It might be a record except for an organized reunion or special event but in July, not only did my brother Todd and family visit, but then my brother, Rick and his wife, Linda, and their oldest daughter, Anna, and her husband, Anthony came to Salt Lake and when Valerie heard of the plan, she decided that it would be the perfect weekend to visit Dad and us as well. So it was a game playing PARTY!!!
We were a couple of hours late on Friday afternoon as we unexpectedly got another new missionary and had to spend some time in orientation. Elder Spencer is another great addition to our zone and comes with a passion about Church History already. He is a storyteller and I love talking to him about his life in the Coast Guard, his conversion, and other adventures.
When we got there, Valerie had already arrived, so the game playing begun immediately. We played some of my dad's games-- Misery Loves Company and Race for the Crown. We ordered food from a nearby Italian Restaurant, Bucca's, and had enough food to stuff us all and leftovers which we ate for dinner the next day. When at 7:00, Jinger and Jeff Aleman stopped by bringing a box of Crumbi cookies which are amazing! And the game playing continued......
Both Jeff and Jinger spent their early years in Amarillo and grew up in the same ward as my family (of course, there was only one ward when we moved to Amarillo in 1971). Jinger's family was very close to my family (I talked about them in the post about her sister's funeral--Janeen Brink Thompson in mid-July.). However, they both were much younger than me and I really didn't know them. I was only there for the last two years of high school and then off and on while I went to BYU before Gary and I got married. Despite the age differences and the years since any of us had seen them, they walked in the house and it felt totally normal and natural. They joined into the game playing like it had only been last week that we had all been together. Such are the bonds of friendship that love and memories bring! It was wonderful. The only thing better would have been for her siblings and dad to have been there to share the evening.
Rick and family stayed at my dad's, but we got to have Valerie stay with us for the whole weekend. Bright and early (okay, it was 9:15 am) on Saturday morning, we met up with Rick and family and had breakfast and walked around Temple Square.
Anthony, Anna, Rick, Linda, and Valerie
Gary waited with Jena to finish her breakfast while we started the tour.
Still amazing at the process of reconstruction as you can tell by all of the pictures I am including in the blog since starting our mission here.
These are from inside the Conference Center which just recently was opened again for visitors.
This is a view from the garden roof of the Conference Center over looking the north side of the temple.
Rick headed for his plane and the rest of their family headed for Provo to visit some of Linda's family. I took Valerie to her afternoon appointment at the Jordan River Temple and then the two of us spent a couple of hours just talking with our dad in the quiet of the afternoon. It was a sweet and great time to spend together--one which I will not forget. I was so lucky with dad and mom that I was blessed with. I will always be grateful for them--thankfully we will have eternity to do that!
Picking up Valerie after her session at the temple, the clouds again were amazing to the east. This picture does not reflect the light and diversity of the clouds. It was breathtaking!
Valerie stayed over another night and was able to attend Church with us in our mission branch. And then she joined us for our first "Break the Fast" dinner with other missionaries living in our apartment complex. We wanted to make sure she saw some of the fun of serving a mission.
It is always hard to say goodbye to my siblings.....we were so busy playing games that we didn't get much conversation in....that can happen when you get Gibersons together!
No comments:
Post a Comment