Oh Christopher!

I am working on Christopher's Senior Ad for the yearbook. It's so fun to go through old photos and next to impossible to choose just three. I've been looking at quote books and through pinterest quotes and memes for a month trying to find the perfect one that matches Chris.

It's gotta be something about always having fun or being funny or smiling or making other people smile or spreading sunshine (I know it can't say "spreading sunshine" because that would be cheesy, but something along those lines). It's been hard to find the perfect quote.

I have Courtney and Marty's old senior yearbooks out so I can see what I did for them.

How do I choose?! 

New

Nick started wrestling this week. It's every day after school and I'm kind of missing my 

3:00 buddy who comes home from school, 

turns on the TV, and doesn't mind if I sit down and watch with him. 

But he's loving the challenge and the workout.

His legs are sore though!

New wrestling shoes

Chris started guitar lessons. It's fun to hear him practice!

Clara

Me: How are you feeling today?
Clara: "I'm perking on the low burner." Then she laughs.

Later...
Clara: I'm grateful I can move so well and think so clearly. God's been good to me.
Me: You really are in great shape!
Clara: God's done a great job preserving me!
[As in fruit preserves 😂]

And of course, as always,
Clara: The Kingdom of God is within you! What could you do if you really believed you had God's power within you? Because you do!


Tonight Dan, Marge and I went to Wizard of Oz at Hale Theater. Lexi Walker was starring. Fantastic as always!

O How Beautiful...Those Who Publish Peace

In a Young Women's meeting recently we had a referral to the youth and all their challenges which felt to me a bit like heading back down the path of negativity surrounding discussions on teens that's been discouraging to me this year. I immediately had a defensive personal reaction. 

As I pulled out my scriptures later to read my Preach my Gospel reading that day, these were the scriptures I read. They brought me peace and confirmed to me that it's better to be hopeful and positive about how awesome are youth are and focus on the good they're doing rather than the negative:

Mosiah 15:

14 And these are they who have published peace, who have brought good tidings of good, who have published salvation; and said unto Zion: Thy God reigneth!

15 And O how beautiful upon the mountains were their feet!

16 And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that are still publishing peace!

17 And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who shall hereafter publish peace, yea, from this time henceforth and forever!

18 And behold, I say unto you, this is not all. For O how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that is the founder of peace, yea, even the Lord, who has redeemed his people; yea, him who has granted salvation unto his people;

Recognizing Your Testimony

At some point I'm going to transcribe Marty's Homecoming talk and include it here. Because I just realized I can't embed an audio file (without a lot of learning -- which I'm too tired to do.)

His talk was awesome. He's a great speaker, very articulate and comfortable in front of a crowd. (Although he said he was nervous.) He shared about how his testimony grew over the course of his mission and how the best part of testifying to others, was recognizing his own testimony.

The Youth Speaker cancelled so Eric Rigby was asked to come up and bear his testimony which was so perfect given he's been close to Marty all his life. He told how he's known me from high school, then Dan from the MTC and then how we reconnected coincidentally when we moved here. He's a great story teller so that was fun. He talked about ripples and the effects we have on others. It was pretty poignant.

