Last Sunday we got to stay a little later at my parents house because Tyler didn't have school on Monday due to Martin Luther King Jr. day. So we got home late which usually means the kids sleep in a little bit the next day. I almost took the kids up to the snow by myself but when I woke up I decided I would just spend the day with the kids cleaning their rooms and just taking it easy. Well I get a phone call from Trev around 10:20 saying that Chris ( a lady that boards two horses at our house) is outside and she says that she thinks Duke is dying. So I get the kids situated so that I can run outside and check on him and by the time I got outside he had died. This is the big black horse that Grace and Tyler get bucked off of in September. He had this disease called HYPP which in layman's terms means that in his breeding he got a genetic disorder passed down to him that attacks your muscles. He had just recently been suffering from HYPP attacks which means that his muscles are spazzing out and you can see it rolling through his body. So I run outside to a dead horse that I had been holding a grudge towards because he hurt my Grace. So it starts to rain and I"m scrambling between making sure the kids are looking outside at him and trying to find blankets and tarps to cover up this huge horse. I was surprised at how hard it hit me. He was a beautiful horse and really had a cool personality. He was shown in some local horse shows and cleaned up really good. He was my dad's first horse and always would meet me at gate when we would get home from school and race us down the driveway as we pulled in to the garage he would run into his stall in the barn. He had a Stallion spirit. So that was a fun way to spend a day off.
Then on Wednesday I found out from Trev that some stuff from his job site got stolen, which really is the the norm now for us. Trev's brother and his wife came to visit, Mathew and Heidi, for Heidi's birthday. We had a lot of fun hanging out and celebrating Heidi's birthday. We went to Chuck e Cheese's for it on Saturday and wow was it crazy but we fun. They are such a cute couple and totally compliment each other. Heidi loves the kids and the kids love her. She is so much fun and is such a sweetheart. They flew home Sunday after dinner and then later that night we got the new that our beloved Prophet, President Hinckley died at home Sunday night. What a great man he was! I shed some tears during the Christmas Devotional this past year because you could tell his health was declining and he seemed a lot more fragile.
So he has gone home to be with his wife. Can you imagine the welcome home party he got! I will always remember his dear smile and spirit.
The week has been bittersweet, but winter always has it's bummer days. Man I can't wait for summer.
