Before and After Brazil

We were in Brazil for a week.  This was the longest time we have been away from Jared and Lydia.  Back in 2014 we left them with Sue for 3 nights when we came out to Virginia and a night here and there but never a whole week.  Overall they did really well.   Mark's sister Cathryn is at Sue's right now and she has 11 year old twins.  Mark's sister Laurie was also in town with her 10 and 12 year old.  It was fun for them to have some time with cousins.  The hardest part was food.  Jared and Lydia eat pretty well at home.  Most likely because we have all the food they like and are used to.  Sue worked really hard to try to cook them meals they liked but there was still more complaining then I would have liked.  They kept saying that they liked my version of meals.  I am not an amazing cook and wished they would have just eaten nicely.  We talked a lot about eating what they were given and being thankful before I left but it wasn't quite enough.  Half way through the week Sue bought some ice cream and told them if they ate well and didn't complain then they could have some.  I really wish they could have just dealt with it better but am happy it made mealtimes (really dinner was the problem) more pleasant for Sue.

Saturday night Lydia told Sue that she was scared to go to primary the next day.  For the record she has been to this ward before.  Sue told her that she could go to the Primary room and check it out then decide.  They walked down there after Sacrament meeting and she decided it looked too scary.  Sue told her she could choose to stay or go home and have Primary.  She opted to go home. They went to the house and Sue did a lesson on gratitude.  As the activity the made gratitude jars.  She told them that for everything they wrote they were grateful for she would give them a nickel.  Always motivated by money Jared wrote down 73 things.  Lydia made it to 35.  I'm glad it was a good lesson and as a follow up we had our lesson on gratitude this week and wrote thank you cards to all our family members who served us that last week.   Getting some writing/spelling practice in before school starts was great too!

They really did have a good time.  Highlights include:  swimming every day, going to the Curiosity Museum twice, playing at a park, the Provo Rec Center for swimming and slides, being with cousins, morning cartoons snuggled in bed with Grandma Sue, selling lemonade, water and golfballs to the golfers from Sue's backyard, watching the Christopher Robin movie at the theater with Grandma Sue, a shopping spree for a new outfit and lots of Harry Potter reading.  We are so thankful for Sue and Cathryn taking such good care of Jared and Lydia.

Curiosity Museum

One day the Kids were playing outside and they found this little bird that decided to play with them.  They named it Perchy. This was the same day Jared lost his Ron Weasley wand.  They looked for over an hour with no luck. As he was beginning to break down Cathryn went over to the neighbors to ask them to look our for it and found it in their grass!

There is a golf course on the other side of Sue's fence.  A few years ago Ian and Anya sold Lemonade and golf balls and Jared has been dying to do it since then.  They made a few dollars and he was happy to sit and sell.

Ian and Jared also went on a mile run together.  I love how happy he looks running.  We are going to do the Earlysville 5K together on Thanksgiving and I know he is looking forward to training for it.

One of my favorite parts of Utah was getting a chance to meet up with the Lenox's.  They happened to come down to Utah from Idaho where they were visiting family to drop Tom off at the airport.  Tara kindly stayed in Utah a few days so we could meet up.  That was also why I flew out as early as I did.  I would do whatever I could to meet up with her!  Originally I was just going to go, drop them off and leave the next day but I really wanted to see her.  We went swimming for awhile and then they came to play at Sue's.  It took Lainey and Lydia a long time to warm up to each other which surprised me.  Before we came Lydia could not stop talking about seeing Lainey.  I think part of it was Lydia having her cousins there too.  Tara and I had no such problems.  It was so great to see her.  They eventually ended up having a great time together.

 

We were so happy to meet up with Jared and Lydia in Arizona.  Sue flew down to Phoenix with them on Thursday.  They played with more cousins and swam at the Air b-n-b Sue rented.  Once we got there Friday we went to a play zone with Mark's sisters Laurie, Kristi and Cathryn and their kids.  They were all there for the wedding and it was fun to have another family reunion.  Mark's oldest brother Steve has 2 sons getting married this month.  6 of the 8 siblings came to AZ for this wedding.  Before we could get to the play zone I wanted to change clothes.  I went out to the rental car to grab some clean clothes and then came into change.  As I walked in the door I handed Mark the keys.  After changing we went out to the car and it was locked but nobody knew where the keys were.   I remembered setting them on the floor of the trunk while I got stuff out but didn't remember handing them to Mark and he didn't remember me giving them to him.  He got in the car to drive with Kristi's husband Ben and took the keys with him.  Sue and I stayed at the house and waited for the locksmith.  He got there really quickly and then had a really hard time getting the door open.  Once he did I climbed in to look for the keys and they weren't there.  As I was looking my phone which had been left in the car rang and it was Mark calling to let us know he had the keys.  I was so relieved.  I felt awful wasting the time and money.  Mark came and picked us up and we met everyone at the play zone.

Anya, Giselle, Ian, Jared, Lydia, Ashton, and Felicity

Jared and Lydia loved the place.  Kristi booked us for 3 hours and it had laser tag which Jared thought was the most amazing thing ever and some little rides to go on.  There was a buffet and everyone had plenty of junk food.  Jared and Lydia hadn't been to a place like that in years.  I think the last time was in 2014 before we came out here.  We went to one in Utah with Mark's family as part of a family reunion.  They had a blast. We ate dinner at Kristi's after more swimming and then went over to check out her new house.

The next day was the wedding.  We made sure our stuff was all packed as we would be leaving right after the sealing.  Jared and Lydia stayed at Kristi's house with all the cousins while we were all at the temple.  It was really nice to be at the sealing and we are really happy for Zac and Shaelyn. Afterwards Cathryn went to the house and picked up all the kids to bring them to the temple.  I was unaware that this was the plan and was so embarrassed.  Here we are at the temple at a wedding and my kids show up in old play clothes while everyone else looks great.  Why couldn't anyone tell me that was the plan?  As far as I knew Jared and Lydia weren't going to be at the temple so I put them in  comfy clothes for traveling.   I couldn't wait to get out of there.  Plus we were in AZ standing outside to take pictures so we were all sweating like crazy.  Poor Lydia was completely over it all and so uncooperative.  I know she was just dealing with a lot of emotions and me feeling stupid about their clothes.  She just wanted to be with us and go home.  We left as soon as the group picture and Sue's "grandma" pictures were done.

 

Xavi and Staci (married 9 years), Amy, Shae (its funny that Zac's sister and now wife have such similar names), Shaelyn and Zac, Molly and Steve, Christian and Ammon. 

We are so glad we could go and also so happy to be home.  Taking the trip to AZ was a little too much I think but we really did want to go and we had to be out West to pick up Jared and Lydia anyway.  By then the three of us had been away from home for almost 2 weeks.  Just 1 day short by the time we got to our house.  It was a lot for us.  We will try to make it to Ammon's wedding on the 25th but its tricky since school is in session and again, its out in Utah which is an early morning departure and late at night arrival home with the time change.  They are also getting married in the evening on Saturday so Mark would probably miss church which he would rather not do.