We were able to have our entire family here for a visit last week. This is the first time we have all been together for over 2 years and it was like a little piece of heaven to have everyone together. In the mission president's handbook it states that a mission president's first priority and responsibility is his family. That is pretty tricky to do, being far away and also with all of the responsibilities that come with this call, which is almost literally 24/7. The handbook also states that we should take a yearly vacation with our family within our mission boundaries, which we have never done, and since this is our third summer here, we figured it was about time to do it.
We learned a few things from having everyone out here. First is that we love and adore our family and we think we have the best kids in the world, and that our grandkids are even better! Second is that our family has changed a lot since we left two years ago. We are now up to 20 people, which I can't even believe. We have added a new daughter in law and 2 grand babies since we left, and all of our grandkids are 2 years older and bigger, and it's a little more crazy when everyone gets together than we remember it being. But we loved every minute of our time together. We laughed until we cried, we ate way too much good food, we stayed up too late, and basically just had the best week ever.
I wondered if it was going to make me homesick after having everyone here, and it didn't. I was definitely ready to put my missionary hat back on and get back to work. It was just the little respite we needed. I say we, I was able to take off more time than Scott did. He still had his computer, and his phone and definitely stayed connected to the missionaries and the work, but even he was able to relax a little bit, which I didn't know if that would be possible. It was just really good for all of us and I'm grateful we finally followed the handbook and took a little bit of time off to spend with our family.
We had several airport pick ups. Ethan, Camee and Preston came in on Thursday evening. They wanted to attend our MLC on Friday and so they were able to come to that with us, it was great to have them there. After MLC Camee and I ran out to Sloughhouse to the Davis ranch for fresh corn, watermelon and tomatoes.
We then headed to Midtown to meet Mike and Andrea. While we were waiting for them we walked around and looked at some of the new murals that are being worked on during August's Wide Open Walls event. They are really fabulous.
Mike, Andrea, James, Libby, Sam and Viola flew in and just came straight from the airport to meet us for dinner in Midtown and it was so great to see them. Scott hasn't seen the boys since last August, it's been October since I've seen them, and he hasn't seen Mike for over a year and a half. We were in the parking lot waiting for them and as James got out of the car he ran to us and said "It's been WAY too long since we have seen you". I completely agree.
We went to one of our favorite restaurants, The Porch. When I called to make a reservation they asked if it was for anything special and I told them our family was coming in to town. They asked where they were coming from, and these are the menus that were on our table. Take a look at the top of the menu. Another reason to love that restaurant.
I loved waking up on Saturday morning to these two cuties at the bottom of my bed! Then it was off to the airport to pick up the last of our crew. Alex, Allie, Hannah and Porter, and Bennett, Stacie, Thomas, Charlotte and Caroline flew in Saturday morning.
I picked them up and they were more than anxious to get to Mimi and Pop's house to swim. The kids would have been really happy if that's all we had done all week long! I had to pinch myself to believe they were really all here and our backyard was completely and wonderfully noisy and chaotic.
There is a place in Lockeford that I have heard about, it makes and sells sausages and there is usually a line out the door for them. We were in Lodi a few weeks ago and we stopped there to try it out. We brought home these sausages and put them in the freezer, waiting for our family to get here to try them out. They were delicious and definitely worth waiting in a line out the door for.
I wanted to get family pictures while everyone was here and figured the first day, while everyone was fresh was probably our best shot of getting everyone with a smile on their face. We got cleaned up and headed to the temple where we were met by our dear friend Patrick Twomey. He works miracles with our missionaries, and he may be even better with kids. He captured everyone so well, I am so grateful he was willing to put up with this crazy crew!
Sunday morning snuggles with Vi Vi, and some funny pictures of Sammy, who insisted on wearing his goggles to church. We were dying laughing, and I was proud of my cute daughter for picking her battles.
Sunday after church we headed down to Arnold, Ca where we had rented a cabin to stay in for a few days. Arnold is near Big Tree State Park and is in the middle of a forest full of giant sequoia trees. It was such a beautiful, wonderful place to land for a few days. There is nothing like the cool crips air of the mountains to clear your head.
Then we talked about the giant sequoias that were surrounding us, and how their roots aren't that deep, but they are all intertwined and it is the roots that grow together that keep them strong and standing tall. We talked about how that is like our family, we are strong when we are bound together. And we are so grateful to be bound together for eternity.
Monday morning we headed to Big Tree State Park to take the two mile 'hike' through the giant sequoia trees. They are incredible!
These two think they are getting married. We have assured them they are not, but they don't believe us yet.
We left the park to go swimming, only to get to the least fun pool any of us have ever been to. There weren't many other people there, and the lifeguard and the woman running the place both took their jobs incredibly seriously. I can't even tell you how many times someone got screamed at for not walking, for the kids going in the lap lanes, for wearing a floaty in the wrong side of the pool. We heard WAAALLLLKKK yelled at us at least a hundred times by a very overzealous lifeguard. One of my sons in law said now he knows what is would have been like to go swimming in communist Russia. Needless to say, we didn't stay long, and had more fun in the hot tub at the cabin. At least it is something we will laugh about for a very long time.
Every night, once the kids were in bed, this was the scene at the cabin. We love playing games and had so much fun; every night was game night. Playing Secret Hitler was only too appropriate given our experience at the swimming pool that day!
