A Family Reunion!!!

Last week (Feb 1st) my brother David flew in from Kansas City for some family time and we loved it. He only brought part of his family since it was kind of a short notice trip. The reason for this visit was because our father was having a pretty serious surgery and he wanted to be here for that. Its been almost 8 years since they've seen each other and dad has never met David's kids before so it was a great reunion. We decided to go down to Price to spend some one on one time with dad before his big day but on the way down I had an OB appt in Murray so David took the kids to the park while they waited. So this post is full of pictures that David took!
Cute Cousins!

Then we headed down to Price and thank goodness for the perfect weather. It was a beautiful drive through the canyon.

Then we got to dad's, hung out, ate dinner and just reconnected with one another at grandma Ada and Grandpa Bert's house. My dad LOVES fish and he has about 5 tanks in his house but this is by far the coolest one and the most popular!

Dad with two of his grandchildren.

Three cousins, Levi, Lydia and Kaleb.

So on Tuesday we drove back to SLC and hung out at my house for the afternoon and evening. But here's the cool part...my dad has 7 children and we have never all been in the same room together, ever! My dad's been married a few times so I have half siblings living in a few parts of the country and since dad was having such an important surgery, we all thought it imperative to come to SLC to be with him. So I invited everyone over to my house for the evening to spend time with our father. We all really had a good time together. We got along great and I loved reconnecting with all my brothers and sisters. There's a first time for everything so here's a picture of my dad with all 7 of his children.

(front) Tammie, Jenny, Me, Michele (back) David, Dad, Adam, Garry

As some of you know, just over 15 months ago my dad was diagnosed with tongue cancer, so he had surgery and thought that it was gone for good. He had half of his tongue removed and restructured from tissues of his arm. It took him months and months to learn how to eat and talk again and then last month we got horrible news...dad's cancer was back and worse this time. He could let it take him or go through the horrible surgery again and fight this thing. He decided to fight!

So last Thursday morning he went into his 14 hour surgery at Huntsman Cancer Institute and I've been in and out of the hospital visiting ever since.

Here's Grandma Great giving Levi some hugs while we waited...and waited.

Well, my dad made it through the surgery and is doing fairly well. He's had to have a few more surgeries/procedures since then due to some complications...he even had to have an emergency surgery because of a blood clot in the new artery they put in his tongue. It was so scary but the dr managed to fix the problem and his tongue is going to survive.

While waiting for dad to come out of surgery, Levi and Lydia played hide and seek with Kaleb...I don't know why they're hiding like this!

It's been stressful but dad has been so strong and positive throughout this whole thing. He hasn't complained once and I'm so happy with the decision he's made to have this horrible surgery again. He should be sent to transitional care sometime next week and hopefully back in his own home sometime mid/late March!

It's been a long road but I'm so happy that my old man is still around. He's told me many times how much it meant to him to have all of his children in the same room and that's what's been getting him through this hard time. I'm so glad he could have that moment and I hope that there will be many more in the years to come. Life is too short to not stay close to those that you love. Reuniting with my family has been one of the best experiences I've had...I'm just sad it's taken this long. But we look forward and create new memories from here :)

Love to you all!