Grandma Ostler

Nellie Nadine Ostler

January 5, 1934- July 28, 2008

Excerpts from Dan's 8 page Journal entry about his grandma's passing:

Thursday July 24th Grandma Ostler was taken to the Hospital after becoming feverish and completely non responsive. Once there, the doctor's decided she had pneumonia and some other infections. While in the hospital this first night she had a heart attack and on Friday morning dad received a phone call that she had stopped breathing. With her “directive not to resuscitate” the doctor told him that most likely she would not be alive by the time he got to the hospital. Family members were called and everyone traveled to the Tri Cities. As each family member arrived we felt blessed to find Grandma alive and still in the hospital.

Grandma was completely non-responsive and lay in bed virtually comatose. We were told that this was it and to take advantage of every second with her because they would be our last.

We stayed till about 4 in the morning before going home to sleep. We returned 3 hours later refreshed and ready to stay with her for the day. With the family fully gathered, we reminisced about Grandma’s life and legacy. I can’t say enough about how rich and rewarding these several hours were. They were moments of quiet reflection and honorary tribute, mingled with laughter and fun with the recounting of each of our memories.

Late Saturday morning a nurse came into talk to us about taking grandma home or admitting her to a hospice care house. The family quickly decided she belonged at home for her final moments on earth. Home is at Dad's house as she has lived with our family for the last 15 years. I would consider her to be more of a mom than a grandma to me. Grandma Ostler had the single biggest effect on the shaping of my character and life, my life's habits and personality traits, my testimony and commitment to following the Saviors example, with the exception of only one person. Namely my dad Lee Ostler.

For the next few days family members sat by her bed side. Everyone only getting 1 hour of sleep here or there. By Sunday most of the out of town extended family had to leave. It was heartbreaking to watch her children say goodbye to her for the last time.

We took shifts so that someone us by her side at all times throughout the entire weekend.

Monday night came upon us and we geared up for another long night. At about 10:15 pm Scott left the house. He was going to go home and get his first full nights sleep since last Thursday. Delene would be back at 2am to fill a shift. Stacey and I were to stay with Grandma until Delene returned.

When Scott left, but before Dad went to bed, and before Ryan or Linda went home, our family all happened to gather around grandma for a while.

With all of the hustle of the day gone, With all of the children sleeping, With nothing but the quiet of the night and the stillness of the tired home, we gathered around grandma and pondered. Slowly and naturally a quiet conversation stirred among us about the sacredness and significance of Grandmas life.

As we shared a few more stories and memories of her great life, heartfelt comments were made about the amazing legacy this woman has left. We talked about how amazing it was that Grandma raised 7 children who each had solid testimonies, married in the temple, went on missions, graduated from college with advanced degrees, and who largely had proven to pass those values on to the 3rd generation.

As the sentiments continued, and as the spirit was soft and peaceful, we witnessed grandma take her last breath. The room stood still. Time froze. Hearts lurched into our throats, and stomachs tied in knots. It was the moment we had been preparing for, yet I am not certain we were fully prepared. Many minutes of sacred and special time were had this evening. One of which was that we circled around Grandma for prayer and I offered a word of prayer on behalf of the group. Besides the family prayer, believe it or not there were still untold stories and memories that were unfolded which made us cry and laugh. We continued talking, praying, and saying our goodbyes to this loved woman.

As a tribute to my grandmother let me say this – “You are the one woman in my life who most perfectly filled the role of matriarch, mother, and mom. It wasn’t just “grandma” for you. You took on a different kind of role with me and I will never forget it. I love you beyond your understanding. I thank you for your testimony and example. I thank you for your dedication to following the Lord and his commandments. I thank you for teaching me the importance of prayer and scripture study. I thank you for loving me and teaching me. I can never repay you, but I promise to pass on your Legacy to my children. My children will miss out by not having you to directly influence them, but – I will do my best in proxy. I love you”

May God Rest Her Soul. And may God be with ME until we meet again. For she is truly with Him in his mansions above. Of this I am certain.

I love you Grandma. Forever and Always. Thank you for your Legacy and your Love.

White Water Rafting

As youth it was our tradition, every summer, to get together and caravan over to the Deschutes River for a day of white water rafting fun, but now that we have turned into old farts with children of our own we let that tradition slip away. It's been about 13 years since our last church, youth group, white water rafting trip. A friend of ours (Annette Rose) decided it had been way too long and planned a white water rafting trip for 25 friends. There were only about 5 original people from when we used to go as kids and the rest were 1st timers. 

Our group of 25 was divided in 3 boats. 

Our boat carried Dan and I, Annette & Jacob Rose, Cory & Sonja Hansen, 

Brooke & Jared Rose, and Kaitlyn Dickey.

