Our son Ethan got married to his sweetheart Camee Clark on August 9 and I was able to go home for the wedding. Sadly President could not. When we were first called in to meet with Elder Rasband about the possibility of this calling we knew, with two single sons, one of whom was waiting for a darling red headed missionary, we would most likely be in the position of Scott missing a wedding or two. When this came up with Elder Rasband I immediately started to cry. He looked very sympathetically and lovingly at me and then said "I know it's hard, I missed two of my daughter's weddings". Although it was very hard to not have Scott at Ethan's wedding, and to be there alone, we know that our family has been abundantly blessed and our, and especially Ethan's sacrifice of not having his dad at his wedding, will not be overlooked.
I am going to classify this blog by category. First up...
missionary work ...
While I was gone Scott did a lot of interviews. I really missed visiting with the missionaries in the zones I missed. He doesn't take many pictures so his week wasn't really photographically documented. But we had Mission Leadership Council on Thursday, August 2. It went until 3:00 and we left straight from the meeting to head to the airport. I usually get pictures of our lunch time. This time we had the treat of a summer picnic, complete with Fried Chicken, watermelon, corn on the cob and a yummy peach dessert.
A huge thanks to our friend Patrick Twomey for capturing and editing these amazing photographs. What a blessing he is to our mission.
This photograph
Became this photograph
Which then became this photograph
home...
I had quite the welcome when I got home on Thursday night. All 7 of our grandchildren who are old enough to walk were waiting for me outside, along with our children, my parents and Sister in Law and nieces and nephews. It made me incredibly happy to see them all and to be swarmed by 7 little people that I love.
We fit just as much family time as was humanly possible in the short amount of time that I was home. We were able to fit in an adult only dinner, where we had fun and also were able to put Scott on a speaker phone in the middle of the table as we all gave our best wedding advice to Ethan and Camee.
Ethan and Preston and I left right after the shower and we were able to attend the sealing of our dear first mission assistant, Zach Watts, and his darling bride Jordyn. I was so thrilled that we were going to be in town in order to be there. It was such a joy for me to see him so happy and to be there for his sealing.
I had such a fun random meeting in the waiting room of the temple. These are the parents of one of our sweet sister missionaries, Sister Gilbert. Her dad happens to be Elder Watts' bishop and they were at the sealing as well. They recognized me and we had such a fun time getting to know each other and chatting about their daughter, whom all three of us love.
We left straight from the temple and headed down to Provo to help move some things into Ethan and Camee's apartment and to check out where they will be calling home. First apartments are so much fun.
On Sunday our daughter Stacie and her husband Bennett blessed their sweet Caroline. Again, I felt incredibly blessed to be there for that special day. Bennett gave her a beautiful blessing and it was also fun to go back to our Brookhurst ward and to see so many people I love and miss.
Caroline was blessed in the same dress her mom Stacie and her sister Charlotte were blessed in.
Caroline's three and four generation pictures and her aunties. She sure has a lot of good women who love her.
Tuesday morning I tried something that I thought was a good idea, I decided to take 5 of the grandchildren to the park on their scooters. I'm sure it was a bit comical watching me try to keep track of all 5 of them, with varying degrees of scooter skills. Missionaries listen to me more intently than these 5 do.
I had another fun missionary connection on Tuesday night. Camee's cousin, Elder Ludlow is one of our missionaries and his darling mom had a bridal shower for her on Tuesday night. I was able to go to his home, meet his parents and brothers and take some pictures. I texted him the pictures that evening and it was probably weird for him to receive a picture of me standing in his home, but it was fun for us. And it was such a delight meeting his cute mom and all of Camee's aunts and family. What a neat family Ethan is blessed to marry into.
Wednesday night we hosted a wedding dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in honor of Ethan and Camee. It was nice to see it all come together. For the past few months I felt like I was a missionary by day and a wedding planner by night. Luckily I was able to make some phone calls, and get key people to help me. My wonderfully talented Sister In Law Marilyn did all of the flowers for me and they were spectacular. We chatted once on the phone, I sent her some pictures and ordered the containers online and had them shipped to her and she created her magic. My friend Shauna did all of the printables for me, my friend Danette had them all printed off by the time I got home and she helped me and my girls put together the wedding favors. It all came together beautifully. It was a perfect night with one big exception, I missed Scott terribly. We had him make a video that we showed at the dinner in which he told everyone he hoped they had a great night, that it was probably the most expensive dinner he has ever paid for that he didn't attend. He was a good sport about it all. And a big shout out to our friend Hayden Felt, who, for every event was seen carrying around his phone as he was the official facetimer. He facetimed Scott all through the dinner, after the temple and during the entire reception to make him feel included. He gets the friend MVP.
