Memories of Grandpa Craig

Grandpa Craig

The flower arrangement the grandkids sent. Big University of Utah "U" with Reeses peanunt butter cups, mini chocolate candy bars, and coke cans.


Yesterday was Grandpa Craig's funeral. The funeral was beautiful, but it was a hard day for all of us. The weather was PERFECT! It was about 65 degrees outside, with a little tiny breeze, and the sky was completely blue and cloudless. It was exactly Grandpa's favorite type of day! There were tons of people there, my Mom and Dad even made the long trek to Tooele to come to the funeral. It was one of the "happiest" funerals I have ever been to. It was nice to laugh in between all the tears. They had over 30 police officers in attendance, and they stood at attention along the church sidewalk as Craig's casket was carried out. It was very moving to see them all in uniform saluting such a wonderful man! Then he had a police escort to the cemetery. It was amazing to see how many lives he touched in the community!

As part of the service we decided to all write some of our favorite memories down of him, and then Chris' sister Maren read them at his funeral.

Our family sat down and decided what our favorite memories of Grandpa were. Keric obviously couldn't contribute much, so I had to write one down in his behalf. :)

These were the memories our family chose to share:

Natalee and Chris, as told by Natalee:

There will always be many things that remind me of Craig, the obvious Coke cans, Reeses peanut butter cups, chili cheese frito’s, and the University of Utah. But one thing that may not remind everyone of Craig, but always makes me smile is Ambien.

When we were asked to share an actual memory of him, Chris and I immediately thought of the same Grandpa Craig memory, and since we both share that memory, it is only fitting that we share it with all of you.

In the Summer of 2007, Craig and Anne invited Chris and I to come on vacation with them to Sea Side Oregon. We would be staying in a time share Condo for a week, just the 4 of us. We would be leaving the middle of June, and I jumped at the chance to go away for my 1st anniversary! We packed up our stuff in the back of Craig’s big red truck and headed out on our adventure.

We only drove part way that first day, and stayed over night in a hotel somewhere in Washington. We decided to save some money and just get one room, with two beds. We went to a movie that night, “Ocean’s Thirteen” and when we got back, we were all dead tired and more then ready for bed.

Craig had been having some trouble sleeping, which seems to be a familiar family trait I have found out, and so Anne had brought him home something new to try…Ambien. He took one of his first Ambien’s that night, and there our memory begins.

Ambien apparently agreed quite well with Craig, because it didn’t take him long to fall asleep. After he had been asleep for a little while, he started to snore. This was not a big deal for either Chris and I, because we are both used to hearing each other snoring away if we aren’t quick enough to fall asleep before the other one. As the night progressed however, so did the snoring.

It truly was a snore like I had never heard before. At first I didn’t really know what to say, if anything. I just kind of laid there hoping to fall asleep. As I laid there it was fairly evident that Chris was also awake. I could hear him sighing. Pretty soon his sighs got deeper, and longer and louder. Then he started to yell Craig’s name. The louder Craig snored, the louder Chris yelled. It got to the point where I couldn’t stop laughing at the two of them!

I couldn’t believe that Anne was sleeping through this entire episode. Me laughing, Chris yelling, and Craig snoring!

Finally it got so bad, that Chris decided we were going to have to get another room. Of course I got nominated to go down to the front desk and ask for another room.

So down I went, in my pajama’s to ask the desk clerk for another room. They of course wanted to know what the problem was with the first room and why I needed another room, so I had to explain to them, and I wasn’t able to do that without some snickering and giggling. They gave us another room, and I went up and got Chris.

We grabbed a few things before we went to the other room and left a note on the desk for Craig and Anne. Chris told them that the snoring was so bad we couldn’t stand it, so we had moved to another room.

The next morning, poor Craig was so embarrassed, and apologetic about his snoring. Eventually we laughed and laughed about that night. That trip will always be a fond memory of mine, and I’m so glad we were able to spend the week with Craig and Anne. We still to this day laugh about that night and I for one plan to continue to do so for many many years to follow.


Cameron:

My favorite memory of Grandpa Craig was all of the times we went to the movies together. My favorite movie that I saw with Grandpa was Transformers. Grandpa always made sure we had plenty of popcorn to eat and drinks to drink.


Reagan:

My favorite memory of Grandpa Craig were the nights that Cameron and I went in the hot tub with Grandpa. We would play with fishie and sharkie and tell Grandpa all kinds of stories.


Keric:

My favorite memory of Grandpa Craig is that he gave me my very first taste of chocolate. He would always share his peanut butter cups with me at Cameron and Reagan’s soccer games. Grandpa used to tell my mommy that when she left me at Grandpa’s house, he would fill my bottle with Coke. I guess that will be a secret that Grandpa and I will share forever!

All of the Wexels Grandkids, minus Keric who was screaming for his bottle. :)

Cameron and Reagan with Grandpa
Our Family, (Pardon the sunglasses, my eyes were too red and puffy to remove them!)

Not exactly the three generation picture I hoped to have, but it was the best I could do.