We spent most of the day drenching the other 2 boats.

It was one continuous water fight ALL DAY LONG!

The other boats finally got smart and swam over to steal our water guns and buckets.

 The funnest part of that exchange was witnessing the ninja like skills of the men in our boat retrieving their lost weapons. It was an epic battle! To Mike Scott's credit it took 3 men from our boat, and a near drowning experience before the water gun was finally pryed from his death grip and returned to it's rightful owners. But, we eventually recovered the weapons and continued on as before.  

When we weren't attacking the other boats, we were holding on for dear life. 

Class 4 rapid Oak Springs was one of a few rapids we survived.

We had a BLAST!

Let's do it again next year!

Family Vacation to UTAH

Wednesday, July 16th 

Dan and I took the kids to the Salt Lake Temple today. We love it there!!! The Salt Lake temple has such a special meaning to us because of its rich history and it also happens to be the temple where Dan and I were married 10 years ago.

We spent about 7 hours there with the kids touring the conference center, the visitor centers, and temple square. We also watched the Joseph Smith movie as a family.

It was fun to watch the kids enjoy it. They each were given a disposable camera before the trip began and each of them kept posing and snapping pictures of everything they thought was cool. Most of their pictures were of the temple grounds and the beautiful fountains and statues.

This experience with the kids was priceless!! Many times throughout the day the kids made beautiful comments and remarks about what they were seeing and how it touched their hearts. I can tell that the time we spent together today on temple square has helped strengthen each family members testimony of the Savior and his gospel. We loved the time spent there!

After Temple Square we took the kids to dinner at the Mayan.

This is a fun themed restaurant with a big waterfall and pool inside the restaurant. Every 20 minutes divers come out to perform a little show for all of us. They are diving from 2-3 stories high and it is quite fun to watch.

Thursday, July 17th

The next day we started out at Thanksgiving Point near Lehi. They have a farm there for kids and families to enjoy horses, cows, goats, chickens, rabbits, and more. They have pony rides and a wagon ride which the kids enjoyed.

From here we went back up to Salt Lake to the Gateway Mall where they have a huge children's museum. That was a ton of fun and took hours and hours before we finally called it a day.

Next it was off to a park for a family picnic and some games. And then we retired for the day.

Friday July, 18th

Friday was the official beginning of the Ostler Reunion. F.U.N. was the theme of the reunion standing for Families United in Numbers. The entire Ostler extended family met at 7 peaks water park for a day of fun in the sun. I thought it might be a chore to handle our 18 month old (Hudson), but to my surprise he was a happy and cooperative kid all day. He enjoyed the slides, the water, the tubes, and all the fun.

This was a really cool park. If I lived in that area I would totally get a membership to the park and take the family often.

After the water park, we all changed into white shirts and denim pants. We met up with all the family at a park for pictures. Here was the “family picture fest”. Nearly 70 of us posing for pics. It went pretty well, all things considered.

One of the funnier moments of all the evening was when Grandma and Grandpa were posing in a picture with their 6 living children behind them. After a few serious picture were taken, Scott pulls out some sunglasses and puts them on Grandma. As if that wasn’t funny enough, she started dancing around and hamming it up. She was spunky and spontaneous and thanks to that moment some of us had a side ache after laughing so hard.

Saturday, July 19th

The next morning we started out at Aunt Nadine's graveside for a Family Home Evening of sorts. All extended family met there and gathered around the grave as we had a memorial service for Nadine and a message about the plan of salvation along with songs and testimonies.

It was a beautiful gathering and the spirit was felt strongly.

We separated from the graveside to get lunch and meet at the park for an afternoon of fun.

Upon meeting at Rock Canyon Park in Provo the party began.

It was blazing HOT!!! But we were determined to have fun regardless. The family had previously arranged for each family to chose a family color and make a t-shirt in that color for each member of our family. We chose yellow. Each person had a number corresponding to when they came into the family. That number was printed on their t-shirt. Example, Lee as the oldest in the family was #1. Dan was number #8, I came into the family at #44, and our kids had numbers as well. It was a site to see. All the families in matching colored T-shirts with numbers 1-73 on the backs of them. Hence the reunion theme... Family United in Numbers (F.U.N.)

We played games, ice blocked down a hill, BBQ food for dinner, and all sorts of laid back interaction.

Tons of fun.

By the time we got home that night we were exausted.

Sunday, July 20th

We spent Sunday with the Justensen family. They served missions with Dan. We had a tour of their beautiful new home, had dinner and let our kids play. It was great catching up with our old friends. Monday morning we hit the road and headed back home. Everyone in the family loved our trip to Utah.