Saying goodbye to Great Grandma

As mentioned before, we made an unexpected trip to Tucson for my grandmother's funeral last month.

After getting back from Chicago, we had a quick 36-hour stopover in California before heading to Arizona. It happened to be Father's Day when we were home. We didn't celebrate much, but Michael insisted on getting a picture with his son. At least we had time to eat dinner outside.



Most of our layover day was spent unpacking and repacking. Austin "helped" by getting into the still-full suitcase from the Chicago trip.




On the night we got to Tucson, the memorial service was held. Austin got a little bit antsy during the visitation, so Michael took him back to my parents' house for a nice bath.

The next day, we had the funeral. Great Aunt Diane graciously agreed to baby-sit for Austin during the service, which was a huge help. Her granddaughter and Austin's cousin, Alexis, was her assistant. We heard that Austin cried his head off for the first 15 minutes, but then had great fun after he ate.

After his nap, Austin came to the reception at my grandmother's house. Aunt Karen took a lot of pictures and Austin wanted to see pictures of himself. A little vain.

Austin was reunited with cousin Elliot, who is six weeks younger than Austin. The two are both toddling around now. (That's Elliot's mom, Crissi.)

Elliot let Austin use his booster high chair when he wasn't using it. Here, Austin is eyeing Elliot's fruit in between meals.

Austin loved playing with all of the knobs and buttons on Grandma's stereo. D.J. Audiostin is what Aunt Karen called him.

Aunt Karen took this picture of me and Austin.

And this one of four generations on the other side of the family. That's me, Austin, Grandpa and Great Grandpa Tully.

Austin found this rocking chair in a back bedroom. Perfect size!

After the funeral was over, we were able to spend some quality Tully family time for a few days. My sisters and I all live outside of Tucson, so it's rare that we are all together.

In the dead of summer, there's nothing better than a dip in the pool.



Usually, Austin prefers Daddy in the water for some reason. Here he is swimming away from Grandma.

But he let Grandpa float around with him for quite awhile.

Then he went back to Daddy.

After the pool, we had a dance party at Grandma's request. Grandma likes nothing better than to dance her worries away. Aunt Laura made some killer margaritas, even though she couldn't drink them. Aunt Laura is pregnant with Austin's first, first cousin, who is due in January.

We let Austin take his first shot -- of orange juice.

The next day, we took a road trip up the mountains to Grandma and Grandpa's cabin. Here's a stop along the way.

Grandma's death and our trip to Tucson coincided with news of Michael Jackson's death. Austin got to hear and see "Thriller" for the first time during a recap of MJ's videos.

He's been dancing to Michael Jackson a lot, as he is here.

Maybe Michael Jackson is teaching Grandma to moonwalk....

We're fortunate that Austin got to meet his Great Grandma and even saw her for a last time about a month before her death. See a previous blog post when great grandma and Austin met here. Here's their last meeting on Mother's Day.