May 14 - May 20

      Monday May 14th was busy with all the end of the school year things and getting ready to leave for a trip. My heart was in Atkinson as I kept up with all that was going on with Grandma and wished to be there but knew that Hershey was were I needed to be. The kids all had school and the girls had their AR party that afternoon. Rachel went to Elly's to play after school and we had grilled hamburgers and enjoyed a nice evening outside.

Rachel got Reader of the Year

Becca had highest test score for her class

The best of friends walking to Elly's house after school!

   Tuesday Rachel had her end of the year field trip and they went to Lake McConaughy and learned about the damn and natural resources around the lake. The other two had school and I had a dentist appointment. We facetimed with Grandma for the last time before the kids went to bed on Tuesday night. They all got to tell her goodbye and so did I. Wednesday was the last day of school for the kids. I was busy packing and getting ready for our trip but did enjoy taking the kids to lunch after their last day of school.

Alec and Klae on the last day.

Bree, Becca, and Alec on the last day!

  Thursday morning Babs came out early and stayed with the kids while Mike and I flew from North Platte to San Francisco. We then rented a car and drove to Sonoma. We enjoyed driving across the golden gate bridge and facetiming the kids as we did. We had a beautiful drive up through the hills and enjoyed our time together. We got checked into our hotel and enjoyed a drink while we waited for Kate and Justin to get back from a wine tasting. We then went back to the room to get ready and I got the phone call I was hoping would wait a couple more days. Grandma had passed and we would need to fly back home on Sunday as the funeral would be on Monday.

Sonoma Country side

Top down cruising the back roads

  Friday we had breakfast and then enjoyed our wine tours that we got with our package. We learned a lot about the fires and how they effected the wineries and got to taste lots of wine.  Saturday we decided to take Kate and Justin's car and drive through Alexander Valley and into and around Napa. We stopped at a couple wineries along the way but didn't get to as many overall as we had hoped. We called it a day early as we had to be up and on the road by 2 am to make our flight back home. While we were away Becca was able to go with Trisha to Elly's dance recital and she loved every minute of it. Babs did a great job running the kids to and from practice and keeping them all entertained for 3 days.

 Overall we had a great time in California. We love traveling and going on adventures with the Raatz's. I really thought we would be able to visit and taste more varieties of wine, but that was not the case. My heart was just not there this week as I knew how many stories and how much family time I was missing being so far away. Babs was home with the kids during this whole time and she did such a fantastic job telling them and answering all their questions. My kids are not afraid of death and only get sad for the lost of the conversation with that person. They all know what going to heaven means and how much joy it would and will bring to all of us. We have had many conversations about death and because of that I knew that even though I was not around them at the time they were in amazing hands.

    Sunday we spent the day on the the planes traveling back to Nebraska. Babs had all our bags packed when we got home. Mike and I threw some clothes into a different bag and we were off to Stuart so we could make it before the prayer service started. Lisa and Rebekah rode with us and it was great to have them along. The prayer service was so nice and so many people came to say their condolences.