Grandpa Bloomfield

My grandfather passed away back in January, about a week after Jon and I moved. My grandparents lived in New Mexico for all of my life and so I was thrilled when they moved down here a little over 2 years ago for my Grandfather's health. Grandpa was such a hard worker and insisted on helping move their stuff in. It was so wonderful to have them live just around the corner so I could go and visit them when ever I wanted. Melanie quickly became Grandpa's best buddy. Here he is trying to teach her to walk, insistent that she should be able to walk by 9 months. Grandpa was the only one that Melanie would just sit with. Here they are at a birthday party, just after we went swimming. Grandpa always shared whatever he had with Melanie, whether it was his ice cream or his glass of water. When he was in the hospital I told him that he had spoiled her and his response was: Nope, you did that yourself! Grandpa always wore suspenders - or spenders as we called them, and his flag ones were his favorite. And he always wore a Bolo tie to church. I don't think that I ever saw him in a regular tie, even at our wedding. All of the grandsons (even Jon) wore bolo ties at Grandpa's funeral to honor him. Here's the last picture that I got of him, enjoying Thanksgiving Dinner, sitting between his two girls. So it's been a little hard since he passed away; probably harder for me because I know how much the girls loved him and how much they have grown and changed since he's been gone. So, we drove up to New Mexico for the funeral when it was so cold and snowy everywhere. And I just couldn't believe that I forgot my camera. But now it has been 6 months and we took another quick trip back to New Mexico to set his headstone. It was a hot and sunny day and the kids all enjoyed running around and playing. Spencer really loved wandering around the cemetery. Grandpa really loved Spencer too. Even when Grandpa was in the hospital, all Grandpa had to do was look at Spencer and he would start laughing. Grandpa loved making him laugh!Here is a picture of my Mom, Aunt Raette (my mom's younger sister), Grandma, and Aunt Mae (my Grandpa's sister). It took forever (about 2 hours) to get the headstone in place, but it looked great when it was all finished. Grandma and Grandpa were sealed in the Mesa Temple when Grandma was 16 and Grandpa was 18. They rode in the back of a pick-up truck for 6-8 hours to get to the temple. They had just celebrated their 62nd anniversary right before Grandpa took a turn for the worse. Melanie was so glad to get to go and see where Grandpa Bloomfield was buried. I also got to find the headstones for both of my Mom's Grandparents while we were there. Here is Nina Maleta Bond & Alexander Finley Bloomfield. And here is Byron Nephi & Maud Cluff Farnsworth. The only one of my Great-Grandparents that I can remember was my Great-Grandma Farnsworth. She lived right next to the temple and my mom came down to live with her after high school. That is when she met my dad. I was 3 when Great-Grandma Farnsworth died and I can remember only a few things about her, so it makes me wonder what memories the girls will have of Grandpa Bloomfield. After setting the headstone we went over to my Grandparents' old home, the one that I remember them living in when I was little. My uncle and aunt live in it now, so we went there and had a BBQ for lunch. Savannah and Spencer both had a blast swinging in the tire swing out back. Grandpa made that swing a long time ago and we used to swing in it all the time when we visited them. Grandpa would push us so high in it! So that was really great to see Savannah having so much fun with something that I remember enjoying too. We headed out after lunch and we got an okay picture of Shiprock. This is the "rock" that we would always look for when we drove up to Grandma's house, then we knew that we were almost there. Seeing it always brings back memories of very long road trips! Grandpa, we miss you and can't wait to be with you again.

One more quick story: This past Easter I was trying to explain to the girls that we celebrate Easter to remember that Jesus died for us and was then resurrected. And because he was resurrected, we will be too. I told the girls that we would be resurrected when Jesus comes to the Earth again. Savannah then got really excited about Easter because she thought that Grandpa Bloomfield would be resurrected on Easter. It was so sweet of her to think that and a little difficult to try and explain that that was not quite what I meant.