Old Friends

I can't believe it has already been 3 weeks since I was in Utah dropping off Taylor at the MTC and playing around with Emily at BYU. While I was there, I was lucky enough to get to spend a whole day with old friends from home! Jodi and I were good friends in High School. We worked at Apache Title together and after school, we lived together in Mesa. We also worked at Lewis and Roca together. Kathy and I are cousins and have a lot of family ties. We spent many Heap Reunions together and lived together for awhile in Provo. She helped me have a great time up there even though I was so homesick. Kelli and I worked together at Apache Title and I had a great time with her and getting to know her. Kelli and Jodi both live up in Utah and Kathy lives in Las Vegas, so I don't get many opportunities to see them.

We had lunch in Provo (thanks Kelli) and then drove to Lindon, and sat on Jodi's porch all afternoon. We laughed and cried and had such a great time together. I am sooo thankful for old friends who will be friends for life. The kind of friend that you can pick up with after so many years and things are just as great as ever. I love all 3 of those girls and will cherish their friendship always!

He's Gone

Well, here it is Wednesday, September 23, 2009 and Taylor is gone - he is officially a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the next 2 years! Emily and I (along with Brad on speakerphone) dropped him off at 1:15. It was crazy. We drove in and they directed us to the curb where there were TONS of others being dropped off too. We had a good spot right in front and there were 4 cute little missionaries there to help us. They got out Taylor's bags and talked to us for a few minutes. We hugged him and told him we loved him, took a couple of pictures and then he was gone. I couldn't help crying - and cried more than I had wanted too. The missionaries were really sweet and told us that all of the moms do and that they would take good care of him. It was soooo much harder than I expected. I know that what he is doing is right and I am so incredibly proud of him, but it is very hard to know that I won't see him for 2 whole years. He will be such a fabulous missionary. He is so well-prepared and is so easy-going and likable. I hope he has a wonderful time and I hope that he feels that it is the best 2 years of his life. I have a strong testimony of this gospel and know that he will be taken care of and watched over. WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH TAYLOR!

p.s. I am in the motel on Emily's work computer which is a Dell. When I get home, I will edit this post and put all the pictures on. We really got some great ones. I just wanted to jot this all down while it is so fresh in my memory.

These two pictures were taken Monday night after Taylor was set apart to be a missionary.

Saying good bye at the airport

We had fun taking pictures in the morning before we dropped him off!

Saying good bye for 2 whole years :(