Thursday, July 31, 2014

Rex L. Maughan Feb 1932- July 2014

You know, a lot of people often complain about "in-laws." You hear all kinds of things that aren't flattering or positive and I can honestly say that I have never been able to relate to those stories. I have the most wonderful in-laws in the world. I've always thought that. Not just Trav's parents (who are some of the best people I know) but his siblings and their families too. I love them. I love spending time with them. I look up to them and do feel very blessed to be a part of their lives. I married the youngest son in the family and am 6 years younger than him so I am at a completely different stage of life than they are but I have so many good examples I can look up to, and fountains of wisdom I can draw from. I love being a Maughan. I am blessed to be a Maughan.
 
But this post isn't just about how great my in-laws are. This post is about my father in law. He passed away on Tuesday, July 29. Just writing these few sentences has already started the tears flowing but I'm hoping this will help me to heal, to write it all out, and to remember. 

Rex was 82 years old when he died but has always been the youngest "old man" I have ever known. In fact, I never looked at him as an old man until he got sick about 4 months ago...maybe a little less than that. We visit both sets of parents almost every Sunday and to see the changes that have happened in the past few months have been staggering. He got very sick and was in the hospital for several weeks and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. A very bad one that can't be cured. But he got "better" and many thought it had to be a misdiagnosis. He was back to fishing, playing latter ball with the kids on Sunday night, gardening, and just being grandpa.

But we knew that this would be temporary and he would go downhill. We didn't know how much time we would have but we knew we didn't have years. So with a little perspective under our belts we got family pictures taken while he was still well. These pictures are just some of the many that we got of grandpa. I'm so glad we did and almost everyone was there (which in an of itself was a miracle.)

Here's their 6 kids with spouses.

 Mom and Dad with kids.
 All the grand kids.
 Kids with spouses again.
 Not only was Rex an amazing Priesthood holder and example, but he always put family first. We got together religiously at least once a month with all of the Maughan's to have family night. Everyone loves him dearly.
 Shirlene has been the most wonderful, supportive spouse possible. I can't even begin to imagine (nor do I want to know) what it's like to watch your spouse, your love, your everything, decline before your eyes when you know nothing can be done. She took care of him better than anyone could have. They loved each other so much and have been married for (I'm guessing) 55 years.
 Grandpa was so good at spending time with the grand kids too. He would call me up and say "I want to take your kids to the zoo" (or park, or fishing, or museum...you name it). He could see when I needed a break or help and wouldn't ask what he could do, he'd just take them for a few hours. Now they have these memories of him that are more precious than anything. I know he lived a good, long life, but my greatest sadness comes from my kids not being able to know him longer.
 This is one of my all-time favorite pictures of him.
 We knew he couldn't last long in a body that can't serve others to it's fullest potential. He's always been busy and cannot sit still. Even after he retired he always had a few part-time jobs just to keep busy. When he found out that the cancer was terminal he kept saying "I just want to go. No treatments. There's too much work to be done on the other side." There was no hesitation, no question to what he wanted. I know he's already busy at work.
The night he passed away one of my nephew's and his grandson (Tyrel) was being set apart as a missionary to leave the next day to the MTC. Rex passed away around 7:15pm and Tyrel got set apart at 8:00pm. We all think he knew that the only way he'd be able to be at the setting apart was to have his spirit there. He wanted to be there but couldn't in a weak body. Mike and LaNa (Tyrel's parents) said the spirit was so incredibly strong they could feel him there the entire time.  He has always loved missionary work and currently has 3 grandson's serving missions.

Trav is the amazing man that he is because of his dad. I can see so many similarities in the two of them that I know that one of the reasons I loved Rex so much is because Trav was so much like him. I am honored to be married to a man like that. I'm honored to be in a family like that, and I'm honored to have been a part of Rex's life.

I love you Rex. We miss you, but I know that we will see you again someday.

Monday, July 21, 2014

Hi July!

July is a good month. We started it off with jumping on the tramp with the sprinklers on. If you can't tell by his face...William loved it.




