Visiting Grandma Lola

This weekend we, along with all my family (except my sister who is about to pop!), went up to Montana to visit my grandma. She had a scare a few weeks back that put her into the ICU. She has been fighting hard and is doing so much better than anticipated and is now in a nursing home going through physical therapy and trying to get her strength back up. The last time we went up was last year, and I wanted to get up there to see her again. When your grandparents are 95, you never know how long you have them for, so any opportunity I have I want to take it.

We drove up Friday afternoon after lunch. We got into Missoula about 5:15 and met up with with my brother Nathan and his family at Costco. We picked up a few things for the weekend and headed up to my grandma's. My cousins came up and we had some good times chatting and singing around the guitars! My parents got in around 11:30pm and my brother Cameron and his wife got in around 2:30am.

We woke up the next morning and headed to the nursing home to visit my grandma. One little fact about me: I do not do well in nursing homes/hospitals. I walked in the door and got ready to sign in to the visitor list and I lost it. Total breakdown, tears included. It took me a few minutes together and then we were off to her room, where I almost lost it again, but I held it together. She was surprised to see us and was happy as could be.

The rest of my siblings joined us a few minutes later and they transferred us to a community room so we could visit. We had a great time. My dad even pulled out his piano skills to play with the kids and we took a few little family pictures with grandma.

She started to get a little bit sleepy, so we took her back to her room and let her take a nap. We all left and headed to get some lunch. After lunch we headed to the famous Missoula carousel. I swear that thing is so much longer and faster than it used to be! Although, it's probably not best to go on a carousel right after a big lunch! The kids rode it so many times we lost count. 

We headed back to the house to help clean up a bit. The guys worked outside in the garden and in the yard, while the girls cleaned up inside doing the kitchen, living room and bathrooms. It looked so good! I'm pretty sure it hasn't been that clean in years (but I have to give my grandma some slack, she is 95). All the family in the area came to the house for dinner and had a great time visiting again.

Sunday morning after conference, we headed back down to visit grandma. She had just woken up and was looking great. We took her to a different room with lots of windows and a view of the river. She seemed so happy to have a window to look out. She just smiled as she watched. Some of the cousins came as well. We visited with her for a while but she started getting tired. My parents, Ethan and I took her back to her room and got her in bed. We said goodbyes and with tears streaming down my face I walked out the door. 

I'm so glad I had this chance to go and see her again. I love her so much and am grateful for all of the wonderful people that have been helping her.