Phoenix

On Tuesday, the first week in May, I got a call from my mother letting me know that my uncle Jens had passed away. He was a very special person to me as my mother had often told me that I was named after him. Of course, he was very big into family history and nearly every time we spoke over the phone he expressed his concern that Jenae was in no way a valid split off from Jens. He would give me a ten minute history lesson as to the history behind the name Jens to which the conclusion was always "I know that your mother says that she named you after me, and although it was mostly a name that she made up, I would love to have you as an adopted daughter. You are very special and I love you. I think you are great!" As such, he always went out of his way to make me feel special. He would often call to see how my day was and would make an effort to drive all the way up to Idaho from Phoenix so that we were able to spend time with him. My kids all adored him, but he had a real soft spot when it came to Jordyn. Jordyn loved Uncle Jens and would follow him around like a lost puppy. One christmas when he came to visit he ended up adopting a new little puppy from the animal shelter. Jordyn loves all animals and spent all of her time playing with the puppy. Jens told her that it was really her dog and he was just giving it a place to stay as we were renting and did not have room for a dog. (not to mention her mom didn't want to take care of one. ) Whenever he would call, the first thing Jordyn would ask him was how her dog was doing and if he was taking care of him. Jordyn loves to talk on the phone and my family would always say hi and then get off the phone to attend to whatever they had planned for the day, but uncle Jens always had time to talk to her and she would talk to him for hours about nothing.
When my father had surgury on his back, Jens drove down with his trailer the day before we had to get back to Utah. I had spent a week in Idaho Falls helping dad recover and Jens was my releif. He came a day early so that we could spend time together. It was great to see him as always, and Jordyn spent an hour watching the windows for his arrival. As soon as he made it and came in to give everyone a big hug, he and Jordyn went out to check on their dog and make sure he had all that he needed. I have many memories in which he expressed how special I was to him and how lucky he felt to have me for a neice. He never missed the opportunity to tell me how much he loved me. I am still cannot beleive that he will not be stopping in at my door one of these days to say hi and give me a great big hug.

Anyway, we wanted to be there for his memorial service and to support my mother as she went through his things, so we decided to make the drive to Phoenix. Poor Mindy volunteered to drive with us and we left at night so that the kids would sleep most of the way. About four hours into the drive, Alex started complaining about his seat belt being too tight. I didn't think anything of it other than that he was tired. We pulled over thinking to help him unbuckle his seat belt only to find that he had wrapped the seatbelt around him and had moved around so much that he couldn't move. He was litteraly stuck. The only way to get him out was to cut the seat belt (an expensive idea) or to unbolt the seat belt from under the seat. Unfortunately, I did not have the tools for either and we were out in the middle of nowhere. Poor Alex had to stay that way for another five hours until we reached civilization. Meanwhile, poor Mindy ended up getting car sick on the windy roads by Lake Powell. We had to stop evey ten minutes so that she could get out. Poor girl. By the time that we made it to Phoenix we were more than a little delirious. We had a good visit with family and friends and I was introduced to my Uncle Chris and his wife Noreen. Noreen is from Ireland and a more gracious host we could not have had. She was so sweet with my kids. I only wish that we could have spent time together under different circumstances. We were able to spend almost a week in Phoenix, swimming in the morning, spending a couple of hours each day cleaning out Jens' house and returning home to dinner, more swimming, and spending time with the Halverson side of the family. It was great to catch up with cousins, aunts and uncles, and my grandparents. The funeral was very nice and we had a family meeting the night before in which we had a chance to share our thoughts and love for Jens. All in all is was a great trip. (It helped that the drive home was uneventful too!)