In memory of Joyce Bennion Peaden

Joyce Bennion Peaden was born on November 1, 1925. My dad grew up in Reno, Nevada, but I knew my grandparents when they lived in Prosser, Washington. Since they lived so far away, we only visited every few years and saw them when they came down occasionally. They were truly the salt of the earth type of people. At the graveside service, my dad talked about how they never took more than their share and they gave freely. I loved seeing them, but wish they had lived closer. 

My grandma was diabetic and it was amazing she lived so long. She took good care of herself and ate good food. She never really ate candy or anything, but in the last few year's she would have my Dad get chocolate chips at the grocery store. 

 Here are some recent pictures of her and the kids.

Grandma and Caleb.

Grandma and Austin. The kids loved riding in her walker. 

Lydia riding.

Grandma showing off her afghan.

Such a cute picture of Lydia and Grandma.

One thing I will remember most about my Grandma was her quilting. She was great and quilting and left to each grandchildren a beautiful quilt. I love the quilt that she gave us. 

She had a stroke and my parents let us know that she had very little time left. We had just seen her a few days before at Thanksgiving and she was her usual self and enjoyed seeing all of the grandchildren. We went to see her the very next day with the kids to say goodbye and missed her by just a few minutes. We went in and said goodbye anyway. 

I was fortunate to be able to take a few days off of work to be able to go to the graveside service in Reno to see her burial. I flew out in the morning and went straight to the cemetery. This picture does not do it justice, but it was a beautiful scene. The gravesite was on the edge of the cemetery on a hill that overlooked Reno and the Mountains in the distance. My dad talked about how this was a perfect spot because Grandma and Grandpa loved to go camping in the Mountains that you could see in from the hill. 

I was glad to be able to be with my Dad. We enjoyed talking about his parents and the legacy they left. One of the things that I value most in myself is my frugality and financial soundness. I believe that this came from my parents and that my dad gained this from my grandparents. I believe that is part of the legacy they have left. About 5 years ago after my grandpa died, my grandma decided to give some of her savings away. She knew she had more than enough to sustain herself and wanted to help her grandchildren. She gave each grandchild $10,000 hoping that this would help many who really needed it. Shantel and I used $5,000 to help us with our downpayment our our house. The other $5,000 we put in a savings account that is set aside for missions for our kids. In fact, it was the starting of that saving. We are grateful that one day we will have money to send our kids on missions and that the start of it came from my grandparents.

Here is my grandpa's grave, Richard N Peaden. He passed away in 2008.

Here are the three Peaden kids, Brian, Carolyn and Cal (my Dad).

I am grateful for the life of Joyce Peaden and Richard Peaden. I am grateful that they were faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ and taught to their children. I am grateful that they were humble and kind. May god bless them for their service and their love.

Joyce Bennion Peaden: November 1, 1925- December 1, 2017

Recent Things

Just a couple of fun things to share from October/November. 

We had a game night the other night with Garret and Karli Shields and Amy and Derek Perkins. A couple of them had never played the game "Clue" so we decided to change that. We dressed up as the characters and had a great time. Garret made the perfect Professor Plum (picture below). I dressed up as Mr. Green and Shantel dressed as Ms. Scarlett. It turns out that Clue is super fun. In fact, for the next week Shantel has been saying, Clue is so fun, we need to play that again. So here is to the classics. We are grateful for good friends who we can have fun with, and who are such uplifting figures in our lives. We haven't always had close friends to hang out with, and we are so lucky to have found this little group of such good people. 

Here are a couple of fun pictures from the farm.

Skate Night

Lydia's school had a free skate night at Classic skating on Monday and she was so excited, so we took advantage. Lydia already had skates, but they gave Austin free skates too, which made it even better. Lydia was incredible. Over the past 3 months since school started, there have been moments where I realize how grown up she is getting, but this was an eye opening experience. She could just go and play and do anything. She was really good on her skating and she loved having a ton of space instead of our little basement. She was super fast and loved every second of it. One of my favorite things was when they did a game and she just listened and get it right away what she needed to do.

Austin loved the skating too. His favorite thing was pushing Caleb around in the stroller. We bought some pizza and and ice cream treat and made it a great Family home evening. Here are some pictures from the night.

Hard to see, but that is Lydia cruising along.