Lasts With Hyrum

My top priority today was going to Waterford to get a silhouette picture with Hyrum before he leaves tomorrow. ✔Check! And I planned it out to have Hyrum holding up a Book of Mormon!

It looks pretty good! But truth be told: the sun was setting and we were losing daylight, and in our rush to get everyone out of the house, I didn't grab a Book of Mormon, so Hyrum is actually holding a DVD case, haha. But it's supposed to be a Book of Mormon, and you can't tell anyway, so there is an example of our ideal vs. our reality but it's ok, cause it looks the same!

We got kids left to right: Owen, Abi, Daniel, Sophi, Lily, Natalie, Hyrum, Wes, and Peter.

I thought tonight would be the last of our last few moments with Hyrum. I was pleasantly surprised yesterday to learn that we were going to have Monday night and all of today. When he came home yesterday with Corey, I was like "A free day with Hyrum! Let's go to the temple!" I logged onto the Jordan River Temple website and there were plenty of openings. I called Corey's parents to see if they wanted to go with him, but JeNeal offered to watch Daniel and Peter so that I could go with Hyrum and Wayne, so that was a gift. This was Hyrum's second time, and now he's been to the temple more times than Ethan! 

Poor Eth is jealous. He and a lot of other covid missionaries only got to go one time when they were endowed. I didn't realize he had only gone that one time until he mentioned that yesterday. I think Mel only went that one time too! For Ethan, there is a temple in the Dominican Republic and in Santo Domingo but alas, it's not in his mission area. I don't know about Mel. So sad. Hyrum's going to have a beautiful temple in his mission, so he'll probably be able to go often. He'll also be able to go to the Provo Temple while he's at the MTC. I was able to go every p-day during my mission if I wanted, and usually we did. Speaking of my mission, I served in Tempe Arizona, but Mesa was part of our mission at that time (1997-98). The Mesa Arizona Temple has been remodeled and will soon be rededicated... My former mission comp and current bff Nicole is going down and has tickets for the last day... I want to try and go to.

What else - Sophi and Natalie had orchestra today. After picking them up and dropping them off at school this morning, I drove by the bus stop where Corey was with Owen. Corey was holding Peter.  They had walked down, and I asked if they wanted a ride home. Corey and I smiled at Owen's tussled hair, and then Corey pointed out Owen's socks to me. Cute little first graders -

Corey left for work, Peter started on his "work" - the dinosaur puzzles. 

He likes these and does them everyday. He can do them by himself too!

Such a smarty pants! He likes cars and dinosaurs. Doing the dinosaur puzzle in his dinosaur pajamas.

Here's a summary of my run around today - We went to the temple for the 11:40 session. We left to go pick up Wayne and drop off D&P at 10:30, were on our way to the temple at 10:50. Hyrum forgot his recommend at home and we were going to go back to get it, but then we thought we'd just risk it and see if they could just look it up at the temple desk, and they were able to do that just fine. So Hyrum got in without a problem. It was a nice session. I struggled staying awake which I hated, but I also expected since I got up at 5:15 to take Wes to seminary and hadn't had a cat nap. We were done at the temple and on our way back at 1:40. The little boys were good for JeNeal, yay. D&P had plenty of graham crackers and ritz crackers while we were gone, and watched the Pink Panther cartoons. We had some veggie pizza and were on our way back home around 2:30. Peter fell asleep in the car. Wes was home, I took Abi to soccer practice at 4:30, then went back home to get Wes for hockey practice. We got there late at 5:30, at which time he's supposed to be dressed and ready to get on the ice. Lucky for me Abi's soccer was at the Butler fields, close to where Wes was just dropped off for hockey. I read while I waited for Abi to finish her soccer practice, then I took her straight to her flute lesson, which has been moved to 6:30 for this month and October to accommodate Abi's soccer practices, which go from 4:30-6 on Tuesdays. After dropping off Abi at her lesson, I headed back to get Wes, and Corey went to pick up Abi at 7:15 for me. Then we hurried home, ate some chicken alfredo dinner, per Hyrum's last supper request, then we ran out the door to Waterford for some quick pictures. It was really dark, but the kids ran around on the field and played soccer in the dark for 20 minutes. Peter ready to take on Hyrum.

Corey and Wes headed back home to get more work done. 

Back at home we read scriptures, let Hyrum say his final family prayer for 2 years, then brush teeth and get ready for bed. Well, that would have been ideal, but instead the little boys decided to give their big brother a proper send off by harassing him for 15 mintues.

Wrestle! Get him! Hyrum threw pillows at them. 

Peter still thinks he's pretty tough, it's cute. Good night Hyrum, it's been nice knowing you!! Tomorrow's the big day and he goes to the MTC. He needs to be dropped off between 12-2, so it'll be good. We are maybe going to take all the kids out of school to come down, although that will be a bit of a hassle. But it's ok - it's a one of 12 "once in a lifetime" opportunities for our kids. It'll be good. Goodnight.