Tuesday was Luke's second grade awards ceremony.  I got an email from his teacher saying he'd be getting an award, so I showed up at the appointed time with my camera in hand.

They started off by calling all the names of the children on the A/B Honor roll.  Luke's name was called, along with about half his class, so he walked up to the front and got his certificate with everyone else.  I clapped and settled down to watch the rest of the ceremony, pretty sure that was the award I'd been notified about.

Yep.  They called the names of the A Honor roll kids.  Then the names of the Good Citizenship kids.  I was good and comfortable in my chair, knowing Luke had already gotten his Honor roll award and there was NO WAY he'd be getting a Good Citizenship award (since I get a note almost daily from his teacher telling me his varying degrees of naughtiness in Talking Out of Turn).

I had my camera all put away when they announced the last two awards, one for Outstanding Student and the other for Outstanding Character.  They were the biggies.  Outstanding Student went to some girl who looks like she's every teacher's dream.  Then they announced that the Outstanding Character award went to...Luke Bitner!

I flew into action, digging my camera out of my purse and trying to get it set to take a decent picture from the back row.  This was the best I could do with my shaking, thrilled hands as I stumbled to my feet:

Sorry it's so out-of-focus.  I was a little beside myself!

Today, I got to go to another awards ceremony just for Lukie's class.  

This was a just-for-fun ceremony where every kid got a candy award.  Luke's was the Smartie's Award--probably for being a big smart-aleck. You can see he's delighted.

Tonight, my little Sica-sue graduated from seminary!

After four long years of grumbling about getting up so early, she did it!  She finished!!!

With her super-awesome seminary teacher from this year.

Actually, this is her with two of her seminary teachers.  Poor girl.  No wonder there was so much grumbling!

Tonight was a great night!  We are so proud of our girl!

On Saturday afternoon, we joined Brad's sisters and their families for some bowling.

I didn't pack for bowling, so I channeled my Inner Duggar and bowled in my skirt.

 I'm happy to report that no swear words were heard from Brad this day.

After bowling, Becky divvied out tokens to all the kids and explained that they were all to go win as many tickets as they could.  When their tokens were gone, the person with the most tickets got to have ALL the tickets.  

Let the games begin!!

Adam was the winner!  He used all the tickets to buy this ... stuff.

Good times!

 For dinner, we left the kids at Grandma's house with a million pizzas and had a Grown-Ups-Only night out.

Then, it was back to the Bitner Homestead for an evening of sitting on the deck, playing a hot game of basketball, and watching Great-grandpa Bitner's favorite movie, Jeremiah Johnson.  A couple of the great-grands were scandalized because the movie had some swears.  I secretly loved it.

Nights like this make me want to cry because we live so far away.

On Monday, I came home from Michigan and was greeted with the sad news that Brad's Grandpa Bitner passed away on Sunday.  So after a day at home, I hopped into the car with Brad and my boys for a quick road trip to Utah for the funeral.

 Grandpa was 92, and had been sick for several months before he died.  It was wonderful to attend the funeral and remember what a vibrant, kind man he was, especially surrounded by hundreds of people whose lives he touched.

All of Grandpa's grandsons were pall bearers.  There were so many of  them, they had to take turns carrying his casket.

Grandpa was a veteran, so he had military honors at his grave.

These men fired the salute and nearly gave us all a heart attack, but it was really awesome.

And when this man played Taps, it sent chills right through all of us.  There is nothing more stirring than Taps in a silent cemetery.

One of the best things about funerals is the chance to gather with family.

Jess had to stay in Texas to finish up some stuff for her graduation, but I'm glad the rest of us were able to come.  After the funeral, Adam got teary-eyed, and when I asked him what was wrong, he said he was so sad that he didn't know Great-grandpa Bitner better.  It was that kind of a funeral.

 It isn't hard to imagine Grandpa smiling at this group. 

This weekend, I flew to Michigan to spend a few days with my dear friends there.  Several of them were getting together to do the Zoo-de-Mac bike run in Mackinac City, and they were kind enough to invite me along.

On our way to Mackinac, we stopped at Frankenmuth for a chicken lunch.  The food was perhaps a bit over-rated, but the company was stellar!

After biking for 50 miles on Saturday, these women still had the oomph to do this!

After church on Sunday, we wandered around the docks and found this gate in the middle of nothing.  It's a good thing it wasn't locked, otherwise we never could have gotten to the water (?).

It was amazing how easy it was to hang with these ladies again and slide back into the friendships.  I think they will always feel like sisters to me.

We attended a little branch in Petoskey, MI, and on my way to the restroom, I passed the Primary Room.  This was set up for combined Junior and Senior sharing times.  Compared to my TX Primary of 170 kids, this pretty much blew my mind!

On Sunday evening, after we'd all driven back from Mackinac, I borrowed a car from Julie and went to visit some friends.  On my way to see the Whartons, I of course passed our old house.  Seeing that mess of a lawn about sent me into cardiac arrest, but otherwise it was fun to sit there and remember how it felt to walk through that front door.  I can still smell it.

What a wonderful time I had!  Every minute was filled with people and memories that made my heart swell.  I told Brad when I came home that I feel like I was my best self when we lived in Michigan, and it was like therapy to go back there and slip into that skin.

I ♥ Michigan!!!!

 Happy Mother's Day to meeeeeee!!

My kids had this idea to take photos of them when they were little and recreate them now.  

This one might be my favorite.

Man oh man, I love these kids!!