And he's Off

We departed San Jose around 8am.

Evan said good bye to Ryan at home and Ryan headed into work. We headed to Oakland, wanting plenty of time, and it was plenty of time, we got there around 9 for an 11:00 flight. Greg dropped us to the curb and then went to park the car. Only a few people ahead of us in the Delta check in line. The gal asked Evan if he was headed to Salt Lake or to LA. I wondered if she recognized him as a missionary. But then thought maybe Delta is only checking to those two places at that time. It was nice to think she might have recognized a missionary - it seemed to me she slowed down to help him out. There was a young lady whom we heard mention "missionary". Once we were done with the check in we asked her if she's a missionary and she said yes - she was headed to Salt Lake to go to the MTC tomorrow. Was fun to exchange "where and when"s with her but a little disappointing to find out she wasn't on Evan's flight. Greg caught up to us about this time. We fly using Oakland a lot but on Southwest. Delta uses a different terminal so we were not familiar with where we were. We were very pleased to see a small restaurant right next to the security check - before the security check. We decided to have some breakfast.

Evan and Claire were in prime spots to see if any other missionaries were going through security. Evan thinks he saw a girl go through, just as we were coming to the restaurant. The tip off was the family at the side watching watching watching for the last glimpse. Unfortunately, we did not see any more missionaries. I hoped maybe there were one or two or more :-) at the gate already. Evan's flight wasn't until 11:04 so we sat, waited and watched. Around 10:00 Greg tried to get us to move a little - I just didn't want to. Just a few minutes more... 

Finally I stood up.  

We hugged, tears all around, hugged more, more tears, kisses, hugs, wiping eyes - putting on brave faces - watching and waving

There was hardly anyone going through security - all the time we were there - so he moved quickly through. We watched. He sat down to put his shoes back on, put on his jacket and his belt, grabbed his bags, waved and turned. 

 And he was off.

What to do the day before you leave on your mission

 Pack

 Hangout

Solve a Nancy Drew Mystery computer game

Get set apart and then have pictures taken and get lots of hugs!

ONE

TWO

THREE SQUEEEEEEEEZE

Family came as well as Jon Sundstrom good friend of Evan's

Thank you to everyone who was able to make - sorry we didn't get pictures of all of you.

Give Bill the Hamster a little attention (Claire is babysitting Bill for a friend)

Temple Trip

Ben and Evan went to the temple!  Mt. Timponogos - July 5th 2013

Chokick Cake for Breakfast

It was Evan's birthday yesterday, June 9th.  

Used the cool Prism candles again.

He made a wish.

He blew slowly for along time but didn't get all the candles out.   Ryan said "Looks like you're going to have to go on a mission after all."  :-)

Today he had chocolate cake for breakfast.  

If you don't understand the significance of Chocolate Cake for breakfast

watch this -

I went to the dentist today

Guess who was the hygienist? :-)

We were in Utah

We went to Utah over Memorial Day weekend.  Claire and Eric were going to come to San Jose but because of Eric's foot injury they didn't come so we, fairly last minute, decided to go to them.  Jan and Gregg hosted Greg and me.  Ryan stayed in his old house to be with Callie.  Evan stayed with Eric and Ben.  It all worked out great.

A few pictures from the weekend.
 
Delphinium Ryan planted last August is doing beautifully this Spring.
Dinner at Tucanos Friday evening.
 
Evan and Mason Menlove. Mason was blessed in Tremonton on Sunday.
Seems we can only get a family picture on a Sunday. Not fond of me in this but everyone else is looking the best in this one.
 
Gregg Wright invited us to the Wright family annual Memorial Day breakfast up Provo Canyon at Vivian Park. It was beautiful.
We had a fun weekend.  We were sad to find out that Sandy and Bruce and Ed and Mary were out of town though :-(

Guys hanging out

Just was fun to see so I thought I'd take a picture.

Easter Dinner

Creative ways to stay close during the holidays :-) This is our Easter dinner and we Skyped with Ryan while we ate. Happy Easter!

Brazil!!

Claire is going to Brazil Fortaleza East Mission - August 21st.

A Graduate

Callie the dog graduated from obedience school last night. According to proud Ryan she was best at puppy pushups, staying and runner up for "leave it". :-)

Nice to be together

We were in Tremonton for a nephew's mission farewell. It was nice to be together.

Something New

Standing in the Atlantic Ocean.