On Tuesday we found the funnest hike, down to a river that flowed through a cave. It was called Natural Bridges. It was about a mile in and so obviously, a mile out. The kids did so well on the hike, and it was well worth it. This was the coolest place, we floated or swam through these caves, at one point it got pretty dark, but it was beautiful, and the kids had so much fun playing around in the shallow water of the river and climbing on the rocks.
We gave each of our married kids a night and they were in charge of an activity. Alex and Allie had an art show. They matched us up in pairs and we had 20 minutes to make a drawing of what we love about Sacramento. Then each pair presented their drawing and there was a vote. Of course, everyone won, but it was so cute. After Preston and Hannah presented theirs, she said "Can I just take a minute? I'd just like to say, I worked really, really hard on this picture". Basically, Vote for me, people! Ha ha.
Team Hannah and Preston Team Sammy and Mimi
Team Ethan and Thomas Team James and Bennett
(James and Bennett went for the win by drawing our eternal family by the temple). Smooth move boys!
Team Andrea and Camee Team Charlotte and Alex
Team Allie and Porter (who went AWOL) Team Pop and Libby
Team Mike and Stacie.
These priceless pieces of art are now hanging on the cabinets in our garage and they make me smile every time we leave or come home!
On Wednesday Ethan and Camee sadly had to fly back to Utah for the day to attend the funeral of our dear, dear friend, Brock Jones. It was something we all felt bad to miss, but they just couldn't miss it for anything in the world. It was a sad day for all of us, and we kept it pretty low key. We did go to the Moaning Cavern Adventure Park in the morning. Our poor cavern guide didn't quite know what to do with a tour full of kids, not sure it was his favorite tour ever, but it was cool, and fun for us.
We spent most of the afternoon at the cabin playing games, and then we went to a 'ball field' to play kick ball for Mike and Andrea's activity. The field was not the greatest, but we sure had fun playing ball.
After dinner it was back for a kid talent show and a dip in the hot tub before bed for the kids.
Ethan and Camee got back later that evening and we were glad to have them back and grateful they could have gone home for the funeral.
Thursday morning we packed up and headed back to our house. We had so much fun while we were in Big Trees. It was a needed and appreciated break. Being in the mountains, especially in a great cabin, just seems to do that.
We came back and Stacie and Bennett did their activity. It was a fun candy bar game, that included trading and losing and winning back the candy in your sack. Some of the kids liked losing their candy better than others. ha ha. And of course, swimming was on the list of must dos.
Early Friday morning, the guys went golfing, then we took the kids to the park, and then we headed to Lake Natoma for a fun day of swimming, Kayaking and Paddle Boarding. I love this little lake that is only about 15 minutes from our house. It's perfect for kids and for adults too.
And because we hadn't had enough water, after the lake it was back to the pool for one more swim.
A long and funny story is needed to explain these pictures of Porter and the small replica of Michaelangelo's David statue. Years ago when we were at Sun Valley, we found a statue like this in the condo we rented. For some reason we turned it into a game, and every night we tried to sneak it into someone else's bedroom without being caught. Whoever ended up with it in their room by 6:30 a.m. had to carry it around with them for the day until they could ditch it in someone else's room the next night. We got very little sleep that trip, but we had a lot of fun. We carried 'The David' game to other years after that, and even got my brother Curtis' family involved and we swapped it back and forth between families. While our kids were at Sun Valley this year, we received a package with "The David" delivered to our house. So, the fun continued with The David game here this past week. Well, Porter found the statue and kept calling it 'David and Goliath' and he wouldn't put it down. Which may not have been the best thing in the world. He took it to the park, he took it swimming with him in the pool and he loved that little guy. When we were at the park, Charlotte saw it and said "That is really inappropriate", which was hilarious and true, but we couldn't get it away from him.
Saturday afternoon after we had dropped everyone off at the airport, we got a text that the kids had left us a little surprise, and we were supposed to find The David. This is where we found him. Face down in the hot tub. David was our first and thankfully our only casualty in the pool. RIP David.
Friday night we were able to sneak away for a quiet dinner with just the adults, thanks to Carmen and Aubrielle Martin who are angels from my ward who agreed to babysit this crew.
All too soon it was time to say goodbye. Because we bought airline tickets at different times, we couldn't get everyone on the same flight home, so we took our first group for a 10:15 flight. We have taken SOOOO many pictures in front of this wall, and said goodbye so many times right here, and as hard as all of those goodbyes have been, these may have been the hardest. We have all been looking forward to this week for so long. It was really hard to say goodbye and know we've got another year before we are all together again. I love and adore this family of ours.
Mike and Andrea were on a later flight, so Scott went to do some mission business and I met them for breakfast in Midtown.
Scott met us back at the airport before they had to leave. Libby cracks me up. She found some makeup of hers that she had left at our house in April, and in the car to the airport she got all dolled up for her trip home.
One more hard goodbye, then it was back to work. We loved having everyone here and are really so grateful for our family. Families are why we left ours, so we could help tell others about the joy and the love Heavenly Father has for them and their families. I'm so grateful for His perfect plan of happiness for not only our family, but for every family on earth. And, I'm very, very grateful to still be sharing that message for another year.
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