We'll Miss You Grandpa!

Well I got the phone call that I knew would be coming soon. My Grandpa Schmidt passed away peacefully at about 6:00am (MT) today. It is never an easy phone call to get.

I am thankful that he went peacefully, I know that he was ready to go. I am also soooo thankful that I got to have the time with him that I did in March. I got to just be with him, play scrabble, help him shave, and create a few last memories. I will miss him a lot.

Even though I didn't get to see him a ton or talk to him a lot in the last couple of years, he is such a huge part of my life. I'm not sure how much I can get out right now... still kinda raw. But I took a bunch of pictures when I was up there that tell a bunch of the story!
Enjoy...

He was such a work horse. Chopping wood was something we saw him do a lot of. He always had a wood burning stove and that's the tea kettle he used to heat the water for his coffee and tea every day.These are his shirts. He wore plaid a lot :) He worked his farm his entire life. And he was great at patching up and using them until they were literally threads.He loved horses. The little one on the back is me, and the front one is my sister. This horse is Smokey! I think he would say Smokey was his favorite.He almost always had a hat on.He always included us in what he was doing. This is in Kansas, the farm that we great up going to. You can see that each of us has some horse feed to carry. And the jacket he has on in this picture was finally thrown away 3 years ago when it caught on fire! :)The pile of gloves. I'm not sure if he ever threw a pair away. I think he is where I get pack rat nature from. Ok, maybe not!As you can see... another example of wearing something out. I can picture him now, putting his boots on by the front door to go out and do chores. We always had to be on our toes and ready to go... he wasn't waiting!The last picture I took with him. He did not like to have his picture taken. But he almost always cooperated... atleast mostly!

I will miss you Grandpa. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for teaching me. And thank you for letting me always follow you around and learn from you. I love you!