Jamie wanted to go on an ATV Trip again, so we booked a Saturday trip to go to the Ridge. Jeffery wasn't able to make it that weekend for some reason. I think he had some Youth Activity that he had to go to. We took the 2001 Honda Foreman, 2003 Kawasaki Prairie, 2005 Honda Recon and the 2023 Yamaha Grizzly. The Grizzly was Brother Strawn's that he let us borrow for this trip. We had a fun time but that is the trip that my Prairie finally bit the dust and blew a head gasket.
For months, I have been complaining about what I can see and what is fuzzy. I finally bit the bullet and Mom has been urging me to go to the eye doctor. I didn't really want to but I figured that I would go ahead and go and see if I can get some glasses if I need them. So we went to UAB Eye Care and Dr. Onken was there. He was part of the Bishopric for the Vestavia Hills Ward when President Robby Norris was the Bishop. So I recognized him and we renewed our acquaintance. Anyway, we started taking some tests and as I was going through the tests, I was passing - left and right. In the end, he told me that my eyes were good. If anything, all I needed was some reading glasses.
On April 25th, we set out to Boise to go to Katherine and Trevor's wedding reception and to meet up with Darin Frank, my old mission companion and good friend for many years. We first flew into Salt Lake City and traveled up to Tremonton in our rental car. We spent the night there on Thursday night and headed out to Boise on Friday. It was close to 3 to 4 hours of travel. We stopped by the huge waterfalls at Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls, Idaho.
Today (April 18th), Elder Hopper is coming home. We all piled into the Excursion and set off to the Birmingham Alabama airport. Katherine and Trevor joined us to go to the airport. We thought we would be a little late, but we parked and went to the airport. The Smith family also joined us to see him come in. It was an awesome reunion.
After the reception at the excavator, we waited for his bags to come in. Then we headed off to see President Shepherd. President Shepherd talked to him a bit, then released him as a missionary. Then they came upstairs and we sat down and talked a little more and President asked some of us, what words of wisdom we had for Ethan. Ethan shared his thoughts and testimony at the end and was very emotional. It was probably because he realized that he was no longer a missionary at that point. It was a great experience. From that point, we left President Shepherd's house and went to eat at El Cazador in Leeds. That was some good food!
Months ago in October, Nathan and I attended the Trick or Treat Festival at Moody Elementary School. During that time, it was so cool to hear so many students call Nathan's name to say hello. He was so popular.
At the end of the school year (April 18th), MES has a spring fling so that the kids can come and play, get candy, and generate money for the school year or the next year. Here are some pics of Nathan having a good time.
This is also the day that Elder Hopper was coming home from England.
In our weekly communication with Elder Hopper, he kept asking us about sleeping arrangements and where his stuff would go. I had thought about making bunk beds but was toggling back and forth. I looked on FBM and couldn't find what I was looking for, so I ultimately decided to build bunk beds. I went on Google Sketch and created a drawing of how I was going to build them and figure out how much lumber I needed. Here's the result (April 15th):
This is almost the finished product. We had to go back and add more vertical pieces so that the bed would be vertically stable when constant weight was applied.
It finally came! Katherine and Trevor had been planning their wedding for several months and Yes, even before the engagement - hahahaha! After months and months of checking tasks off Katherine and Trevor finally entered the month of April where time would not slow down. Katherine went back to Idaho shortly after Christmas and spent the whole semester doing school and planning for her wedding.
Jamie and Katherine competing on Just Dance and we opened presents on Christmas Day (her last single Christmas!).
Of course many other things transpired with our family during that time that I won't tell about because that will take too long and that will be too many posts to blog about.
back to the story... So we are in April and the 13th is fast approaching.
Well, I have to insert something else before I proceed to tell about April. Jamie calls me one evening and she says "so, how much time do you need before you commit to fly to Salt Lake City to help me drive back?". I sure was hoping that she was going to drive back with her friends but I knew that it was going to happen and I was going to have to go out there and help drive back - who wouldn't for their daughter? Anyway, I just dreaded driving the long distance. So the Tuesday before the Saturday (wedding day). I had to fly out to Salt Lake City and we drove back. We drove the rest of Tuesday up until like 9 pm. We spent the night at a hotel in Laramie then woke up to snow and ice on the roads and car. We started at 7 am and decided not to stop but drive through the whole day and night. The Lord really blessed us, especially me, because I had worried about not being able to drive for long periods of time and getting tired. Jamie did awesome, too! She drove through the worst weather in St. Louis and Kansas City. I picked up before the Ohio River and drove the 6 hours all the way to the house. We pulled up to the house at around 6:30 am. Oh and I got pulled over twice - one was a warning in Wyoming and the other was a 10 mph ticket over in Nebraska. The Nebraska State Trooper was a funny guy.
Now we are caught up to Katherine's wedding day on that Saturday. It was a wonderful day and she was so happy. Not many people attended the reception, but it was still fun.
I know that this is not enough details, but I apologize and hopefully I can do better in the future with capturing our families' history.
I have several posts that I need to make but I will start with this one. This will be relatively short because I need to dive into the others with details. I'll start this by saying that several things have transpired since Ethan left on a mission, so I will write a blog to document his return. Also Katherine returned from her mission in 2022 and is now married and sealed in the Birmingham Temple since April 2024. Jamie finished her bachelor's degree in financial planning. I took a trip to meet her in Salt Lake City and helped drive back home. Wendy also had an eventful getaway with her sisters and mother to Gulf Shores, Alabama. I am not sure how much I can document on that, but we'll see. Our family minus Katherine took a trip to Gatlinburg more than a week ago.
I'll try to go back in my brain to conjure up all the history and happenings that took place with these events.
