Fond Farewells

Welp, today wasn't just another Sunday, it was my baby brother, Mike's, mission farewell (that's not technically a farewell since they aren't supposed to officially have farewells anymore). So in other words, he spoke at church today and then we had a open house at mom and dad's. TOTAL shout out to my mom who had tons of food, to Erin who swapped me food assignments and dirtied her oven with two failed bundt cakes, and to Nate who brought the REALLY vital tortilla chips for my seven layer dip (I actually made them instead of buying it, sooo, shout out to me, too.) I'm excited for Mike to get a hustle on this whole mission thing. The sooner he leaves the sooner he gets home. Two years is gonna go by crazy fast. I was thinking about some of the things that would happen while he was gone, but none of it will really compare with all the things he will gain from his mission and the experiences he's going to have. Nothing like being broke down and rebuilt into a better person (which will be incredible since he's already an amazing guy.) Anyway, I'm due for a blog, he wanted to see the pictures I took tonight, so I thought I'd really put the effort into it and start a video thing for his mission-prep process. Enjoy, y'all. I'll update it and let you know when there's new pics.


Mike's Mission

And, as if that isn't reason enough to celebrate a good Sunday, my hubby is back and survived the 50 mile hike with his Young Men/Boy Scout troop. I missed him SOOO much. I told him I decided I would re-marry quickly if he died, but not for rearing the kids, more for my sanity's sake when I needed to vent about rearing the kids all day. I puttered around and stayed up late every night and SOO napped like a rock star this afternoon (okay, so three good things about today). We had family naps this afternoon and Tyler's already asleep again, so I am sure he has some recovering to do after a week of sleeping on the ground. It sounds like it was pretty intense and a good experience for everyone involved. I'm really proud of Tyler in so many ways, but especially for the good leader he is to the young men of our ward. I know how hard he worked on that hike and the prayers and effort he put forth before they ever left (along with the shopping, planning, and prepping.) I hope the young men (and their parents) appreciate all that he willingly did that was above and beyond AND the sacrifice for our family. I have to think this experience was better than just a run-of-the-mill scout camp. It's funny to hear about the hike (cuz you know I made him tell me day by day) and have him talk about being a leader and having to tell the boys they couldn't hit each other in the [groin] anymore cuz it was causing problems. Yeah, boys are weird. How is that funny? Whacking each other in the manhood when you're carrying a 25 lb. pack and trying to walk up (or down) a hill at the same time? Really? Weird. He took a ton of pics, so I'll post some of those later.

Busy week this week, of course, but hopefully we can be productive and happy about it. This gal in our ward does a "day camp" that's 7 bucks for both Caylee and Brevin from 1-3 every afternoon. I'm all over that. I'm taking the girls for our girls' day on Tuesday, I think we're gonna hit the water park at the rec center (I've been promising all summer) sometime this week, I've gotta finish up the baby shower prep, go to a wedding in California on Friday, and then all the normal stuff. Really, though, now that Tyler's home it is all looking a little brighter, busy and stressful as it may be. I do have blogging on my agendas, so we'll see how that goes.