We had everyone over for cinnamon rolls and fruit (Village Baker -- just reminding myself for the future!), juice and chocolate milk. It was very easy and low maintenance. We all enjoyed visiting with friends and family who came to welcome Marty home. I want to list people I remember, just because I'm so appreciative to all who came and it's such a happy memory. I'll forget some, I'm sure...
Gram and Grandma Nancy. Jo Ellen and Kelly. Ryan. (Kory was out of town.) Marge. Winger Family. Diane, Luke, Sam and Max. Morgan Paul and Madi Wickham drove down together from Provo. Michael Adair family. Rob Weaver family and John Weaver family. Goldsberrys and Janke's. Margo and Ross Fornelius and Lexie and Christopher and their two kids. Bob & Tammy Neslen. Marty Banks. Bradleys & Gregg & Marian Christensen. Grant & Truman Christensen. Pres. Gochnour told me he saw Marty on the schedule and said he wanted to be at our ward that day. Shane Giddings. The Howells. Watts & Bennions. Courtneys friends -- Carly, Ashlyn, Tessa, Taylor and Cole and Lisa Jones. All of  Chris' friends. So many of Marty's friends -- Aldo (and Tania & Pedro Chipana), Ethan Critchfield, Haley and Avery (Amelia is sick). Johnny, Richards Family, Nate, Hoole Family, Parker. Rigby Family. Lance Peterson, Kyle and Chris Peterson. Thomas. Calvin and Simon -- Vanguard friends. Cole Anderson. Bridger Pack. Kate & Suzy Rasch. Emilie Ebert. Mia Nebekker. Ryan Moffat. Will Rigby. Gitte & Jason Parkinson. Ken Wooley. Jackson Frank. Henry Siddoway. Isaac Rigby & Chase Hopkins.

For several hours our home was absolutely filled with people who love Marty, who love our other kids, who love our family. It was the most marvelous taste of heaven. Johnny stayed long and we talked and talked about missions and Japan and college plans.

Ethan came over later that night and we talked and talked about missions. It's so great to get to see all these kids that I love so much again! I haven't seen them regularly for two years -- I've missed them!

Business Scholar!

Chris has long looked forward to applying to the University of Utah's Business Scholar program.
Amidst all the excitement of Marty's coming home, Chris got his official acceptance! (Yesterday while we were waiting through the delay! Congrats, Chris!

We were proud of him for working hard to get his application done the last week. He was patient while we gave him advice, frustrated when the computer system started glitching, and grateful that Dan and I (mostly Dan) stayed with him helping and supporting him until it was submitted. Also grateful that he didn't wait until the last minute because it was super stressful getting it submitted even without a time deadline. Good life lessons. And he was accepted nearly immediately!

We expected Marty to sleep in, but he was up and at 'em at 6:30 this morning, in spite of staying up until 2:00 last night with his friends. And little sleep on the plane during the journey home and staying up all night with the missionaries in the mission home the night before he left. One of these days he's going to crash.

Having a family breakfast all together was an unexpected fabulous way to start the morning.

We went to the Bountiful temple at noon with Me, Dan, Courtney, Marty, Gram and Aldo. We did a session and also initiatory. And listened to Marty's mission playlist there and back. It's fun to listen to his inspirational music and see what kind of music he liked. (They could only listen to Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Hymns with his first mission president, but the last six months they could listen to any Christ-centered music or instrumental/piano. (The Best Two Years, a Josh Groban song, a song Courtney played on the piano a lot, etc.)

We had a late-night dinner at Itto's with all of his friends. Such a blast to be with them all and also to hear Marty and Johnny speaking Japanese with the servers. He was so excited to learn Marty had just gotten home yesterday and brought us two rolls on the house!

Best Reunion Ever!

Seeing our son again and having him home has been better than I could ever imagine. It's so wonderful! He's wise. Learned. Soft. Humble. Funny. Spiritual. Talkative. A listener. My friend described it as like we'll all be in heaven. Yes, exactly what it feels like.

Funny story about Marty's arrival at the airport. We were there with six other big families. Two of which had been waiting since 1:00, since they travelled from longer away and didn't know about the delay until it was too late.

So excited to have our son back! We're expecting him to walk up this aisle any minute!

Most of the group waiting!

So there we all waited -- getting into some trouble with the airport "authorities" for not providing a large enough walkway for anyone who wanted to get to the payphones (?! Seriously ?!).

Jared waited behind another family who was closer but where he could see the passengers coming around the corner.
He was going to indicate to us when he saw Marty!

The plane touched down at 4:57. People started walking down and several told the other families "this is the flight with your missionaries." Everyone was so excited! By 5:30, the pilots passed us, which was confusing, because they're usually last ones off the plane... so where were the missionaries?

Marty's best friends: Johnny, Aldo, Ethan, Thomas and Lance. 

