courtyard.
The kids were done, so we walked back to the apartment, then Amber and I went on a walk towards Westminster.
We found our favorite souvenir stand again (open this time).
The we walked around the backside of the Palace of Westminster and through the gardens there.
On our way back we turned off on a posh-looking street and ended up finding a cool neighborhood that wound around the backside of Westminster Abbey.
We took one last look at Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, then headed back and got pizza from Sainsbury's for dinner.
