Delivering Flowers on Memorial Day Weekend

Today Alex and I went with my parents and my grandma to visit a few cemeteries for Memorial Day weekend. The first cemetery we went to was Fort Snelling where Keith's dad and my grandpa is buried. Here is Alex pictured above putting flowers by Keith's dad's gravestone. My grandpa was in the navy during WWII and was on the USS St Lo during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. I'm so glad I got to hear all of my grandpa's stories so I can pass them on to Alex when she gets older. Luckily I was able to videotape an interview I did with him a few years ago. I have it on my youtube page if anyone is interested in checking it out. Keith's dad was in the Marines during the Korean War. Unfortunatly, I don't know much about what he did there because he didn't talk about it much. I really wish I knew more.

After Fort Snelling, we went to Sunset Memorial Park where many of my grandma's family is buried. We visited her parents (Alex's great great grandparents) and her sister who died at a young age in the 40's from Rheumatic Fever. I have more pictures I will have to post at a later date.

We also had a great lunch at a new place in Apple Valley. Alex had fish sticks and I had some crab cakes (it's a fish restaurant). At the end of the day we stopped by Fuddruckers for some ice cream. Now I'm ready for bed and too tired to do anything else! Only if Alex was tired too!

Looking Through Old Pictures

I have been working on putting a slideshow together with pics of my grandpa. The memorial service will be March 7th, a Saturday, at the Anderson Funeral Home in Apple Valley. Today I looked at a bunch of old pictures my grandparents have. I found so many neat things. There are so many I would love to upload on here. The first picture is my Grandpa's school picture from Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis, 1935. The second picture is of my grandpa's aircraft carrier, USS St. Lo, in the Battle of Leyte Gulf after the kamikaze flew into it. The last picture is of my grandpa's house he lived in while going to school at Roosevelt High School. I think I will find time to find this house and take a picture of what it looks like now.

I also found newspapers from when World War II started and the Minneapolis paper from when Kennedy was assasinated in 1963. It is so neat to see that. One of these days I will see if I can scan them in and put them on here.

Bud Sole- Dec 30, 1917-Feb 10th, 2009

My Grandpa passed away this morning. He was 91 years old and led a very long and active life. He and my grandma met while they were in high school. After they were married he was drafted into the war and joined the navy. He was aboard the USS st. lo (formerly the USS midway) and his ship was hit by a kamikaze at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. It's a great story and I wish I had more time to type it all down, but it's late and I'm tired. I was able to videotape an interview with him and my grandma about it a few years ago. I have been working on putting a couple of the clips on youtube. You can go to my youtube site at: www.youtube.com/hamroo14. Right now I have three videos on there. If they aren't all on there when you check it some of them might be processing.