Christmas Lights

It had been a long time since we'd gone to see the lights and with Justin home we wanted to go all together as a complete family.  We went on the Monday night before Christmas Eve (Christmas Adam I've heard some people call it) - along with the rest of Utah.  It was a perfect night to go - not freezing cold and not snowing.  It was pretty magical and even fun to be down there with hundreds of people sharing in the Christmas spirit.

It was Justin's first time seeing City Creek Center so we lost him for a lot of the time while he was off taking pictures.

Brooke's friend Annee came with us
since we consider her part of our family

its pretty impossible to get a decent picture of our family

begging me to let them put their hands in the fountain

It was a super fun family night and great start to celebrating Christmas.

Max came back and brought ...

Several weeks before Thanksgiving Jared and Kamryn started talking about Max, our elf, and wondered when he would be back. Every year its different - sometimes December 1st, sometimes in time for Thanksgiving even.

This year he appeared in the Christmas tree on the last day of November.  And he brought his sister with him.  He left a note explaining that she is training and that she would be coming to our house this year.
A few days later he brought another note saying that Jared and Kamryn should give his sister a name she would use at our house.  They decided on Lucy.

looks like Lucy and the Santas had some fun at Max's expense

 

nice little game of tic-tac-toe

nice letter that Jared wrote to Max

hiding in Taylor's closet - Max and Lucy were pretty tricky this year
and often very hard to find.

Kamryn and Jared counting down the days until Christmas.

Mission Moms

I feel very lucky to have had a missionary in the day and age of "facebook" and email.  Its sure easier being a mission mom when you get a pretty much guaranteed email from your missionary every week.

It's also been so great being a part of the email mission mom group and also our facebook group for Justin's page.  I have friends whom I've never met but feel like I've known forever.  We also love the senior couples serving in Justin's mission who are on Facebook and keep us informed of transfers and post lots of pictures.

In November there was a plea from the mission for support for some missionaries for Christmas. There were several missionaries that would probably not be getting any Christmas packages.  All you have to do is mention that to a mission mom and we went right to work. There were many parents that wanted to help out.

There were a few of us that all live pretty close to each other that got together to send out these packages.  We met for lunch at Kneaders and had so much fun getting to know each other better and talking about our missionaries.  We then went to Lesley's home and had more fun putting together these packages.  I'd been grateful to not have to send Justin a Christmas package but at the same time missed doing it, so this was a great replacement.

At the beginning of January we got together again just for fun.  We met at Zupas for lunch and talked and talked.  One mom had just been to France to pick up her daughter (on the same transfer as Justin) and so she had a lot of stories and advice to share.  One of the moms was actually recently returned from serving in Justin's mission with her husband.  It was really fun to talk to her. These ladies, and dads too in our group, will be great friends forever.

Justin coming home

The day was finally here that we had waited two years for - Justin coming home :)

His mission actually went by pretty fast but if you thought about it two years was a long time.  He came home on Tuesday December 10th at 4:30 pm.

I checked Jared and Kamryn out of school a little early so we could go to the airport early - couldn't chance being late.  Everyone helped make posters to welcome him home.

We had a nice little crowd out at the airport to welcome him home.

Jadon was my designated videographer and
Susan and Sandy were my photographers.
It was so great not having to worry about that.

Brooke took all of the great photos and made them into a slideshow for me with a song that is just so perfect.  She gave me that for Christmas and I cried more watching it than I did at the airport.

It was SO GREAT having my kids all back together.  I LOVED Justin's smile!
It was just plain AWESOME!

After the airport we went to dinner at Iggys.  Justin's request was to have a good hamburger, something he missed while he was in France.  Between dinner and getting released we had a few minutes to stop and see my mom, who wasn't up to going to the airport.

It was obviously an exhausting day for Paul :)

Our whole family went to the stake center to meet with President Stringham, who released Justin from his missionary service. He gave wise counsel to all of us.  When we went home we visited with Justin for awhile before he headed off to bed.  It took him a few nights to get over his jetlag and get accustomed to our time.  It was cool to see him up early the next morning doing his language studies (reading Harry Potter in french) and personal study (listening to a conference talk from Pres Monson).  We LOVE LOVE LOVE having him home and are grateful he returned to us in safety.

Some Favorite Photos from Justin's mission

I haven't really posted too many photos from Justin's mission on "MY" blog but now that's he home and I've gone through some of the photos he and others have sent I have some favorites.  You will notice they are the ones that HE is in :)

3 generations of missionaries
When a missionary trains a new elder he is referred to as the father and the new one as a son.
So here is Justin with his son (middle) and grandson (left)

Justin was lucky to have the chance to serve in the office

This is one of my favorites -
Elder Adams and Elder Adams
Justin knew the new Elder Adams was coming to the mission in Feb and they took this photo then
Then a few months later they were companions in Montpellier

One of the cool things about serving a mission in France
is all of the cool sites you get to see.

Justin with his 2 MTC companions
They all served in Lyon and frequently found themselves together at conferences
and other meetings.

Justin made this streetboard while he was serving in the office.
I thought it was such a clever idea.

Another 3 generation shot -
Elder Frazier trained Justin in the office
and then Justin trained Elder Dampt in the office

just being funny

they decorated this door of a member for their birthday

visiting with an awesome member family

in an elevator

on Bastille Day

These are some funny guys!

Justin eating some fish, which he does not like

at the train station
eating a baguette

at a "last" district meeting before transfers

OOPS!!!
Justin decided to cut his own hair with clippers that were in his apartment
He forgot to put the guard on and started up the side of his head.

so he had to go to the barber and get it fixed
looks like a marine, not a missionary

this colleseum was right by his apartment in his last area
so cool
notice his hair has grown in some

more funny stuff

Justin with Elder Arrington
they were companions two different times in different areas

these two elders are related
2nd cousins I believe
Their dads are 1st cousins
They'd met once at a family reunion when they were about 10 but don't remember each other

Justin's last companion
the one who "killed" him
mission term for dying, going home

Missions are amazing things.  The opportunity is a great gift from our Heavenly Father.  Its been so great to be able to share Justin's experience and we still learn new things from as he remembers to tell us more :)

Next project

The next project wasn't really planned but it started because of me.  Paul is going to get sick of my suggestions.

Since we moved Justin into the smaller new bedroom that was going to be my office, this bedroom was slated for my office.  I saw what amazing work he did on Justin's new room and suggested before I move all the stuff into my new office that he upgrade the lighting and fix the ceiling.  It had horrible fluorescent lights and this dumb old tile ceiling. It sounds simple, but nothing is ever simple with Paul.  If you're going to do a job you should do it right is his motto.  So it turned into a bigger, longer project than just fixing a couple of things - but its going to be nice and its almost done.  The ceiling and lights are all done, the 2 walls fixed and painted and trim went up last night.  Carpet is getting installed next Monday.  More photos to come.

This is the room that we used as a storage room while Justin was gone and we were transforming the storage room into a bedroom.  Of course I don't have a true before picture with it all full of STUFF.  But we emptied it out in one morning before we headed off to fun at the zoo.