Ellie is Home!

Last weekend was the weekend that our niece Ellie came home from her mission, so we made the trip to Nampa again, this time with Curtis. I didn't trust driving my van to Idaho again, especially after trying to use it to take Garrett to his therapy appointment and it wouldn't let me move the gear shifter. It was the truck from then on that I used. I told Curtis that we will be driving the truck to Nampa because I'm nervous about driving my van any more until it gets fixed. Thursday at noon was Garrett's appointment and then we hit the road after Curtis got home from work. We left around 5:00 our time and arrived to my in-laws' just before 10pm mountain time. 

It was kind of a nice change of pace not having the dvd players this time. Garrett did bring the Nintendo Switch videogame system but he didn't play it the whole time. We actually started out the trip by playing a game. We chose the topic of Harry Potter and went through the whole alphabet picking something that related to our topic with each letter of the alphabet. Jack didn't feel like playing and Alice had started the game with us but then stopped after a couple of rounds. Each of us had to repeat everything we already heard before adding on to the next letter. It was fun. At one point I started writing down all of them on Charlotte's doodle board so it would help her but by the end we challenged her to do it without looking and she did really well. Jack actually said he doesn't like watching movies or listening to audiobooks while driving. It makes his stomach queasy or head hurt. We did ride in silence for awhile and the kids actually looked out at the scenery and were enjoying it.

Charlotte was so happy to sit in front with us.

Having fun in the back.

On Friday Curtis got a ride with Eric Roundy (our previous bishop who works at the same office) to work in Meridian. I had scheduled to go to the Meridian temple in the afternoon with Dad, Laverne, Grandma, Joyce, Stillman and Michelle. Jess and Diane ended up coming to town also and joined us, as well as Kevin and Jan Poulsen, who are the parents of my friends Ashley and Brittanie. Dad and Laverne invited them along because they are friends with them. Most of us did initiatory first and then all of us did an endowment session. It had been years since Stillman and Michelle have been able to go to the temple. We all drove to Boise afterwards to eat at Chuck-A-Rama. Curtis got home before I did and took the kids out to eat at City Buffet, the same place I went to lunch with my friend Sarah the previous week. That reminds me, I saw my friend Sarah again and her husband and a couple others from 37th ward at the temple after our session. I think they had just finished doing baptisms. It was fun to see them there! 

Our temple group: Joyce, Kevin, Jan, Jess, Diane, Grandma, Dad, Laverne, Me, Michelle and Stillman.

After I got back and Curtis got back with the kids, we just relaxed and watched some Sherlock with his parents and the boys. I decided I could only handle one episode and went to the room to finish my book, Holes. The movie Holes followed the book extremely well. I felt like I was watching the movie. There were just small differences. This was a book I had grabbed out of the little library in front of the school recently.

It was nice sleeping in the next day. My in-laws were subbing for someone at the temple so they left around 10am. And the whole reason for making this trip was to see our niece Ellie return from her mission. Her plane did not get in until 5pm so we had some time to kill. Alice's suitcase is falling apart so she went shopping with me and Curtis to look for a new used one. We went to D.I. and Saver's. Neither store had one she approved of but we did find a bunch of other things. Alice got some shirts and a jacket, shoes, a toy alicorn (unicorn with wings), and camping chair. We also found some more ties for the boys and church slacks and a pair of flippers for swimming that is the boys' size. Jack had been wanting some so I was excited to find them! We also found a white desk that we liked for the girls to have in their room. It was a good thing we brought our truck! 

Anyway, after dropping off all of our thrift store finds and picking up the other kids, we headed to the airport. There were lots of family and a friend that showed up to welcome Ellie home. 

Alice and her alicorn. It was only .75 cents at D.I., which is why I let her get it. It pays to go with mom and dad to the store sometimes, ha ha.

Someone made some signs for the airport and Alice held one of them for a little while before handing it over to Keaton.

And she's home! Even Aussie their dog came to welcome Ellie home.

Everyone that came. Even Colby, Cindy and Lehi made the drive up from Utah and got there just in time.

It was a great reunion. Later, most of us went to my grandma's to eat and play games and visit. The Cleaver's did their own thing so they could get Ellie released from her mission, feed her and get her settled at home. 

This was the crowd playing Golf. I have never seen so many people playing this game. I would have liked to join but there wasn't room, so I went back and forth between the rooms, watching and visiting. Katie and Curtis ended up in a tie for first place. This was the first time Katie ever played and I think she enjoyed it.

We had to make sure we got back to my in-laws' and in bed at a decent hour Saturday because the next morning was Ellie's homecoming talk and their ward starts at 9am. It's been awhile since we've gone that early. The girls were all ready to go to church before the boys this time! 😁 We ended up being a few minutes late but we made it. Afterwards, we saw a few people we knew from our old wards in the hallways. We had even sat by our friends, the Hayes' family. It's fun running into people we haven't seen in a long time.

Ellie did a great job on her talk and it was fun to listen to her speak Spanish at the end when bearing her testimony. After Sacrament meeting we went back to change our clothes and pack up our stuff. The Cleavers' had an open house and we got there early so it was nice to have some one on one time. After visiting and eating cake and soda we got on the road to head back home. It was a great weekend and visit!

My brother Colby, me and Charlotte at the open house. I love this picture and I'm loving my new hair cut more and more.

I wanted to get a sibling picture of who was there (5 out of 7). Laverne took this one.

Charlotte took this picture with my phone. We may not all be looking at her but it looks like we're at least all looking in the same direction.