Yellow Smilies

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Family Vacation 2013--Beach

We went to the beach one of the days! It was a really nice overcast day...

This is the first time we have ever been to a REAL beach! Exciting stuff!

Dallin couldn't let the time go by without building a sandcastle! Okay, this one is pathetic...he actually built a better one than this...it will be in a future pic...

Brandon hurt his foot at the hotel earlier that day, so he didn't go into the water much, because the salt water stung his owie. :(

Ahhh, there is a better sandcastle. I told you...and there's even a feather on top!

Way to go Dallin!

The kids loved the waves!

Sadly, we all got sunburned, on different parts of our bodies...

It was quite a windy day, but it wasn't so hot!

We still got burned though.

Scary hair! But it's vacation, right?

The day we went to the beach was lots of fun, but we were miserable afterwards because of our sunburns. Apparently I didn't do a very good job with the sunscreen. Ugh!

When we were driving back from California to Las Vegas, it was triple digits (in the middle of a heat wave) and several cars were pulled off on the side of the road because of their cars overheating. We had to go slower, and turn our air off a couple of times so we could make it. It was crazy and soooo hot! When we drove home from Vegas, we decided to leave late Sunday night, and drive through the middle of the night, so we wouldn't have to deal with the heat. We left at about 10:00 pm our time, and got home at 4:45 am. It was a long night, but there was very little traffic, and it was much cooler!

On the way home from our trip, I bought this souvenir in Mesquite, Nevada at a Chevron station. We saw it on the drive up, but I decided to wait to see if I found anything I liked more on our vacation. I couldn't decide what to get, so I got this on the way home...I was so glad we found it again...and that there was still one there!

This is what it looks like on the back! How stinking cute!

It was a successful family vacation! I'm so glad we got to go!

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

The Setting apart and the MTC

We had the setting apart on Tuesday, June 11th, the night before Eric left for the MTC. The stake presidency came to our home, along with the Bishop and the grandparents. It was such an amazing experience. The minute that Eric sat down, he turned to me and said, "I know Grandma Jones is here." I immediately agreed. It was very tender and sweet. I really missed her, but could feel that she was still a part of this experience.

President Bigelow (our stake president) talked to us for a minute and told us that we are witnessing something really amazing in the church right now with regard to missionary work. There has been so many young men and women who have wanted to serve and each week, there are roughly 900 new missionaries entering the MTC (and that's just in Provo). It's quite a historical event that so many missionaries are heeding the call to serve. I'm so grateful Eric is a part of that right now...

The blessing he received from the stake president was awesome and very comforting. After the blessing, President Bigelow asked Eric to bear his testimony. That was amazing! He was so excited to begin his journey. He was ready and willing to serve. I was even ready to let him go... (mostly)

Eric is pictured here with a friend's special tie from our ward. His name is Jake Cameron. He gave this to Eric to wear and called it his "lucky tie." He even wrote a special message on the inside. It was so sweet! We LOVE the Cameron family!!

In the morning, Eric got up bright and early, got dressed in missionary attire and began his first day as a missionary. He did not watch TV, he did not text on his phone, he did not play video games, he did not listen to his ipod...it was awesome!

He even wrote a few thank you notes...Yippee! (I love how you can see Eric's CTR ring in this picture. It's got the notes to the song, Choose the Right, engraved on it)

Here is a picture of Eric's luggage! Sheryl Cameron (who we love and adore) made those little smiley faces. She crochets them for all of the missionaries in our ward. They are what sets his luggage apart from all the other missionaries, so he can always recognize them right away. But guess what? Sheryl didn't even know that I LOVE yellow smilies! I couldn't have picked those out better myself! Ironic, eh? :)

The morning before entering the MTC...still wearing his lucky tie!

These pictures were taken right before we loaded up the family to go to Provo to drop Eric off...

"Thumbs Up!" It's kind of an Eric Jones trademark...

Loading up the car...

On the curb at the MTC. I've gotta say that dropping Eric off was so amazing. It was so organized. There were hundreds and hundreds of missionaries lined along the curb...some of them were greeting the new missionaries, some of them WERE new missionaries. The feeling in the air was electric! You could feel the faith of every person and it was so overwhelming and humbling.

What an awesome sight!

See ya later, Elder Jones! We love you and will miss you! But you are in the right place! Good luck and we'll see ya in a couple of years! (ahh)...

I only cried a little bit on the way home. I'm so brave. :)

Eric's mission farewell

Well, I survived Eric's mission farewell...barely! No, honestly, it was totally awesome! Eric did an amazing job on his talk in Sacrament meeting and I was so proud of him. He had a lot of support from family and friends. After the meeting, everyone came to our house for a luncheon. The weather was perfect...a little hot, but not windy, so it was nice. I'm guessing we served around 70 people, maybe more. It was a huge success and such a fun day! We had the party in our front yard and it was GREAT!

Here are some pictures of the big event...(I'll name who I know, but there are some people I don't know...sorry)

Sara Bigelow, John Duffy, Ashleigh Hand

Nic Park, Katie ?

Gina Nicholson, Julie (our cousin)

I don't really know who these people are...the second one from the left is Rachel Colby. The second one from the right is Brianna Dahl, and her mom, Tiffany, is on the end.

Yeah...don't know their names except Rachel Colby...

Matt Wall (cousin), Jayme Loveland, Brooke ? and ?

Jasmine, McKenna, and Owen (all cousins)

Grandpa Jones, Parker (cousin), Aunt Kristin, Aunt Malissa

The Kimball family

Faye, Bethany, Janelle and in the back is Matt

Anne (cousin)

Uncle Ryan, Uncle Aaron, and Dad

A bunch of friends...Jayde Ford is middle left in a blue denim dress. Tim Jenkins is on the far right of the screen (black hair)

Aunt Shauna, Uncle Mike, and Grandpa

Dad and Mom

Zach Wall (cousin), Dallin, and Brandon

Sierra, Sophie, Alexis (cousins), and Sophie's friend

Emma Wall (cousin)

Riley Nicholson (cousin), Aunt Gina, and Alexis Cruz (cousin)

This is one of my favorite pictures. I absolutely love it.

Eric and Riley

This is a picture of Eric and his good friend, Kurtis. They have been friends since Kindergarten. Kurtis came over to change the strings on Eric's guitar on Monday (the day after the farewell). He's a sweet kid!