Great Weekend #3

We had to travel out-of-town for great weekend #3. We left Logan for Provo/Orem Saturday morning soon after the boys got done with their paper routes. We spent several hours shopping, then had a delicious lunch at the Romneys before the boys and Mike headed to the BYU game with Rick. The weather turned out to be not as bad as they feared- cold- but with no snow or wind (like there was in Logan when we left.) They had a fun time being there and wearing their BYU apparel without being scorned- like they are EVERY time they wear it in Logan.

Von and I had a lot of fun shopping along the way to SLC where we attended the wedding reception of a mission friends son in the Joseph Smith building.
Cam and I were the only ones who stayed awake past 9:30 in our family to help Von make some yummy honey candy. We had a great time stretching it, then eating it.
Sunday we were up early to make it to the 8:00 sacrament meeting in the MTC where Rick is serving as one of 50 branch presidents. It was awesome to be in the MTC and see what it's like for the 2,200 missionaries living and learning there. It was such a great experience especially for Jake and Cam to have an idea of what it will be like for them in a few short years. We had some time between meetings and lunch, so we took a quick walk around the Provo temple grounds. It might have been longer had it not been FREEZING outside. We got to eat lunch in the huge cafeteria, and amazingly saw and talked to a missionary we know who is one of Jessica's good friends. Thanks Von and Rick for that wonderful opportunity. We had a great time. Part of our drive home was in snow and slick roads, in fact we were stopped for almost an hour outside of Ogden because of a terrible crash. We enjoyed a meal at Tom and Fredas along with Kylee and Brody and Jessica when we arrived home. Jessica had spent the weekend babysitting three kids of a family in our ward earning a cool $200. She earned it though as the one-year-old was sick and she held him 90% of the time, and had to clean up throw-up and change many dirty diapers. She wasn't complaining however, and said she would do it again. The kids didn't want her to leave when their grandma came to pick them up.

On Sunday it was 16 years ago that I had our stillborn baby Michael, so as per our tradition, we all wrote a message to him on a balloon and released them into the sky, then watched until we couldn't see them anymore. I loved how Brody, who has a brother who died at 8 years of age got into the spirit of the activity by writing on his and Ky's balloon: "by now you and Ben are probably BFF's- tell him I said what's up." We all love this tradition, and I cherish the fact that the kids love it so much too, and write such sweet things to their brother.