Jacobsen Journals: California Day 2 Part 1

We love you Grandma Enid!! We will never forget the heritage you left us!

(Pic taken in April 2010 when we visited Grandma in Utah - watch for jounral entry about this trip)

Dec. 2, 2010 - Today was the whole reason we went to California. We drove from our motel in Anaheim to Burbank to meet the rest of Andy's family for Grandma Enid's funeral. It was fun to get to show the kids where Grandma spent the majority of her life. It is so very different from the slow paced life in Wyoming. The kids were very excited to get to be back together with their cousins Isaiah and Iyanna (Andy's cousin's children). The church building was a very interesting building. It was not a "church" plan. They bought the building from someone and renovated it to be a church. The kids enjoyed exploring the building when we returned from the cemetary for the family dinner.

The viewing before the funeral was very nice. It was another chance for us to teach our children about Heavenly Father's plan. We were able to talk again about how it was only Grandma's body and that her spirit was in heaven now and would come back together again after the 2nd resurrection. It seemed to be an easier discussion with them when it was a wonderful woman who had lived a very full life of 96 years. It was not so much of a sad day as it was a happy day of remembering the wonderful legacy she left us. (This in comparison to the funeral we missed at home the same day of a sweet 4 year old girl in our ward.) It was nice to let the children have the finality of saying good-bye to Grandma. The funeral service was beautiful - full of music that I am sure Grandma was singing and humming right along with. What talented people Grandma had as friends! (Too bad I had to sit in the foyer with Ashlee for most of the services but I could hear everything at least.) After the dedication of the grave at the cemetary, we returned back to the church for a delicious meal provided by Grandma's ward. It was so fun to meet the people called her friends. They were so kind and gracious and patient with us. It was really the only place we could all go and be together so we were there for quite awhile and not once did they act impatient. We finally had to say our parting good-byes and we all went our separate ways. Well, a few of us did go to the Los Angeles temple after making a brief stop to show the kids where Grandma's condo was (which they were not so impressed with - they thought "nice. we can't even go in so what is the big dea.") We followed Clark and Juleen to the Los Angeles temple and visitor's center. Oh my!! What a wonderful thing to get to experience. The grounds were decorated so beautiful for Christmas!! The lights were just incredible. Our pictures just don't do it justice. We spent a few hours on the grounds and in the visitor's center and then decided we should head back to Anaheim. (We thought we would have missed rush hour traffic, but we came to the conclusion that there is always rush hour traffic in LA, even at 5:00 in the morning). Going to the temple grounds was the perfect ending to the day. A great reminder that this is where families are sealed together forever. I hope and pray that my children will continue to build their testimonies of their Savior Jesus Christ and understand the importance of forever families and one day be able to be sealed to their best friend for time and all eternity.

All of the family that made the trip.