Mission Reunion

A few days before General Conference weekend we found out that Peter was invited to a mission reunion in Utah.  We went back and for about going for a couple of days, not sure if it would be wise to take our rowdy bunch on a trip. Peter thought it would be so great to see so many old friends so we got brave and went for it.  Lucy came along to help so that made it a lot easier to manage, and Peter's brother Paul let us stay at their house.  We decided if we were going to do this, we would have to stay really busy out and about the whole time so that the kids destroying any one's house. 

Friday we met up with Heidi on the BYU campus and took a golf cart tour around.  My goodness, campus has changed so much.  It is beautiful!  We loved showing the kids our old stomping grounds, but they were pretty much underwhelmed.  Oh well, we tried.    Then we went to this restaurant called Pirate Island.  They had us at "Pirate".  The food was affordable, the decor was totally amazing, and of course the kids love arcades.  I think this was the highlight of the trip because some of them have asked me when we get to go back to Pirate Island. 

 Enjoying his loot.

That evening we went to the Mission reunion.  We were nervous about taking all the kids with us, but there were a lot of other kids there so it turned out fine, we just let them run around and play for 5 hours.  It is hard to believe that Peter has been home for 10 years.  We were amazed at what a huge turnout there was.  There were probably 60 or more people there.  There was a neat chapel meeting and then a light dinner in the gym afterward with a slide show and lots of socializing.  Peter really loved seeing so many people from such an important time of his life.  I have gotten to know enough of them, that I had fun too.  Here are a few people that were there.

 One of Peter's favorite companions, Gulbrandsen.

Another favorite companion, Farmer.  I became good friends with his wife one year of pest control so it was so fun to catch up with her.

President Christensen, Peter's second mission president in the Argentina Resistencia Mission.

Eden's new bestie Chase.  They played so cute all night.  His dad is one of Peter's buddies, so they got a big kick out of it. 

Saturday, John and his family came down from Blackfoot to party with us so we headed back to Provo to hike the Y.  Dallin was so excited about it.  I think I forgot how hard of a hike it is.   It was about as hard as hiking Multnomah Falls, but way hotter and deserty.  We pushed through it and made it all the way to the top though.  Man, that was a lot of work and kids carrying.  Yeah, we are crazy, but adventurous right?

Dallin bit it on the way down and got some pretty bad road rash on his ankle.  Other than that, he loved it.  Most of the kids looked about like this afterward. It was hot!

 We coud hardly wait to get back to Heidi's apartment and get in her pool.  It was very refreshing and just what we needed. Then we paid one of Heidi's room mates to watch a movie and eat pizza with the kids so we could go out with the family to Tucanos, a Brazilian barbecue place that we love.  It was so yummy and we enjoyed good company.

 That night we went to Thanksgiving Point to the Cornbellys corn maze.  It is way more than a corn maze though, it is a whole carnival of fun things to do.  These air trampolines were great.

 Eden loved the princess land.

 They had a closet area where the girls could pick out a princess dress to wear while in there.  It was too cute to see all the little princesses running around. 

 The boys really liked this go cart track.

 There was so much to do there, we just kept playing for hours. We did the corn maze last at like 10:30 at night.  The kids were getting so tired, but we worked our way around it for a quite a while.  Finally, we found ourselves back at the first checkpoint.  Many of us groaned and decided that we would go ahead and exit the entrance.   We didn't really tell the kids so they thought we made it through.  Works for me, I was exhausted!  What a fun place, I wish we had something like it here. 

I love how Peter's hand looks like Lily's.

Sunday we hung out at Paul and Kari's for Conference and played games.  Then we went to the park by their house and had a great picnic.  Our friends Cory and Jill came, who we hadn't seen in a long time so we had a great time catching up.  Another one of Peter's mission companions came too.  Some played ultimate Frisbee and the kids had fun at the park.  We hung out at Paul and Kari's a bit more (while the kids destroyed their house) and then headed to Temple Square.  It was neat to walk around and show the kids.  We got there pretty late, but we did get to spend some time in the visitors center and the tabernacle. 

When we came out of the tabernacle, I noticed Dallin wasn't with us so I went back in to find him.  I saw him down in the front talking with a senior missionary couple.  Then the Elder invited Dallin to sit down with him.  I walked over, not wanting to disturb them too much to see what was going on.  The sister told me that Dallin walked up to them and while shaking his hands in the air, said, "I came to see the prophet!".   They got a big chuckle out of it, so the elder had him sit down so they could talk a bit.  I looked at Dallin and he had this look on his face that was sort of awestruck.   After a couple of minutes we said goodbye.  As we walked out I asked Dallin if he thought that was the prophet.  I think he did, but he said no.  Then he said, "Maybe he was one of the apostles or a really important guy."  I smiled and let him know that he was a missionary, but he was really important too.  That was just such a precious moment. 

That night we went and stayed with an old friend and Peter stayed up much of the night visiting.  Then early the next morning we headed for home. I am so glad we decided to go, it was a memorable trip for us all.   We loved seeing family and old friends and doing so many fun activities together.