 Then we saw some abandoned ice blocks over at the park so we had to put those poor things to good use.It wound up in a fun night of ice blocking!









 Every day is just a continuation from the day before in their games they play. Right now as I am writing we have "Hotel Awesome Spy Club" happening in my basement. Love it!
 Now we're on to the fourth of July. As usual we headed over to Centerville for all the festivities.
 Waiting for the parade with Jack and Tyler....

 Josh looks super excited to be there.
 Josh with cousin Jack.
 Josh wanted us to get pictures of his candy bag. So here's the "beginning of the parade" shot.
 Two hunky boys.
 Seriously the cutest family EVER!


 Here's Josh's "after the parade" shot. Notice how much the smile grew too!
That night we went to our neighbors to watch fireworks. Living in this neighborhood you never have to go to a professional show again. We have 2 professional shows here! It's amazing and (usually)so fun! This year we went to the "new one" (a guy that just recently moved in). He is not as well practiced as the one we usually go to and one of the fireworks fell over and shot over to our neighbors house (we were sitting in their yard), blowing the window out of a car and thankfully not hurting anyone. It was SO scary! It honestly was hard to enjoy the rest of the show. We are so grateful everyone was okay, but we will probably be going to the "usual" for a while.

Josh volunteered to read Kate's bedtime stories to her. He is seriously the best big brother!
 Kate and daddy disappeared for a few minutes right when we were about to leave for church a couple weeks ago. When I opened the camera I found a few little gems on there. So cute!

 Strider spent the entire day in one of the doll strollers. Never in the same room though. I'm not sure he even noticed he was being wheeled around the house.
 Someone has turned into a cheeseball. He loves making people laugh and he finally took his first steps last week!  He will take about 2 steps then "fall." He's such a speedy crawler we're really going to have to work to get him to be a full time walker. Goodbye baby, hello toddler.
A couple weekends ago we went camping with our favorite family, the Maynes. It was so much fun! That we were even able to go camping was a miracle in and of itself. We got up there much later than planned but thought "It's a Thursday, I'm sure we'll find a spot." There were only 2 spots left in the entire campground, they were right next to each other and it was like the perfect location to! Wow we were lucky. I guess Trav was getting extra blessings for just being called the Elders Quorum President. (Ha ha!)

But it did rain the whole first night while eating dinner, setting up camp, and all night long. The next morning we got a little break. Here's a picture of the glorious "grub box" Trav built. Makes camping so much easier!
 Kate made lots of bracelets.
 We still made the kids do dishes. Ha ha!
 Then it was off to the lake to fish! When you're with the Maynes you always have a buddy to play with!

 My fishing family.
 Just in case for wedding video purposes in the future......(totally kidding!  Kind of...)
 These two call each other "BFF." They are 2 peas in a pod.

 But then it started raining again. We took shelter in the truck.
 When it stopped everyone went on the other side of the river to fish but some of us stayed behind to wade in the water.
 Here's the fishers. The Maynes caught like 9 fish, actually probably more. Rach was the only one with luck in the Maughans. But, she did catch the biggest fish! Everyone kept calling it a "whale" and Kate whispered to me, "Is that really a whale?" I think she imagined them much bigger.

 I finally had to just take William's pants off so he could go right in the lake.

 Here's cute Christa with her 2 oldest Charity and Kelly. I like Charity's shorts. Ha ha!
 Here's the whale.
 It cleared up later that day and we had an awesome time! Here's the men preparing the fish.
 They kept asking Jack "where's the ball?" And he's life up his shirt to show off his ball-like belly.  He's so cute!
 Speaking of cuteness....
 The next day we went back with full intent on swimming. It was much sunnier!






We had so much fun! I think we need to make it a tradition to go camping with these guys. We stayed up late talking and laughing around the campfire. The kids were in heaven playing with their buddies the whole time, and even in all the rain (we got like 1 1/2 inches) everyone had a good attitude. We had so much fun! Thanks again, Maynes!