Per Perkins Perhe: The Magic of Cousins and Remembering the Departed.

So this week seemed to be about cousins getting together, and honoring our beloved departed.

We started our week at 7:00 A.M. at Davin and Bri's where you can see we met up with magical princesses and a piano playing fairy.

It was lots and lots of fun.

On Tuesday, Dad and I divided to conquer. He went to St George for Jim Heuer's funeral. These are the flowers that we got for Jim and Luciel along with the Moes and Gearhearts.

Dad took this picture during the viewing. He told me many of the stories from Jim's funeral, I was so sad to have missed it.

After the funeral Dad went and spent an hour with Cheryl. She was very emotional and asked when she could come home. We were both surprised because Rick & Wendi are doing amazing things for her. She has much nicer clothes, and is getting cute haircuts. They have also gotten her a golf cart and she goes out and about several times daily. She's lost weight and has also cut back on cigarettes. We are so grateful to know that she is getting excellent care there.

Meanwhile I took Elias, Adi and Nenna to play with their cousins in Pleasant Grove, which they absolutely loved. Then I ...

met up with Joyce and Jo at Nina's house. That day was Nina's first wedding anniversary without Emory, and Joyce conceived the idea of us being there to comfort Nina as she goes through this mile stone. I know that Nina appreciated the gesture.

We first went at the cemetery to see Emory's head stone. It was good for me, since I was not here for his funeral. What a great brother he is. We then went to lunch.

That night at bedtime, Elias arranged some of his dinosaurs on the steps to his bunk. He then performed an documentary about each type of dinosaur and its chances of being King of the dinosaurs. He's pretty smart, and is very good at mimicking the language of a documentary.

On Wednesday I was off to work, and Dad watched the kids. Above they set up this scene with their big bears and pretended to be asleep.

When I got back from work we all went swimming at their neighborhood pool. Unfortunately this pic of Nenna is the only one I took, and it was at the play ground next to the pool.

They were all exhausted and fell right asleep at bedtime.

I also worked on Thursday and got a call from Dad as I was headed to Davin and Bri's in Spanish, that J. Scott was going to play tennis there at the sports complex in the south of town.

I readjusted my destination and met them there, where the kids got to play with Trevor and Nell's kid. The tournament was being managed by a new person, and was very disorganized. I think everyone was frustrated. After waiting a couple of hours, we took our charges home for dinner and bed. They had enjoyed their time playing with cousins in the park, but we missed seeing Scott play.

On Friday we decided to do a delivery I had agreed to do for the store. Since we have our Finn using our van, it worked out to use Davin's truck since we were there. (We hope he didn't mind)

After the delivery, the kids were hungry so we stopped at the Summer's Mini Taco place in AF. Thanks Becca your were a lifesaver, and heck, more cousin time!!

Back at the antique mall, Dad loaded a few pieces of furniture that I'll be using at home, as I back out of another booth at Treasures North. This is Treasures South as I threw together a new look. Still lots to do, but we had committed to feed the missionaries.

Yep, the old standby, Navajo tacos ... the elders are from, California, Texas and Virginia.

After they left, we cleaned up and moved into the parlor. It was the rainbow hour, and I laughed about how this rainbow hit my horn blowing cherub. Not to worry, he is draped, but I always think rainbow hour is magical in this house. I bet Trevor and Nell's kids miss it.

On Saturday Ashley had asked for help moving Kim to her new apartment in Salt Lake. I had already told my friend Jenn that I wanted to come to her vintage sale that morning, which left Dad without a car. Ashley thought that it would be helpful if we took Zach junking with us, so we did.

Here is Jenn's Garden house. She said mine was the first that she ever saw, and the beginning of her yearning to have one. Her husband Nat finished it this spring and its double the size of mine, and totally charming. I took lots of pics and will do a blog post on my Pollyanna-reinvents blog soon.

Every time we've had Zach since their house fire, we have tried to get him to pick out a toy, and he has not been interested. What no legos? So at Jenn's sale he found this 1950's truck, and this is what he wanted. I love it, a man after my own heart.

When we got home, Dad strung the new clothes line that he had put in on Monday. As you can see he also spent a lot of time trimming bushes, and cutting back the suckers off the catalpa stump, while Zach played with the duplo in the family room, finally falling asleep on the parlor couch, after all we had dragged him out of bed at 7:30 to go junking.

When we took him home we had a Ian sighting, which was great. He is such a good looking young man.

That night I saw that the catalpa trimmings had flowers and buds on them, so I cut them off and brought them in. They smell like orchids. Yum.

I bought this red base, that I am using for a cloche, at Jenn's sale. It was from a machine shop, and was a mold. Not sure why it was painted red, but Dad said as soon as he saw it at the sale, he figured I would buy it.

Dad taught Priesthood for his first time since we got back. He said he needs to work on his presentation. I'm sure he did great.

After church we relaxed in our room for a couple of hours, which included some snoring on both our parts ...

Then the Father's Day gathering began .... here' s Penny snitching some delicious watermelon.