Hannah and Kaellen went to Oregon for the week. Alex, of course, is on his mission. But, we had Andrew, Heather, Henry, Joy, Ryan, and Angeles all come for Thanksgiving! Because they were traveling in the snow, there was a bit of stress on my part due to the fact that I am a worrier. But they all arrived safely, if not quickly.
Ryan and Angeles came up from San Diego and there was snow in California. They got in at 4 am Wednesday morning, so it was about 13 hour trip instead of a 10.
Andrew had to work Wednesday morning, so couldn't leave Mesa until the afternoon. They wound up spending Wednesday night at my sister's in Vegas (thanks Deni!) and arrived just in time to eat with the family. There were only 27 of us altogether (I believe we've had as many as 40 before) as some family had other places to go. But it was a wonderful feast with wonderful company.
We got to video conference with Alex on Thanksgiving Day. He had just left the training center on Tuesday morning, so this was our first chance to find out where he was assigned. He is in Salt Lake, which is where he wanted to be (he's hoping to see all the Christmas lights Salt Lake is famous for). We don't know much about Alex's companion, but his name is Elder Sivadon and he's from Georgia.
After Alex talked to us, he contacted Hannah, who just happened to be at my parents house, so they all got to have a very brief video conference, too!
Mission assignments are a bit different in Utah than they are in Fallon. In Fallon, a companionship usually covers one or two wards and they serve in one stake usually with several other missionaries. Alex and his companion's area takes in 19 wards from 3 different stakes (Grant, Granite, and Highland) that they don't share with any other missionaries (unless there are Spanish-speaking missionaries maybe), and we believe one of the stakes is where his cousin Megan lives! Andrew's first area in Iowa was where Mindy (Megan's older sister) lived and Andrew and Mindy bumped into each other Andrew's first week in Iowa. Wonder if Alex will bump into Megan. Hope so!
Thursday night, we received an email from the Hut family who Alex had Thanksgiving dinner with, and it had the following photo attached.
Besides eating a ton of delicious food ourselves, we played a ton of wonderful games all weekend.
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| another left hander! I'm not the only one anymore |
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| enjoying some taco soup on Friday |
Ryan and Angeles are staying a few more days, but Andrew had to work on Monday, so they had to drive back on Sunday. Luckily they were behind a snowplow between Fallon and Schurz, which was the one part of the trip that might have been dangerous because "chains or snow tires required" on that stretch of 95. They got in around 1:30 this morning in Mesa, making their trip about 16 hours (instead of the 12 that a trip without snow and little kids would have taken).
It was so good to get together! We have so many blessings and have so much to be thankful for.
