Father's Day and birthdays...on the run

With Kay Lynn's passing some things have been preempted.  We had planned a family picnic this Friday evening for Paul (Father's Day) and for Derek, Moss and my birthdays...but instead we will be doing what's most important right now and that's supporting Jim and his family.  Paul did have somewhat of a celebration and got some phone calls and visits from the kids on Sunday along with new derailers for his bike and a dinner gift card from the kids. We had a special dinner and dessert for him and he and I went birthday shopping and ordered what he wanted...its coming.  

Last night we took presents to Derek and Moss.  I'm not sure what's happening for my birthday.  Last year I missed the party we had for all of us because Grandma Kurtz went into the hospital that day!  Seems to be a bad time of year lately.

Moss was home and we spent a little bit of time with their cute little family and he opened his present.

Derek was out on a date, so we dropped his by and he opened it and sent me his regular finger in the nose picture this morning along with his thanks! We did have fun with the kids.  They were at home when we dropped the gift by.  We took them out for ice cream and had some nice chat time with them.

So, that may just be it for this year.  Life happens and you just go with it. I will have to get a picture of Paul when his present comes.  

Here's my birthday picture for the year!  Happy #63!

Sadness amidst the sunshine - Kay Lynn goes home

Life is good for the most part, but sadness is also a part of the good and it came to the family as James and his family said goodbye to Kay Lynn.  Here is her obituary and some other reflections and pictures.

Sheryl Wardell

June 18 at 10:19 AM

ved her family it was Kaylynn Lillywhite. She cherished them every waking minute of her life! I know she will continue to watch over them until they meet her again in eternity. Her children and grandchildren were her greatest joy and her greatest achievement. She was a dear friend and a role-model to me as a wonderful, loving mom. I will miss you Kay. My love to you James, Adam-and Kristy Powell, Valerie Corder and Bradley.

 Bonnie Lillywhite shared a post.

June 18 at 12:28 PM · 

Praying peace and comfort come to James and family at this hard time. Kay and Jim tended our then 5 kids for us the first time we ever “got away”. They were newlyweds then! We were so grateful to them. Kay was always such a baby lover. Her grand babies are surely going to miss her TLC ...along with everyone else.

Valerie Corder is with Adam-and Kristy Powell and 2 others.

June 18 at 3:15 PM · 

This is the last group of family pictures we had done. Our photographer captured this gem and I remember mom laughing and saying "well that seems right..." I love the way mom supported me even when my ideas were a little off or a tad crazy. I am so glad I always pushed for pictures even when not everyone felt well.

