Last Wednesday I headed to Washington for my Grandpa's funeral. What a great weekend we had! The funeral was wonderful and everybody did such a great job with all the details. I have so much fun with my immediate family AND my extended family so I knew there would be lots to share on the blog! I'll try and keep this update somewhat short (ha ha ha, I crack myself up!)so I don't bore you all with the tiny details, but if you ever make it to Pasco, WA you have to stop at the Country Mercantile fruit stand/chocolate factory. They make AWESOME truffles! Darren and I liked them so much we got some on the way up to Quincy and got some more on the way back to Utah! Oh...the bumpy raspberry ones were sooo dreamy!!! Anyway, focus!
The funeral was in Quincy Washington, which is a small farming community in the middle of the state. Clearly I have not lived in Washington for awhile because I forgot the number one item you must pack when heading to the great Northwest....an Umbrella!! DUH! So, on Thursday morning the first thing I did was buy an umbrella. Darren thought my dad and I were wussey (sp?) but I have a hard enough time keeping the afro tamed!
While my mom was planning the rest of the funeral with her siblings, Darren, Dad, and I headed north to do some explorin' on Thursday. As a child, I can only remember the small house of my grandparents and not much else. I learned that there is a whole side of central Washington that I wished I would have explored sooner! Check out the BEAUTIFUL scenery!
The nice thing about exploring is that we didn't have any agenda. We just drove until something looked cool and then we stopped. It was also fun being with Darren because he's the photographer-man and it's amazing how quickly he can spot something that would make a great photo. Oh yeah, he also knows a lot about birds so every time dad would see a bird he would yell "BIRD" and Darren would quickly identify it! We saw several bald eagles and lots and lots of ravens (what IS the difference between a raven and a crow??).
As we were driving along the road we saw a sign for some caves. All three of us yelled at the same time "CAVES!!!" and Darren pulled over. We hiked up a cliff and found the caves. They were more like an indentation into the cliff, but it was still fun. Check out how high we were, that is my van in the lower right corner and that is Darren just starting to make the climb.
Here is Darren in the "cave".
Then we drove until we found signs to "Dry Falls". During the ice age, this area had the biggest water falls in the world. It was amazing and majestic looking!
Many of you know about my dad's fear of height. Well, this picture doesn't do it justice, but this little walkway was suspended above a HUGE dropoff! I was quite proud of Carl to let me take this picture.
We also found some cool water falls, but Darren took some "real" pictures of those so I'll wait until he posts them on his blog because he'll put my "point and click" shots to shame!!
We ended up at Grand Coulee Dam. We arrived and Darren told me this joke:
What did the fish say when he hit a cement wall? "Dam"
What did the Dam say? "Dumb Bass"
Ha Ha Ha! Here is Darren in front of the Dam, he was so dam excited!!
Friday was the funeral. I was slightly freaked out when I heard that my uncles used my grandpa's cattle brand to "brand" the casket, but it actually turned out quite nice. My mom would probably know more about the brand than I would, but my grandpa's name is Phil Bell so his brand is a "lazy P with a B" Seriously, I have no idea about brand terminology, so feel free to help me out on this one mom!
Here is a shot of everybody who came to the funeral that was related to Grandpa. We look like we enjoy laughing and being together, don't we? Well, laugh we did!
After the funeral we headed back to my grandparents house and just hung out. It was so much fun, a highlight of the trip! We all took turns having a joy ride on the old John Deere tractor. I seriously didn't want to drive the tractor but Cody MADE ME and I'm glad he did because that is one of the hardest laughing fits I had the whole trip.
Right across the street from my grandparents house is the Quincy Airport. I'm thinking it's mostly used for crop duster planes because it is tiny! Let me put it this way, Darren and I climbed over the fence and walked on the runway and nobody arrested us!
My Uncle Paul has a two seater plane that he was giving rides in. I have ridden with Paul before and I'm queazy even talking about it so I didn't take a ride this time. That tractor ride was enough for me!
My mom and her siblings all had a big meeting to discuss the details of my grandparents farm, so the rest of us decided to play "I've never". Darren said "I've never been to a cat funeral". Who do you think had to put a finger down?? It was one of our Bell trademark cackle-laugh moments!!
As we drove away that afternoon, I realized that I would probably never go back to that house in Quincy again...heck, I'd probably never go back to Quincy at all! My grandparents have lived in that house since 1958 and raised 8 children there!
Here is my nostalgic black and white photo...
Overall we had such a fabulous time. Some quick memories of the trip: Getting sick on truffles, having the "cha cha cha's" so bad and everyone laughing about it, sharing a hotel room with Darren and falling to sleep while he was explaining "Lost" to me, playing Dominoes, going to the excellent Calzone place two nights in a row, Darren making fun of all my toiletries when he only brought a toothbrush, listening to Quinn talk with a British accent, watching Quinn run across the cemetary to catch the train, the irreverant stories my Uncle Paul told of Grandpa at the funeral, my mom dropping her cell phone into the toilet, Robin almost throwing Amanda and I off the tractor because she popped the clutch too fast, taste testing all the different funeral potatoes to determine the best recipe, and finally, I learned how my dad proposed to my mom...something about a grand piano??
Lastly, here is a sweet shot of Darren at a rest stop on the way home:
