Travis Mission Pictures

 

Mission Call

Travis got his mission call the week of the wedding also, so he was able to open it with all the family there (Caleb was on the phone).  He had people from the ward over too for the opening.  He is going to Pretoria, South Africa, English speaking, reporting on September 3rd to the South Africa MTC in Johannesburg.  Pretty cool!

Happy 20th Birthday Caleb!

I sent Caleb some Domino's Pizza and some cupcakes for his birthday.  He did not get pictures of the cupcakes, but obligingly sent me the picture of him and his companion eating the pizza for dinner.  It's nice having missionaries serve in the states so I can do things like this.

Nozomi's Baptism

Nozomi turned eight in July and was baptized the first weekend in August.  It's always nice to get together with all of the family here in Texas, as many as are able.  Grandpa and Grandma started a mission earlier in the year.  Grandpa is in the mission presidency of the Dallas East Mission and Grandma helps with  organizing service.  Whenever they attend church events, they wear their missionary tags.

Westley is HOME!!!

Westley came home from Wisconsin on May 4th. We picked him up at the DFW airport and Grandpa and Grandma were there too.  I let the kids make the signs and they were fun signs.  After we picked him up, we went straight to President Monroe's house for Westley to be released.  Then we went straight to Nathan's tournament baseball game.  After the game, we went to In-N-Out for dinner, his first post-mission meal.  Of course it was In-N-Out, since they don't have them in Wisconsin.  

 

More January

The big two things we dealt with in January have been the whole situation with the Malibu and also the musical and those have kept us busy, so I didn't have pictures of much else.  Jonah hit his eye on his dresser corner and it turned into a black eye.  Eliza was trying on her prom dress that we'd ordered from Amazon.  And I took another picture to document how we talk to our missionaries in this day and age.

 

November Highlights

Eliza made the musical for Wylie High again, this year it's Beauty and the Beast. The theatre department put on a camp for a fundraiser and I signed Annmarie up.  She enjoyed the camp.  She also gets to go to a character meet and greet for the musical when it happens as part of the camp package.  

I came upstairs and found this meeting happening on the coffee table in the play room.  Not sure what kind of conspiracies are being concocted, but it looks questionable.  

Jonah and Nathan had fun walking around the neighborhood the week of Thanksgiving break and raking leaves for some cash.  They made $100 in one week raking leaves and they split it between them.  

We hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house again.  This time Austin was able to come, so that was nice.

I took a picture of me talking with the boys on their missions.  It's cool to show how we are able to communicate with our missionaries now--us in Texas, Westley in Wisconsin, and Caleb in Ohio.

I found this scrumptious recipe for hot chocolate cookies and decided to try it and they are the bomb!  Travis is going to try and get orders for them for Christmas.

 

Off to the Provo MTC

Caleb flew up to Utah on the 29th. My cousin Andy Farnsworth's son,Caleb Farnsworth, got  his mission call shortly after Caleb and he is going to Salem Oregon.  His MTC report date was the same day, so Andy and Lori (and Caleb) met Caleb at the airport and kept him at their house from Tuesday into Wednesday and then drove him to the MTC.  He was able to also meet up with John and Allison and see them before reporting.  I thought that was pretty neat.  And, Ben Goode, from our ward, is in the MTC also, and Caleb bumped into him.  Another fun fact is that Caleb Farnsworth's MTC companion was on the same flight as Caleb so that is the picture with Caleb Farnsworth and the other fellow at the airport.  And of course, Andy's family treated Caleb to one more meal at In-N-Out before he is deprived for two years.

 

Caleb's Mission Begins

Caleb started Home MTC on August 21st. He had his farewell on the 20th and then we had an open house for friends and family to say goodbye to him on the 27th.  His friend Dylan from Draper, Cooper and Wylie High (until the pandemic) came out to support him.  Some of the people there were Aaron's family, Paige and the kids, Grandparents, and other members of the ward came (the Russells, the Lovelesses, the Barches, the Shumards, the Gilberts, and many of the young men from his priets' quorum).

 

Summer Fun

Summer was busy from the start this year.  The first full week of summer, we met up with Grandma and took Autumn along to see the Brown House on Ballard Street in down town Wylie.  There was a train display, which is relevant to Wylie because it started out as a railroad stop town.  

Then, Eliza, Annmarie and I went to see JJ Pearce's musical, "Mean Girls".  It won some awards to they were doing a reprise.  The show actually happened in the fall.  It was at Richardson High School because JJ Pearce's auditorium is under renovation.

Eliza had her interview for In-N-Out.  Jake Montoya is the boss over there and he has hired Westley, Caleb, Travis and now Eliza.  Eliza will get to work with both Caleb and Travis until Caleb leaves on  his mission.

Jonah and Nathan had some fun playing barber shop.  Silly boys.

I took a screenshot of our weekly conversation with Westley.  Might as well document what we are able to do with technology.  It used to be that missionaries only wrote letters home and only called twice a year--once on Christmas and once on Mother's Day. Now they can talk to us every week on a video call using Facebook messenger.  Pretty interesting how times change!