{June in Utah}

I had this post all ready to go weeks ago, I even stayed up til 2:30 AM getting caught up, but for some reason it didn't save...so here is the post from June.

We got back from our East Coast trip and had two days to pack up and head to Utah. 

This is Miss Maggie helping me pack in style. 

I drove with the kids to Cedar City and stayed the night. The next morning we headed to Kelli's house and hung out for a bit. It was nice to catch up with my sisters. I sure miss being by them. 

Kelli and Mags

Kelli's bebe, Mack

The kids and I stayed at Jake's parents house in Centerville. We loved spending time at Granny's. 

The next day we spent the day cleaning my mom's house. It was very hard to walk in and see my parents house packed up, and then empty.  I didn't realize until i walked in that this was really happening. It was a very tearful and emotional trip, but well worth it. 

After a few hours of cleaning the girls headed to Lagoona Beach and played for a couple of hours. (It was my dad's work party)

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We then headed back to my parents to help clean, and then headed back over to Lagoon for dinner a rides. We had so much fun. The kids love being with their cousins!!

Jake was able to fly in for the setting apart and farewell.  I was so happy he was able to make it. 

The next day was my parents setting apart at the Church office building. We were blessed to have Elder Nelson and Elder Zwick set my parents apart.  It was such an amazing experience, one that has changed my life forever. I cannot even describe the feeling of being in such a intimate setting with one of the apostles. Honestly, my life and my perspective on things have changed because of this little 40 minute meeting. I am forever grateful. 

My parents setting apart blessings were amazing. WOW! They are truly some outstanding people. I feel so blessed to have them as my parents and friends. 

My Grandpa Craven, is a former Secretary to the Quorum of the Twelve, and a former General Authority.  He is good friends with all the brethren, especially Elder Nelson.  Elder Nelson got emotional when he expressed his love for my grandfather.  He turned to Elder Zwick and said "no wonder why we've been limping along all this time".  It was a very sweet moment. 

After the setting apart we headed to an early dinner. It was fabulous! 

Sunday was my parents farewell, and also father's day. My dad had all his brothers and all the son and son-in-laws come to be apart of a blessing my grandpa gave my dad. It was such a wonderful blessing and so awesome to see all these worthy men place their hands on my dads head. The love I have for all of these men is beyond words. 

My dad and his brothers.

My parents gave exceptional talks and then we headed over to the neighbors house for lunch. 

The following week we cleaned and moved stuff out of my parent's home. It was a lot of hard work and a lot of late, late nights. We finally got it all done, after my dad decided to repaint the master bedroom walls at midnight the night before the new renters moved in.  We finally got out of there at 1:45 with the fire alarms blaring! :) But we did it, with only a few hours to spare! 

My mom found sometime that same week to play.  We headed to the dinosar museum. 

That following Friday we had one last family day with everyone before my parents went to the MTC the next morning. 

We headed to the Zoo and then went to a park afterwards. We had a great time. 

The next morning my sisters, Nick and I headed down with our kids to the MTC. 

We grabbed a quick bite before the MTC. 

I am so grateful we made the effort to go down.  The MTC staff was amazing! They catered to my parents every need. It was amazing to experience the love and care they have for my parents. It made me feel at peace knowing they would be well taken care of. (I know it is such a silly thing to be worried about...I worried. No wonder I had the nick name "MOTHER" growing up.)

My parents did some repacking in parking lot and then we headed in to say our goodbyes. 

My mom has wanted to be a missionary for SOOOO long. When she put her name tag on it was so emotional for all of us. 

My baby sister Jami has her in-laws that are mission presidents in Brazil. We were able to see them at the MTC too. They are the sweetest people.  It was emotional for Jami to see both sets of parents off that day.  It was so awesome to see these four parents dedicating their entire lives to missionary work. 

Saying goodbye to the grandkids....every hard!

Theses pictures make me cry even though five weeks have past. Maggie didn't understand why Grandma had to leave. It was so hard to see her so broken hearted. 

I am so grateful they are not too far away. I feel bad for Jami's in-laws who are so far away from family and grand-babies, and it is very hard to travel with kids to Brazil. At least our families can go visit my parents and our kids can see their grandparents at least once or twice a year. I couldn't be more happy with where they are. And I couldn't be more grateful to be apart of the experiences that have been associated with my parents calling, their serves as a Mission President and full time missionary. It has changed me in so many ways, I am not the same person that I once was, and I couldn't be more blessed to have that opportunity.

***

The rest of the week I played with my sisters. It was awesome. I even stayed at Jami's house for a couple of nights....not on purpose, but it ended up being really fun.  Jake kept on calling me asking when I was coming home. I usually would say, "probably tomorrow", but then another day would go by...Jake called it "the never ending vacation!" :)

The night before I left to go home to Arizona my sisters and I headed down to Provo for a dinner with my parents before they flew out to Charlotte. I was so happy I stayed. Dinner was so awesome, we heard all about the Mission President Seminar and all the amazing experiences they had and the things they learned. It was amazing! And no tears were said at this goodbye!

My parents flew early the next morning and I drove home that morning. It was a great trip!

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Some other highlights of our trip.

Macy got really sick and developed this crazy bulls eye rash.  Lyme disease is what the Doctor thought it was. She was treated for Lyme disease for 21 days and eventually started feeling better. She got the tick while we were in NC.

Dinner at City Creek.

Ice cream!