It's my families tradition to go up to Jackson Hole for Memorial Day and this year was no exception. As kids we loved going up there and visiting Grandma and Grandpa Poljanec and visiting the Victor Cemetery where lots of my Dad's side of the family are buried including his Dad, his grandparents, his great-grandparents, aunts, uncles and many more relatives. However, this year was a little bitter-sweet for me. My Grandma passed away last month on April 1st and she is now buried in the Victor Cemetery. It looks a lot different from when we were there last month for her funeral.
It was snowing and very cold that day. Look how much snow had already accumulated on top of her casket in the short time we were there.
Because Grandma and Grandpa lived further away we didn't get to see them too often, maybe 2-3 times a year but we always knew how much Grandma loved us by the way she would hug us so tight and kiss our cheeks over and over again when she'd see us. This is the Grandma who I got all of my lovely OCD-isms from!:) She was so funny and particular about certain things for example, she would safety pin her sheets to the beds so the sheets would stay exactly where she wanted them to. Also, when my oldest two sisters Leisa and Tammy were teenagers they went up to Jackson and stayed with my Grandma and Grandpa to work at a hotel for the summer. My Grandma would wash their laundry and then iron everything including their underpants. IRON their underpants! How many of you can say that you've ever ironed your underpants?:) Not me, but that was just Grandma, very neat and clean and everything always had to be just so! I remember one time when we were little we were sliding down her carpeted stairs and she came over and said, "don't maul the stairs".....probably because we were messing up the way the carpet laid on them or some funny thing like that. One of Justin's favorite memories of my Grandma happened a couple of years ago when we were up there for Memorial Day. This is when Jackson has it's big celebration to kick off the summer. There is always a parade, entertainment in the city square, food booths, horse and carriage rides and much much more. The next day after the Saturday celebration it said in the paper that a little boy got injured while on the horse and carriage ride. I guess the horse got spooked and sped off and the little boy fell off the wagon. My Grandpa said, "I've been saying it for years". (meaning that he knew one of these times someone was going to get hurt) And then my Grandma said, "harses and harses, they're not people!" (meaning that they treat those horses like a person and after all they still are horses) I spell horses like harses because that's how she says it. Justin thought that was so funny, he repeats that saying ALL the time!:) We are really going to miss my Grandma and all of her Grandma-ness. But we still have a ba-jillion memories of all the funny things she used to do and since I seem to be just like her, now I have something to look forward to when I get older, safety pinning my sheets to the bed!!!:) Love you Grandma!!!
This is my Grandma with my Dad and his sister Josephine. Isn't Grandma beautiful, and look how cute my Dad was too! I think she was about 25 in this picture. She went and had it taken so she could send my Grandpa Thompson (my Dad's Dad) a picture of them while he was away in the army.
This year we headed up to Jackson early Saturday morning and got there just in time to catch the parade. The parade is always the same, horses, wagons, more horses, fire trucks, and more horses. :) Unfortunately the weather wasn't very good but we stood out there with umbrella's anyway.
Julie and Avery in the rain.
The rest of our trip we spent visiting with Grandpa, Aunt Jo and Uncle Ed, shopping around Jackson, and visiting the Victor Cemetery.
Grandma's headstone.
I had to show a close up, turns out that my Grandma is the "floozy" of the cemetery! ha ha! See how it says "Married to both" above her name, well, my Dad's Dad (Richard Thompson) died when my Dad was 27 years old. A couple years later she married my Grandpa Poljanec. They are all going to be buried there together. My Grandma always took such good care of Grandpa Thompson's (my Dad's Dad) grave on Memorial Day as well as her parents and grandparents grave's with flowers that had to be placed just right. Even though she wasn't here, this year was no different, Grandpa got flowers for all Grandma's families graves just how she would have liked it!
Grandpa looking at his sweethearts grave.
The beautiful spray of flowers that Grandpa put on Grandma's grave.
We love you Grandma and Grandpa!!!
