Since Friday

Friday was a really difficult day.  My friend Laura came over around 2:30, and another friend Jenni came over around 6:30.  It was so sweet of them to come and keep me company.  Friday was full of phone calls and planning.  Connor was on the phone almost all day long.  He got in contact with a funeral director in Colorado, Alice Wheeler.  She helped us find out which Coroner's Office Ryan was at, and they got him moved to their facility that day.  We heard that the Coroner's Office in Colorado doesn't do much on the weekends, and we really didn't want Ryan to sit in a cold Coroner's Office all weekend long.

I was on the phone a lot of the day with members of our old ward in Provo, which is where we will be having the funeral.  My mom decided that she wanted to have the service at the same place that we had my dads back in 1998, and Ryan will be buried in East Lawn Cemetery next to my dad.

I was also able to coordinate things with JetBlue and my work schedule.  Can I just say how much I love my job and the company that I work for?  My supervisor was so helpful and caring and really went above and beyond to help me get work covered for this ordeal.  Also, JetBlue flew my mother out to Utah completely free of charge.  And we're not talking standby.  It was a confirmed seat and all.  I love JetBlue.

Saturday I made Connor stay home from work.  I didn't want to be alone.  We went to the temple together in the afternoon.  Around 5:30 we picked my mom up from the airport and drove up to Eric and Kari's house.  We spent the evening with them and we had a good time being with family, and also did some funeral planning as well.

Sunday we drove to Colorado.  We left around 10:30 or 11 and got in around 6:30.  It really wasn't such a bad drive.  We checked into our hotel and then we got some dinner from Carrabbas, where Eric thinks he spotted 2 Denver Broncos Players.  Later we watched a really strange movie on HBO Family called Cirque du Freak: The Vampires Assistant.  Seriously, one of the weirdest/dumbest movies that I've ever seen.  And it's loaded with famous people.  How does that happen?

Monday was really hard.  We were hoping to go first to Ryan's apartment, pack up his stuff, and then go to the funeral home to see him and head home.  In order for us to leave the state of Colorado with Ryan's body, we had to have a permit, and Alice, the funeral director, told us that it should be there by noon.  Well, things turned out a little bit differently.  We weren't able to get into Ryan's apartment until around noon, which was also when we were also going to meet Betzy, the very nice state trooper that was in contact with Eric regarding Ryan's accident.  She had Ryan's cell phone.

We decided to go over to the funeral home around 10:30 am just to see Ryan.  They took Connor in first, and then Eric and I went in.  Seeing Ryan was really hard.  No matter how well someone is embalmed, people just look so different when they're dead.  We left the funeral home and made it to Ryan's apartment a little after noon and we cleaned up his stuff.  That was really hard for me.  For some reason, even harder than seeing his body.  I think because I expected that seeing his body to be difficult, so I had prepared myself for that.  I wasn't prepared for cleaning out all of Ryan's stuff that he would never be back for.

After that we met with Betzy and she gave us Ryan's cell phone.  Then she took us to see his truck, and to see the site of the accident.  Connor took pictures of both but I don't know if I should post them.  They're not too bad, but I just haven't decided yet.  The truck was completely totaled.  Ryan was ejected out of the driver's side window (no seatbelt) and hit his head really badly on the way out.  At the site of the accident we saw where he landed.  Apparently they can put a wreath up for free at the accident scene in memory of Ryan.  We thought that was a really nice idea.  Hopefully we will be able to do that soon.

The funeral home finally had the permit ready for us at around 2:30.  Apparently they had just received the fax right before we arrived back at the mortuary.  So we loaded Ryan's body up, went to Subway to grab some lunch, and started the drive back to Utah.

Tuesday I went to the temple with my mom and her friend.  Afterwards they came to the funeral home and my mom saw Ryan and picked out some final things for the funeral.  They went back home and not too long after Connor and I headed to Eric and Kari's house for dinner.  Joe and Crystal and their kids arrived tonight so it was so fun to see them.

It's wonderful to be together as a family.  I just wish Ryan could be here too.