A day from two weeks ago...

For those of you who saw my blog yesterday with the awesome background, I took it away because it made it too hard to read the info on the page! A case of "less is more".

I wanted to step back in time and capture a day we had a couple of weeks ago just as the reunion was starting. Specifically, it was Thursday, 26 June. Mom, Emma & I had gone shopping the night before, purchasing food stuffs for the weekend, and were planning on doing major prep on Thurs morning. So we woke up and went to work. Little did I remember in the business of the day, that Jonathan was supposed to be at Cub Scout Day Camp that morning...oops! So he remembered about 9 a.m. (He was supposed to have been at the church at 6:30.) I told him that sometimes we just miss things, and that's hard, but I didn't see a way to work it out to get him all the way to the camp down in Hobble Creek Canyon (near Mapleton). Next thing I knew, my dad & I were being sent on an errand to get some extra food stuff, and we decided to squeeze a trip to the camp in as well. Only after we were in the car and on our way, map in hand, did Jonathan tell me that he'd prayed that he'd somehow be able to still go. Sweet boy of great faith! Then, on the way back, we just HAD to stop and see Dad's sister & husband, one block off our road in Springville. We only stayed 15 minutes, but since he'd already driven 1700+ miles, it was the least we could do. (They did have an evening planned for after the reunion for all the siblings in the area to get together.) And everything still worked out with the food. It was a great opportunity for me to talk to my dad about family reunions, and his expectations and hopes for thier mission; they had not yet received their call at that point.Later that day, after dinner, we had scheduled a trip to our temple for any coming to the reunion who could be there by then. All who were there: Nels & me, Mom & Dad, Eric & Chris (& her neice, Natalie), Sherlyn (Scoutmaster Mark was on a Scout trip), Adam & Missi, Karen & Dan, Emma. Then, while we were waiting in the chapel for the session to start, in walked my dad's brother, Glen, his wife Carol and three of their children & spouses (my cousins)! It was completely unplanned, but a great opportunity to reconnect with them too!

But that wasn't all for that evening. As it turned out, there was a deaf sister in our session. I recognized her from the deaf ward and "talked" to her. I had been wanting to see the new ASL/CC video I had heard about for the temple sessions, and here was my opportunity. Chris' neice, Natalie, I discovered, was a ASL college graduate, and soon to be HS teacher of ASL. There was another signer there that evening as well. Long story short, I ended up interpreting a live prayer for the deaf sister, since it's a prayer I traditionally interpret for myself to keep my signing skills up. What an honor that was to be part of.

Then after that session, we went home and played games & talked. Adam & Missi had been concerned about their kids, but Kimberly had done her marvelous babysitting job, and all was well. They and Nels & I ended up talking until 1:30 the next morning.

I JUST LOVE FAMILY!