Sweet 16

 On Saturday of last weekend we had the chance to celebrate the 16th birthday or Randall's cousin "E" (for privacy I will leave out names)  This was not a typical celebration because "E" was not here to celebrate with us.  Last October we got a sad call late in the night  telling us there had been a horrific accident and that "E" had returned to her Heavenly Father.  It was extremely upsetting as you can imagine.  We felt terrible being so far away at such a difficult time.  Because of the circumstances surrounding her death, we felt that without question Randall should fly home to show his love and support to his family.  Well, "E" would have turned 16 on Tuesday, so her parents wanted to celebrate.

Early Saturday morning we awakened to one of the worst thunder and lightning storms I've ever experience in Utah.  Apparently many prayers were said by family that there would be at least a small window of calm so we could go ahead as planned.   Family and friends gathered together with balloon bouquets of various crazy patterns and colors.  "E" did not like pink but loved all things crazy and fun.  We picked out a cow pattern, polka dots and happy birthday balloons, making sure that none of them matched, because that's what she would have wanted.

 You can imagine it was a difficult and emotional day.  D&D, her parents are the sweetest people you have ever met.  They have always shown me love and kindness as if I was a part of the family, even years before Randall and I were married.  Aunt D, spoke about" E" for a little while, telling us what a sweetheart she was and how "D" would often get a call from school with requests for doughnuts or pizza or whatever it was because someone at school needed some cheering up or it was their birthday etc.  Some of E's favorite things were crazy mismatched socks and eating skittles.  Aunt D brought everyone a party favor that was a crazy sock with a bag of skittles tied up inside. We all sang Happy Birthday and then released the balloons into heaven.

 I'm so grateful that we were there to remember and celebrate the amazing girl that she was.  I think it was neat that her parents wanted to try to celebrate the occasion rather than just mourn her not being with us anymore.  You could tell it was a very difficult day for them.

 After we released the balloons we all ate doughnuts and enjoyed the peaceful morning that came after the storm.