In Scott's absence, Preston was my date and he was the MC for the night. He did a fabulous job filling in for his dad. I was so grateful to have him with me that night. Alex was able to fill in for Scott the next day as the witness at his temple sealing. We are blessed beyond measure with such good sons and daughters, the ones I gave birth to and the ones who have joined us through marriage.
Ethan's group of friends from high school, the adventure boys, have a tradition of roasting the groom through song at each of their wedding dinners. The song they wrote for Ethan and Camee was hilarious. We are so grateful for each of them and the influence they have had on Ethan and Preston.
Thursday was the big day. I went early with Ethan to pick up Camee's bouquet and to be with them as they got pictures taken prior to the sealing, before it got way too hot. I was blessed with another tender mercy. The night of the wedding dinner I had been trying to find Elder Buckley. He served in our mission for about 7 months and then was transferred to the Salt Lake City Mission. We love Elder Buckley so much and I was hoping to see him while I was there. I had parked and was just heading to the temple and I looked up, and low and behold, there was Elder Buckley. It was so great to see him again.
My dad was able to seal Ethan and Camee and it was a beautiful ceremony. We love them both so much and are so grateful Camee is now part of our eternal family. We are so grateful they chose each other. The sealing was very emotional for me. More so than I had even anticipated. I was beyond grateful to have all of our children in the temple, and to have my dad preform the sealing, and to have Alex represent Scott in the witness chair, but it made me miss my companion more than ever.
Patiently waiting with this handsome bunch for the newlyweds.
Facetiming with Scott
Camee's family hosted a beautiful reception at Cactus and Tropicals in Salt Lake City that evening. It was so fun to see so many people come and support them and us. We feel so grateful for family and friends who are always there for us.
And just like that, they were married and gone. One funny story though that we heard later. Camee forgot one of her bags, but after the big sparkler send off, they couldn't come walking back in 10 minutes later, so they called one of their friends and Isaac brought the bag to them in a church parking lot where they had pulled over to wait.
All to soon the week was over. I was so sad to leave my family again, but very excited to get back to my companion and to our mission and missionaries. It seemed odd and I felt a little like a fish out of water while I was home, even though it was home and everything and everyone was wonderful. It made me realize yet again, that for now, Sacramento is where I belong, and home is wherever Scott is!
I was lucky enough to have Andrea and her kids and Preston come back to Sacramento with me, Andrea, James, Libby and Sam hadn't seen pop for far too long. And of course, we will take Preston whenever we can get him.
We continued to have missionary meet ups. It is a very small world in the church. We were sitting in the airport and this lady asked me where I was serving and when I said Sacramento she said 'you are the mission president's wife, right?' I wondered how on earth she knew that, and this happened to be the aunt, uncle and cousin of our dear Sister Alexander, who just left two weeks ago. It is always so fun to make connections, especially with people who are close to our missionaries. We also got to see Sister McDonald who was back in Sacramento for a visit last week and we got to meet up with Sister Van Valkenburg and her cute parents today, as they were back in the mission. Yesterday we were at a meeting at the office and as soon as we opened the office door I heard this distinct laugh and I ran out of the office knowing exactly who it was. I could pick out Sister Van Valkenburg's laugh anywhere. We love having our missionaries come back to visit.
We had such a great time with our family here. Here are a few of the highlights.
Sammy didn't even need the swimming pool. He thought our bathtub was a hot tub and was thrilled to be in the 'hot tub'.
They thought if they hid under this blanket their mom wouldn't find them and they wouldn't have to go to bed.
James and Libby could get used to watching movies in a theater with reclining seats.
Sacramento has the coolest thing every August, it's called Wide Open Walls and for 10 days they bring in artists from around the world and they each complete a mural on building walls. This is the third year they have done it and Sacramento is full of very cool murals and wall art. We took a walking tour and saw many of this year's art, and the artists who are working on them.
Sammy is a big fan of the soda pop bought for him. The kid was in heaven.
We spent one afternoon at Funderland, an small amusement park, where I got to go on all of the rides with the kids since Andrea is 7 months pregnant. I only got a little bit sick on the swings with James. Not sick enough to stop a trip to Rick's Dessert Diner afterwards.
Preston went back to Utah on Tuesday night and Andrea and the kids left for Virginia yesterday morning. The house is very quiet again, and we are again fully immersed in the work of the mission. It was a very fun, very out of the ordinary and very special few weeks. As much as we were so sad Scott couldn't make it home, I felt incredibly blessed that I was able to go and represent both of us at the sealing of Ethan and Camee. It was a great reminder of why we are out here trying to share the gospel with everyone. Family is everything and everyone should have the chance and the blessing of being together forever. That is the beautiful message of the gospel we are sharing.
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