Suddenly someone said something and we turned around. Coming up behind us, through a small break in the crowd, I saw Marty. And I took off running! Courtney and Nick both said separately they'd never seen me run so fast!

Marty said they'd gotten lost and walked to the 2nd terminal. When they came down the escalator and no one was there waiting, they knew they'd gone to the wrong terminal. But that's okay. We'll take him any way we can get him! So fun!

Saying goodbye to his traveling companions -- they'd begun in the MTC together and finished together.

Elder Shaeffer, Elder Purcell and Elder Smith

I always love seeing this view of my family heading off together.

No words.

Unpacking souvenirs!

And Now We Wait...

Thursday night we got posters and flags ready for Marty's arrival!

Dan picked up Courtney from the airport in the morning and she helped blow up balloons!

We were anticipating his flight arrival at 1:15 p.m. 

He landed at DFW at 7:00 a.m. 

I got these cute photos from an unknown phone number at 9:00 a.m.

But by 11:00, the flight started getting delayed!

He borrowed a phone and called to let us know he'd just been de-planed for 

mechanical problems (an oil leak) with no idea of when they'd finally be taking off!

And so suddenly our afternoon changed. Nick went and 

hung out with friends after school like a typical Friday.

I folded the laundry and hung out with Courtney while she did homework 

(and snoozed)!

(My crossword puzzle is thinking of Marty too!)

Meanwhile we texted family and friends to keep them in the loop.

Until finally...

The suspense was kind of fun... similar to when you're having a baby 

and you don't know exactly when it will arrive!

Poor Marty had a seven hour layover at the DFW airport.

What did he do the whole time (since he can't listen to music, 

watch movies or even read popular books or magazines)? 

Do you think he re-read the Book of Mormon?

But now it's 3:45 p.m. and the waiting is over!  

It's almost time for us to leave to the airport to hug him!

It's All We Can Think About!

We keep talking about where Marty is now. 

Now he's headed to the mission home. 

Now he's probably going to the temple.

Now he's having dinner.

Now he's probably in bed.

Now they're headed to the airport...

We're all checking the flight status and checking the time and counting down.

Right now he's flying over the Pacific Ocean headed home!

I had a church meeting tonight and everyone is so excited on our behalf! 

They're remembering their own children coming home and what a happy time it was and 

so excited for our own happy time coming tomorrow!

It feels like we're the most important people in the world right now!

The Best of Times and the Worst of Times

One of the best parts of tagging along with Dan on a conference (besides a trip together, sun and relaxing together), is Rachel is often there tagging along with Jeremy! We hung out this afternoon at lunch and then were together again at dinner with clients. Perks.

Both days at lunch we've had some visitors looking for handouts. Not going to lie, it was a little creepy. I wonder if you live here you're as unconcerned about them as you are squirrels in Utah. Or rats in New York. But that being said, I while I'm used to seeing both of those, I don't want either hanging out near me while I'm eating my lunch!

(Reminds me when we lived in New York and my friends and I were in the park eating lunch with our kids. We sensed squirrels behind us and as we turned to protect our lunches, discovered it was actually rats! Ugh!)

Dan pulling both legs up in his chair to avoid accidental iguana contact!

I stayed up long into the night so I could finish my book (Us Against You) and bawl my eyes out in private and REALLY enjoy the emotion the book stirred up. Backman is a genius describing humanity. The best and the worst within all of us. A lot like going on a journey to hell and back.


Tomorrow we head home which feels like we're getting that much closer to Marty!

And while we've been enjoying sun and relaxing in Costa Rica, Utah is having a snowstorm. So much snow that the canyons were closed and they couldn't ski on Martin Luther King Day! Chris and Nick sounded like they still had fun skiing Saturday and playing in the snow Monday, but they also had to spend time shoveling!

Look really carefully and you can see Nick on the ATV at the end of the driveway while Chris is shoveling the pathways. Good boys.

Meanwhile someone pried open all the locking mailboxes at home and stole the mail -- including Nick's report card check from Gram. And my new implant tooth is loose.

The best of times and worst of times.