Saying Goodbye, Tongue Tacos, Dancer of the Week, Chicago, Bottling, Flu Orientation, Soccer, Youth Council, Piano, Minnetonka Cave

This past week has been busy.  The last Saturday before Josh left to go to Chicago we were able to do a morning endowment session at the Ogden temple.  I wanted Josh to have as much temple experience as he could before he left on his mission.  Although there is a temple in the Chicago area we didn’t know how often Josh would be able to attend so we tried to do as much as we could before he left.  There is so much information to take in at the temple that the more you go the more you understand.  It has been a really neat experience to be able to go to the temple with him and Aaron these past two months.  

After the temple Josh’s online Home MTC district wanted to get together in person for a lunch before everyone left for their different missions.  They chose to meet at someone’s grandma’s house in Provo.  The district members that lived close by were able to attend and meet in person.  On our way down we were a bit early so we stopped by a BYU apparel tent sale where a tender mercy came to pass.  I have been apprehensive and nervous to send Josh out to Chicago.  However, at the tent sale Aaron struck up a conversation with one of the employees.  It just so happened that her son had JUST come home from a Spanish speaking Chicago mission two months previously.  She knew who the mission president was and raved about how great of an experience it was for her son that had just returned.  That made me feel a bit better about sending him out.  After visiting for a few minutes we then left to take Josh to his district luncheon.  When we got to the house we quickly met a few of his HMTC district members and then left Josh there so he could visit with everyone outside of a computer screen.  They had this sign up for the district members that were able to make it:

After Aaron and I dropped Josh off we found a small street taco place to grab a quick lunch.  It seemed to be authentic because they offered 6 different tacos a few of them including beef head, beef tongue, tripe, chicken and steak.  To try and be adventuresome Aaron and I ordered one beef tongue taco and split it.  I tasted the meet and it was very tender, but after looking closer at the meat and seeing the actual taste buds on the tongue meat in the taco I didn’t want to try anymore.  I guess I am not as an adventurous eater as I had originally thought--haha!  Here’s our cow tongue taco with a meat chunk that you can see the taste buds on:

Josh’s district had only planned to spend lunch and an hour or two visiting, but it ended up turning into about 4 hours of visiting time.  Aaron and I came back after two hours and Josh was not ready to go so we left for a bit longer.  

Here’s everyone from their district that was able to make it:

After four hours it was time to come back home.  Josh was sad to say goodbye, but they are all on each other’s email lists so they will keep in touch. 

When we got home that evening we spent some time together as a family.  During Josh’s Home MTC in his free time we have been playing some family games (our favorite was Five Crowns), watching different church movies/video clips and safety videos, going grocery shopping and going on walks.  That evening we played some games while we washed all of Josh’s clothes preparing to pack them the next day.  The next day was Sunday.  We went to church.  Afterward Josh and I started packing his bags.  He had collected everything the week before to make sure he had everything he needed.  We picked up the things he was missing throughout the week--Thank goodness for same day delivery from Amazon!!  Anyway, we put everything inside the suitcases and thankfully, it fit and was all underweight.  Then we had our last Sunday dinner and invited G&G T to join us.  After dinner and visiting for awhile it was time for Josh to say goodbye to G&G T for two years.

Then it was time to take Matthew back to his group home.  His very first day of school was the next day and he didn’t want to miss it so he said goodbye to Josh that evening.

We checked and rechecked everything on the papers we had.

Then it was time for bed since we had a very early morning.  Josh’s flight was at 8:20 am.  They told him to get to the airport two hours before his flight which meant 6:20am.  That meant we had to wake up at 4:45 am to get ready for the day since we would be dropping off Sarah, Noah and Daniel at school when we came back from the airport.  Then it came time to leave the house at 5:20am.  Josh said goodbye to Sophie:

Made the drive to the airport and parked.  They have totally redone the Salt Lake Airport so it took a bit to figure out where to park so we could walk inside.

Walking inside the airport we all had to be wearing a mask.  Then we headed over to check his bags at the Delta check in.  One of the perks of living in Utah they had a line open dedicated to just missionaries checking in.  That made the check in go so quickly.  He checked in and checked his two large suitcases for the Chicago flight.  We then made our way over to the security area.