Adam-and Kristy Powell

June 9 at 11:58 AM · 

I don’t normally post sucky stuff on Facebook, put this picture made me smile in the midst of the suck and I thought I’d share and update those who might like to know.
Back in August mom started having a lot of severe pain in her lower abdomen. She got an ultrasound and found a tiny tumor that they thought was a fibroid tumor in her uterus/cervix. We went to a gyno who told us it was nothing to worry about and that he couldn’t do anything for her. 4 months of ER visits every other week and no answers and multiple specialists later, I sent her to my gyno who delivered 4/5 of my kids. He is the one who discovered that the “fibroid” tumor was not that, but actually had been cancer the whole time, we learned this the day after Christmas. In January she started chemo, but it took until February to get her pain under control where she could semi function. When they did her PET scan in January to find the extent, we discovered that it had spread through her lymph nodes. So she started chemo right away. She has struggled with the chemo as everyone does, and we have spent a lot of time in and out of the hospital and she’s had to have 3 or 4 blood transfusions. In April, we got her mid-treatment scan and we were excited and hopeful to find that the cancer had almost completely disappeared from her lymph nodes and shrunk in her cervix from 11mm to 5mm! She was happy but still continued to be super sick and we ended up in the ER again a week later where they found small cancer lesions in her back. The Oncologist wasn’t super worried as we were having such great success in the other areas of the body and it was very tiny. She’s had a few times where she became very confused, and remembered very few people and where she was and was very scared but seemed to bounce back quickly in the hospital with fluids. About 2 weeks after the back lesions were found we were back in the ER, we held off on her last round of Chemo to try and let her build up her strength again, but she wasn’t bouncing back. We took her in and they finally did a CT scan of her brain where they found tiny lesions down both sides, on the top and in the back. Super suck! She was happy and hopeful and in a fighting mood after that and talking to the Radiation Dr, he told her how tiny they were and that they might be able to at least get them out of her brain. That was about two weeks ago, and as of yesterday’s appointments, we will no longer be pursuing treatments. Mom has stopped eating, drinking, can no longer stand or sit up on her own, take her pills other than tiny ones, or have much of a conversation. The Doctors told us yesterday that at this point there is not much else they can do other than keep her comfortable for the next few weeks maybe months she has left so we brought her home on hospice. She has been completely out of it for about a week and I have mostly been keeping my kids away with Adam. However, today, I was missing baby Jax a lot so I had Adam bring him over. Mom’s reaction was the most reaction we have had from her in weeks. She lit up like a Christmas tree and wanted to hold and hug him. She couldn’t tell me who he was, but she was so happy to have him with her. That is who my mom is, and anyone who knows her can attest that she adores her babies, and everyone else’s for that matter. Even at the end, she’s still the same old mom.

  We were able to attend Kay's funeral. It was so nice.  Kristy had found some wonderful things Kay's mom had written about her and shared them as part of her Eulogy along with her own thoughts.  It was very personal and well done.  She also put the program together and did so much to make it all come together.  She should be commended for that and for her helpfulness all through the struggles of last year of Kay's life and battle with her cancer.  The rest of the program was so nice also and the music was wonderful.  It was so good to hear how much Kay was loved and how much she loved others.  I think her family could be happy with how things went and remember her as the wonderful person they knew.

The graveyard they chose is a bit unconventional, but after reading about it I see that it met their needs.  Our daughters and Jay and Bean were able to attend as well as Grandma, Sheryl and Doug, Adam and Joey, Ross and Lerlynn, and several of the the older Lillywhites.  Our side of the family was well represented and I was thankful for that.

Flaming Gorge with the Randalls

What a fun trip!  It started out as a birthday present for Brady and Bryan - a gift certificate for a guided fishing trip to catch "the BIG one"!  Then the grandpas were invited to join the fishing fun and the rest of the family came along to enjoy the camping!  Bryan's folks were there which was really nice.  We always like to visit with them. Bean came with us and we enjoyed having him along.  And as a bonus we got to stop by to see Sheryl and Doug in their new digs in Vernal!  They treated us to a wonderful dinner and gave us a tour of their farm project.  

The drive was full of beautiful scenery as well as the Flaming Gorge NRA and Ashley Nat'l. Forest.  We camped, fished, hiked, played games and just had a good, relaxing time!  Afton and Joel caught their first fish and were excited about that. I'm not sure they are excited about eating them, but it was fun to catch them.  The men all caught their nice big Kokanee Salmons - 3 each.   We played in the COLD lake water in the afternoon to cool off.  Dennis and Jacque tended the kids while the rest of us did the Red Canyon Rim Trail hike which was beautiful.  And we had a good game of Hellsapoppin' that evening. Lou, Bean and the kids and I took a little hike in the morning too.  And we visited the Dam and the Red Canyon Visitor's Centers that day also.  It was a full, fun day!  The trip was short, but we thoroughly enjoyed it!

River and Rubber Ducks - Cousin Edventure in Coal Creek

Juge was tending Jay's girls and invited Lou's gang to come and play in the river with them.  Bean and I joined the fun...and fun it was in that cool water.  It was a fun time.  Sorry I missed getting a picture of Joel and Brady somehow!

