September and October happenings

I am behind! On Friday, Sept. 8, before Max started Home MTC, my parent company held a Bees night and we had dinner at the stadium and watched some of the baseball game.

Some day, we won't have any kids riding the train in the outfield any more.

While I took James and Millie to the train, JB took this photo with the others. Gosh we miss Max being with us!

On Saturday, Sept. 10, we took part in the 9/11 National Day of Service and packaged snack kits for the Granite Education Foundation.

On Saturday, Oct. 7, we took a quick visit to Frightmares at Lagoon.

 I love watching Ben hold Millie's hand in a crowd.

James was surprised at this carousel selfie to see he somehow got blue on his face.

Lagoon jail.

For fall break Oct. 12-13, we went swimming one day and to Tracy Aviary the next day. Millie is pointing out her favorite duck below.

James loves anything with dinosaurs.

James wanted to point out this owl.

Millie is doing a face like the owl behind her.

The bird show was amazing. The birds flew over our heads.

Then on Monday for the last day of fall break JB took the kids on a hike in Mueller Park Canyon.

This year was the best for flu shots -- nobody cried or even winced. So we got Kong Kones afterward. 

Every week we got to talk to Max from the MTC laundry room.

The Church News staff got a tour of the new Orem Utah Temple before the open house.

I went to the BYU home game on Sept. 29 with my friend Cindy Thornton and the Parrys.

Ben had some basketball tournaments.

I spoke on a panel at FanX about Christmas movies. My brother Joe came to see it.

JB and I were invited to a dinner downtown on one of the same nights as FanX and walked through a lot of INTERESTING crowds before reaching the banquet. 

We also went to the temple in October together.

The school moveathon/jogathon was Friday Sept. 23 and James avoided all the chalk stations but Millie went right to them.

On Oct. 9, JB hiked Coyote Gulch with Jeff and Kim and cousins Greg and Ryan. They stayed at the cabin overnight with his parents.

The view looks amazing but I think my fear of heights would be a problem on this one.

Max in the MTC

We dropped Max off at the Provo MTC on Wednesday, September 20. We have been happy to talk to him each Wednesday since then as he has been learning Spanish and how to preach the gospel. 

He is scheduled to leave the MTC on October 26. As he waits for his Bolivian Visa, he has been temporarily reassigned to the New Mexico Albuquerque Mission. His whole district seems to be heading to various stateside assignments for the time being. This will be good, he will learn more Spanish and we can mail him things and he won't have to handwash his clothes in a bucket for a little while longer!

Any time these goodbye pictures come up again, I get a little choked up. I wish things could go super easy for him and he would be spared hard things, or that we didn't miss him so so much  -- but then were would the sacrifice be? Where would the learning be? And the coming closer to the Savior? 

We went to In-N-Out for lunch that Wednesday, then stopped at the Provo City Center Temple to walk on the grounds for a little bit.

Then we went to the Provo MTC. They direct all the cars down the ramp into the parking garage and where to line up. A missionary ran up to greet us and took this picture.

Then we all got a last hug.

This is the poloroid picture we took on the grounds.

And the poloroid of the brothers the night before he left.

Max was able to find his best friend Andy in the MTC, they overlapped by a couple of days. He also found a few more friends there. It's packed with missionaries right now.

On the evening of Tuesday, October 3, the Young Women General President gave the MTC devotional. Because I am assigned to cover the women leaders in the Church News, I got to go to write about it. I found Max right away and got the biggest hug. I met his whole district.

He joined the choir and they sounded incredible. This is the photographer's picture that we put in the Church News about when Sister Freeman was sharing the sign in ASL for repentance. 

Out of the thousand missionaries there, I also met the son of one of the women I interviewed while I was on Maui. That was such a tender moment -- I kept feeling drawn to that area of the floor after the devotional and drawn to that young man. I was able to send his smiling picture to his grateful mother. I don't believe it was a coincidence!

We pray for Max that he will be helped along his way right now and that his visa will come in due time.