It's Not All Doom and Gloom

It's not all doom and gloom out here in G-ville as my blog might suggest these last few posts. As for an update on my little family, here goes. We spent the summer going to games for Brayden's Super League, Little League and All-Stars and for Maddie's girls softball and All-Stars. I think they both had a blast playing a lot of ball and traveling even though Brayden finished out the season with a broken wrist from a bike crash. I was helping coach Maddie's team and I got a little too competitive in her very last game and the only thing she tells anyone of her All-Stars experience was that her mom pushed her down on 3rd. For further explanation, please email me. It's quite embarrassing!
We discovered that playing in the little Grantsville Reservoir is almost as fun as fishing it and crawdad-ing may have been the highlight of each trip. We took our annual Walker Family Campout at a campground near Salina. Brandon and I played little to no slow-pitch softball this year. I think it was harder for him than it was for me to give it up. We both just got to be too busy with the kids games. And I think I speak for both of us when I say we would rather watch/coach our kids than play ourselves.
Our fall has been crazy busy with football. Me volunteering on the board, Brandon helping coach and Brayden playing center for the first time this year. He said he likes it because he "gets to touch the ball on every play". If you have to wear an "X" on your helmet I guess that's the next best thing to qb'ing.
Last week my grandma Hansen passed away. She had a large cancerous growth in her pelvis and it was only a month from the day that she was diagnosed that she died. It was another sad and painful time for us, especially my mom. It was hard in different ways than my dad's was. Too see her loose so much weight in such a short amount of time and suffer as she did the last couple of days was so heartbreaking. My poor grandpa didn't know what to do and still doesn't. My sister pointed out that Memorial Day will have a new meaning for us. It use to mean party time/ water fights/ reunion at Grandma Walker's house. Now we will have graves to decorate. Something we didn't really do in the past.
Halloween marks yet another "1st time without dad" tradition. His neighborhood regularly does a trunk-or-treat. They block off the street that my parents live on and all the ward parks their vehicles there to trick-or-treat. My dad loved to set up his fire pit, make hot chocolate in his big orange jug and serve it up to anybody that stops long enough to enjoy it. He would usually visit with his friends, try to get the little kids to say something and not just stare at him and tickle/tease the older kids. I don't know if my mom will want to continue this tradition or not. I will leave this one up to her. I basically refused to cancel the annual summer camping trip and we packed her up and made her come, but this time I will let the pieces fall where they may.