Arrival at the MTC

We took Josiah to the MTC this week.  Those goodbyes are so hard.  We have made it a tradition (with 2 kids now) to walk around Bridal Veil Falls the morning before entering the MTC.  We actually ended up going to a few other places before to kill time since he didn't need to check in till 1.   We hit the BYU bookstore, visited Eli and family and went out to lunch at Chuck A Roma.  

Us wandering around the temple area a bit before it was time to head in.

I love this picture of Sadie and Josiah.  

As we started to head into the garage Sadie says "all of those feelings are coming back to me and at this point I felt like I was going to throw up"  It is nerve racking on the missionary who is leaving.  I remember that too, it was more of the unknown for me.  Josiah seemed very calm and said he wasn't nervous at all.   On the mom end I am not sure I will ever get used to them going away.  He will do a great job and I am excited for him too.

He is off.   

 

They grew

Today Josiah and Gordon reenacted this pose.  The first picture was from the first year we moved to the area.  They always looked so alike and have been good friends.  It is hard to believe they both are missionaries.  Gordon will be serving in Uruguay and Josiah in Arizona.  Two way different places and it will fun to see them grow.

Gordon was very careful to chose the exact spots the original picture was taken.  I think they got a bit taller.  

 

A missionary, HMTC, rainstorm

Josiah was set apart on Sunday and its has been good to have another missionary around the house.  He is tired each evening but seems to be enjoying it.  I think he will be ready to head to the MTC in person though.  

He is very cuddly and I will miss that.

While Josiah was in his classes for home MTC Jarom and I were scrambling around making sure the house didn't get flooded.  I am not sure I have seen a rain storm that hard here.  It was hard to keep up with all of the floods.  The water was starting to come in at the downstairs door so Jarom got up on the roof and cleaned out the gutters to save that.  I was down on the ground making trench's in other places so that huge puddles wouldn't form near the house.  The garage was flooding at the same time.  It was utter chaos to say the least.  It was also kind of fun having to move that fast.  Josiah  tried to help some but he had to be in class most of the time this craziness was going.  

 

Water dripping in the ceiling from the gas stove chimney. 

Me getting soaked in the process

gutter coming undone because of the water pressure going through them

Jarom in the pouring rain cleaning gutters.  He is the hero of the day!

 

Friends

This group of people have done a lot together.  They even got chased down by cops one night because they were in the wrong place and the wrong time.  I really like all of these kids and grateful my boys can call them friends.  

Nevaeh, Ruby, McKay, Josiah, Dallin and Jarom

 

Fort/dorm

Josiah, McKay and Gordon came up with a grand idea.  They went to Lowes and purchased a slew of boxes with duct tape and made this.....

They played card games in there that evening. 

Gordon posted this on social and advertised it as a dorm for OC students.

I think they broke it down and took it to another house and put it around that persons car.  

 

tomatos

The tomatoes grew the best ever this year.  A friend told me to pole them and so I did.  I took the suckers off as they grew to they would get taller and they did.   I loved the outcome.   It was fun to get so much fruit.  I canned tomatoes and had enough to make salsa too.  I will have to do this again next year and I might make a few tweaks to it. 

 

Family temple trip

This will be our last temple trip as a family for a while.  I am grateful we started to do this a few years ago.  It is a blessing that a temple is close enough to allow us to be here often.