Had to stop and check the flight status.  Thankfully, it was a direct flight and running on time.

If there is moving walkway you HAVE to use it--at least that it what all the kids told me--haha!

Then we got to security and it was time to say goodbye. 

 Time to say goodbye and hug:

Aaron:

Sarah:

Noah:

Daniel:

I was having a bit of a hard time.

Then he walked down the security line on his way and didn’t even look back:

We tracked his flight and knew it landed, but didn’t hear anything from him.  Luckily, his Mission President and wife took pictures of the new incoming missionaries after they had landed at the Chicago airport and posted them to Facebook.  Aaron and I scrolled through them all and picked out Josh from the different pictures.  

All the new incoming missionaries to the Chicago, Illinois mission:

We got an email from the Mission President that evening saying the new missionaries made it.  Then we just had to sit tight and hope for the best since the missionaries aren’t supposed to contact their families until the next P-day.  It was radio silent......

Aaron took the rest of the day off.  We drove back after dropping Josh off and then we dropped off all the kids at school.  Aaron and I grabbed some breakfast and just bummed around the rest of the day.  I was sad.  It was bittersweet.  I am so grateful Josh chose to serve a mission, but we will really miss him.  

Since Josh is not supposed to contact us outside of P-days we have no idea what is going on from day to day.  So it is a bit exciting when we can see little updates even if they are from his Facebook.  Later that evening Josh posted that he moved to Chicago on Facebook:

The next day he said he moved to Waukegan city.  We had never heard of that particular city so Aaron googled Waukegan, Illinois and that wasn’t the most reassuring thing.  From now on we will not google information about different cities because ignorance is bliss.  This is what googling Waukegan brought up--Ahhhh:

We weren’t going to hear from Josh until his next P-day which is today.  It is usually Monday, but if it falls on a holiday then they push it back a day.  Since yesterday was Labor Day, he will be calling today.  He should call this afternoon and I am so excited to talk to him for the first time in over a week!!

My sister, Jennifer from Ohio, knows what it is like sending out a missionary and was sweet enough to send me some ice cream from Ohio.  Ice cream makes everything better, right?!  That was an unexpected, but very sweet surprise!!

Interestingly enough her nephew from the other side of the family is currently serving a Spanish speaking mission in Chicago as well.  She told him to keep an eye out for Josh.

Josh’s Mission President sent us an email saying that he got there okay and was doing great.  He included a picture of him, his wife and Josh:

Here’s Josh’s first in the field companion:

The rest of that Monday was hard, but life goes on.  The next day was a bit easier.  It helped that I had a ton of tomatoes from our garden that I needed to do something with before they went bad. I spent the rest of the day making and bottling spaghetti sauce:

The next day I was very pleasantly surprised to find this sign in our front yard when I got home from running some errands:

Sarah got picked as the ‘Danzer’ of the week.  Here’s what her dance teacher wrote about her:

Here’s my cute ‘Danzer of the Week':

This past week Sarah started Jazz Band in the mornings.  So far she says she likes it even if it means she has to wake up and be at school an hour earlier 2-3 times a week.

Sarah and Noah started up early morning piano lessons again.  We had to find a different teacher since our old one stopped teaching lessons. It has taken me over a year to find one, but they are both excited to start lessons back up again even if it means they have to practice every day.

Matthew had his first day of school.  He has been looking forward to school starting ever since it stopped for summer.  He loves school and was excited to go back.  He knows that we have a huge cooked breakfast the morning of the first day of school at our house.  He asked me to cook him breakfast for his first day of school.  I cooked up a big breakfast for him Sunday afternoon and sent it in a Tupperware for him to heat up and make breakfast burritos the next morning.  He loved his breakfast and had a great day at school.  They are opening more job sites up so he is excited to get back to trying out different job experiences again since they were all closed down last year due to Covid.  