Grand Eventure Xmas Date with Brady and Gaige - Ashdown Gorge

What a beautiful day in an awesome place with some of our favorite peoples.  Bean joined us for this edventure too!  He had never been and it's too good not to share!  We got off to a rough start with our car dying and having to take it in and trade to the big truck.  But we persevered and didn't let that deter us.  We drove up to pick up Brady, stopped for gas and a favorite candy bar to get us started.  Then we slid down Lance's super steep trail and into the Gorge.  The water was cold and it felt good on this warm day.  We did the hike from the bottom up to Lake Creek and Rattlesnake waterfalls and back.  We wanted to get in 10 miles for Brady's hiking merit badge and ended up having to add a little bit of the Coal Creek Trail to it at the end to make it long enough.  We had a great day and saw so much beautiful scenery including Flanigan Arch and Tom's Head.  Lou and Bryan treated us to a home made egg roll dinner when we got back which was so good!  It was a great grand edventure!  This is one of our favorite all time hikes.  We have wanted to share it with some of the grand kids!

Grand Edventure Xmas date with 4 boys!

We got the boys (Zade, Koen, Noah and Brenden) together for their Christmas edventure date.  I had to go and fetch Noah in Cedar to make it happen.  (Unfortunately Kai was with his dad and couldn't come.)  First stop was Smith's where everyone chose their dinner - Lunchable of their choice.  Then we headed to Pine Valley and biked to our picnic spot at the top campsite riding up the paved Santa Clara River Trail.  It was pretty hard work for them, so we made stops along the trail to rest and enjoy the scenery.  After dinner we took a little hike up the stream and tried the watercress!  (I think they pretended to like it!) Then we loaded back up and this time rode down the road.  It was down hill and we made much better time!  They were so excited to think they reached 22.2 mph.  I was proud of them.  It was a pretty hard uphill ride for them on the way up! We stopped in at Arctic Circle for ice cream and fun when we got back to town...and then it was time to get them home to bed.  Noah was spending the night with us since it was too late to take him back that night.  G'pa took the other boys home and Noah and I played some checkers.  Earlier after I picked him up and before we G'pa got the other boys picked up I taught him how to play King's Corner...and he beat me in best of five games! 

These guys had fun trying on Grandpa's signature hat!  They also had fun just jabbering all the way up and back and keeping us entertained with riddles and jokes!  They are such a fun group!

Happy #40 Lance!

Juge surprised Lance with a Sheffield/Lillywhite surprise birthday BBQ for his 40th!  He was pleasantly surprised!  It was a really fun evening with wonderful food, perfect backyard Cedar City weather, lots of great people to visit with and Lance properly surprised and happy with the whole thing!  Juge worked very hard and was probably too exhausted to enjoy it, but the rest of us surely did!  Happy Birthday Lance!  We love you and wish you a wonderful coming year!

Madi - #8 birthday and baptism visit

What a fun little trip to enjoy special days with Madi and family. Friday, June 1st, was Madi's 8th birthday and she was baptized and confirmed on Saturday. We partied for her birthday by opening presents for breakfast, going out for a sushi dinner deluxe complete with a flaming sushi roll to blow out!  Then we went back home to blow out candles on the birthday pies!

We also (Friday afternoon) took the 3 older girls to the Tracy Aviary.  It was a beautiful place with so many interesting birds to see and learn about.  We had fun going into an indoor section that was like a rain forest for birds and one indoor section about South American birds.  We also went to a bird show, the Owl Forest (Madi's favorite bird) and lots of other areas with cool birds to see!  It was a little cool in the earlier part of the day, but other than feeling a little frozen sometimes, we had a good time at the aviary and fun at the park afterwards!  It was our Christmas Edventure date outing!

Saturday, after the baptism, we had a beautiful brunch with all of the family up that way.  We always enjoy spending time with Brynn's family too.

We are so  pleased that Madi has chosen to take this most important covenant step.  We are so happy she has a family to teach her the gospel and help her participate in it.