My one request concerning our beach house was that each family would have their own bathroom...well, at least that mine would. :) Our house, The Castle, did not disappoint! We spent most of our time inside, just hanging out, though Kaelah, Elise and I did slip away to do some shopping, and most of us went down to the beach at some point. Unfortunately Missy and Marni got super sick, so spent some quality time taking care of each other. And fortunately nobody else caught whatever they had!
Elise and Sammy thought it would be fun to play in the water...water temp 55, air temp 38, wind speed ~15 mph. It was fun...until Sammy did a face plant in the water while running from a wave. Brr! Luckily Uncle Brett can run fast - he ran his little guy up to the Castle and came back for Sammy, who was only halfway of the half mile up the hill to the house.
That wind was cold!!
The tide pools were lots of fun!
Mom was able to come out to the coast for a few minutes before she got too tired. Dad drove right onto the beach, so she was still able to enjoy watching the kids play from the car. Aunt Lori and Grandpa came to hang out for a few days, which was lots of fun!
I think Sammy will always treasure this picture of him and Grammy.
Couple of goofballs...
Ballet on the beach
On our last night all together at the Castle my brothers, some of their wives and some of my kids gathered in Mom's room to pray with her. We knelt around the bed (well, except for me and Mom), and Mom held my and Trevor's hands and Trevor prayed. There was a pretty amazing feeling in the room. Mom told us how much she loved us, and we all gave her long hugs before we left. What an amazing woman! Oh, how we miss her!
Mom did really well in spite of all the chaos. She napped a lot and went to bed early, but she loved that all of us were having so much fun together. She has always loved being in the middle of everything!
Over the previous months Mom had written down a bunch of memories as well as looking through journal entries and pulling out stories she thought we would enjoy. She made new copies of "famous Cochran quotes" for everyone, and gave everyone a packet to have. [side note: I actually couldn't even bring myself to read through it until the night before her funeral. It was in my nightstand the entire time...I just couldn't bring myself to open it.]
On the last morning there she was even more tired than usual. I can still see Dad not leaving her side and shielding her from the chaos all around her. She slept all the way home and well into the late afternoon, when she got up and went to the couch until bedtime.
Scott & Marni and Trevor & Kaelah had gone home, but the rest of us had a simple dinner and hung out talking until bedtime. In the morning Brett and Dad brought Jeff, Missy and my family to the airport. Saying goodbye to Mom was so hard. We all knew these were our last moments together in this life.
Our last week together was quite representative of our lives together: Wonderful. I wouldn't change a thing. We left each other with no regrets.