Last Wednesday Daniel and Sarah got to help volunteer for a community Illumination event.  It was a community mental health focus/program.  They had different classes throughout the week and ended with a huge community celebration Wednesday evening.  Sarah volunteered with the Jr. High National Honor Society club.  Daniel volunteered with the city Youth Council.  They both helped run different booths during the celebration.  Then later that night they did a big fireworks show.  It was a good experience and they were glad they were able to help out.

Flu season is right around the corner if you can believe it!  We had our flu orientation at work which is for all the returning and first time seasonal staff at CNS last week.  They provided a catered dinner and then talked about all things flu for a few hours.  Even though I am a year round Core staff member they still have the core staff members attend flu orientation every year as well.  I don’t mind.  It is fun to see returning flu crew members that I haven’t seen since flu season ended last year.  I have my first flu shot shift Thursday.  I still can’t believe it is that time of year again!!

Friday Sarah got to go to her first Jr. High dance after school.  She was excited to go with her friends.  However, when she got home after the dance she said she was not impressed.  I just had to chuckle and wonder if she will go to the next Jr. High dance.  Aaron was surprised that there was a Jr. High dance and that Sarah was old enough to go to it.  He still sees her as a 1st grader--haha!  That evening Aaron and I went to the Highschool football game.  Daniel was playing in the band for the game that night and we wanted to see him play.  This is the first time they have had a band play at the football game so it was new for everyone.  Here he is on the back row in the gray and blue sweatshirt:

He is playing the baritone saxophone:

This past week Daniel reapplied to be on the city Youth Council again.  To reapply you have to fill out an application and submit it with a current picture and a letter or recommendation.  Daniel asked our bishop to give him a letter of recommendation and this is what he wrote which was really nice:

He has interviews in a couple weeks for Youth Council so hopefully he can serve for another year.  

We were gifted another 3 bushel of peaches from our friends.  I love peaches and am grateful for them.  With this round we did some more jam, jars of half peaches, I tried making some peach juice and then some fruit leather.  Here’s the fruit leather:

Peach halves, peach jam and peach juice on the right:

With the leftover white peaches I pealed, pitted, halved and froze them.  Here they are in the freezer:

Needless to say we are SET for peaches--haha!  The kids have already eaten two bottles so I guess that is good they like them, too.

Daniel has discovered a LOVE of grilled cheese sandwiches.  He has made so many this past week.  He even made some for breakfast yesterday and today.  I can’t say as I blame him---grilled cheese sandwiches are yummy!  Here’s his breakfast this morning:

Noah is still doing soccer and loving it.  Noah is a busy guy.  He doesn’t hold still very often, but the other evening he fell asleep on Aaron while watching TV and Aaron LOVED it!!  

This weekend was Labor Day.  We didn’t do anything super exciting over the weekend.  Saturday we did errands and spent the rest of the day bottling peaches.  However, Monday we decided to go for a drive.  We had Matthew spend the night Sunday night and got up early the next morning.  When Daniel got home from Cross Country practice we headed up to see Minnetonka Cave which was a 2 and a half hour drive away up in Idaho.  It was a first come first served ticket process and they were limiting groups to 20 people.  I was nervous we wouldn't be able to get tickets, but we didn’t have a problem getting some after driving up there.  

The drive up there goes past Bear Lake and was beautiful.  The foliage is starting to change color and is so pretty.  I LOVE fall.  You can see some of the red leaves on our walk to the cave opening:

It has been a few years since we have visited this cave, but it was still fun to see.  There were lots of stairs so we even got a nice stair workout in, too--haha!

Our guide shined a black light on the walls of the cave and you could see where the water seeps in from the outside:

You could even see the bioluminescent bacteria on the top/roof of the cave:

We did all have to wear a mask, but that isn’t that big of a deal:

We even got to see a few bats flying around inside.  Aaron was NOT happy about that (he HATES bats), but I thought it was pretty cool.

It was a fun visit.  Afterward we drove in to town and grabbed lunch at LaBeau’s in Garden City.  You can’t drive by Bear Lake and NOT get a raspberry shake, right?!

Here’s Bear Lake as we were driving out of the valley to get home:

The air is still pretty hazy here from the California wild fires.