Impromptu Oklahoma Trip

We received the saddest news last Sunday that Brian's grandmother Ruggles had passed away in her sleep that morning. I did not know Grandma Ruggles all that well, but what I did know, I LOVED! My biggest memory of Grandma was when Brian and I got engaged and set a date for the wedding Grandma Ruggles instantly booked a flight and arranged for someone to help her with transferring flights. This was no small feat as she had recently had some health problems and if I remember correctly Grandpa was still in the hospital recovering from some health issue! Everyone was mad at her and worried, but Grandma would NOT miss a grandchild's wedding!! It really made me feel loved and wanted in the Ruggles' family! (which is the norm in the Ruggles family) She was such a sweet, beautiful woman! I love to look at the old pictures they have of Grandma and Grandpa Ruggles - they are both so amazingly good looking, and you can see where all of the Ruggles' traits come from when looking at them. It is a pretty good looking family, you have to admit!! 

So after Brian received the news we spent some time contemplating sending him by himself for the funeral by plane because he desperately wanted to go to be with family for support. It was so expensive we were having trouble coming to terms with the loss of income plus the expense of the ticket. Brian's cousin Natalie called to see if he wanted to drive down with her. We jumped on that idea and soon realized that if he was going to be driving we might as well all go! Monday I packed everything up, Brian came home from work, and we drove down to Provo to meet up with the caravan to drive to Oklahoma. With us was Natalie and her husband Wes, Brian's brothers Tim and Tracy, and his cousin Chris and his wife Colleen! 3 cars in all! We drove straight through the night which was new for us. The girls did well.  

What luck we had to miss a tornado that went through Denver just 2 hours before we drove through and stopped for gas. It was quite eery driving through the town with trees down, lots of fog, and hail piled up; it was noticeable that something had happened even though at the time we didn't know quite what. I thought maybe zombies! I'm sure Chris would disagree with the luck of missing it; he wants to be a tornado chaser! 

The funeral was lovely! It was so nice knowing that Grandma was now at peace and in a better place! I'm sure she would be happy to know that almost everyone was there, all of her children, all but 3 grandchildren (19 in all), and all 19 great grandchildren. I hope I'm not forgetting someone. Brian's brother Adam was one that was missing; he is on his mission. 

It was wonderful to see everyone! It is a giant group! We got to stay at Brian's cousin Rachel's house with all of the little girl cousins and second cousins at that house! The girls had so much fun! I am an awful awful person because I did not take pictures, but there are pictures on facebook and I will be attempting to get copies to post here sometime soon. The girls were absolutely in love! 

We picnicked at Osage Hills, hung out at Grandpa's house playing, and went to the Tulsa Zoo. I had so much fun getting together with my sis-in-laws who all live far far away from me and my Utah-ness! 

We left straight from the Zoo to head back to UT. We were lucky enough to stop in Colorado Springs and stay with Brian's Uncle Steve and Aunt Marcia for the night. We got some great Gelatto out of that too!! Even with the stop though, the driving back to UT was awful in comparison with the trip out. Gwen just wanted "OUT!" as she kept yelling from the back seat. We were all just TIRED of being in that car! I have told Brian now that 18-19 hours of driving is TOO long! We won't be doing that drive again anytime soon! 

Even though it was such a sad reason to get together we are so glad that we went and were able to enjoy being with all of that family! It was a lot of fun! The girls keep asking when the cousins are going to come visit us now!