Idahome and Welcome Home

July 14 - 20th

Ashlyn had her farewell talk this morning! It was so great! :) She had to talk about a tricky topic, Sabbath day observance and the Sacrament, but she nailed it! She is going to be such a great missionary! Although it kills me to have another loved one go and serve, it also builds me up and inspires me. And I'm jealous!!
I met a ward missionary named Kevin, aka the Candy Man. He has some special needs, but he is so awesome! Any girl who he thinks is cute and single, he gives them candy... I got a lot of candy today. ;) We had a luncheon at her house afterwards, and gradually said goodbye to some of her other friends and family who came and visited. I was kind of sad to see them go! I don't know when the next time is I'm gonna see them, and we had just spent a whole weekend together.

(OH YESTERDAY. Can't believe I forgot this. Lindsey, Ashlyn's cousin, and her family live right down the road from Ashlyn. Ashlyn used to work at a swim school and they would always sing this song by Mary Kate and Ashley called Pool Party. Anyways, that quickly became our jam, and we went over to Lindsey's house last night and re-acted a part of the music video.... oh boy was it embarrassing! We put on all of her kids' swimming gear and stood in their blow up pool and sang and danced to the song ON VIDEO. So she has that video somewhere, and I want to watch it because it was hilarious.)

Well, Monday came and we watched the rest of our favorite chick flicks in the park and at midnight. But it was my last day! It seems like I didn't do all that much, but I did a ton! Nonstop fun! :) We went to downtown Boise in hopes to go to the Idaho history museum, I heard you can put on a potato outfit there, so I was determined to go! But when we got there some rude senior citizen ran up to the door, slammed it in front of us screaming, "WE'RE CLOSED GOODBYE." uhhhh... okay...? so we went and stuck our feet in the river and ate our lunch and then went and got some ice cream. At Fanci Freez there was a homeless guy there talking to us, and he was the sweetest thing! He started singing to us, saying that he wished the best for our families, told us that we shone like the sun, and even offered to get us something to eat. He was so nice! Makes me so sad for homeless people.... surely they have someone to go to for help... I don't know, but the only thing I could really help him out with was being nice and friendly! And that goes a long way I suppose. But we got done in downtown really early, so we decided to go back to Ash's house and we just hung out for while, helped her get some things packed and finalized for her mission in a week and a half!! It's so crazy to think that here I am with her, and then she'll be gone for 18 months, and I'll leave in about a year, so we won't even see each other for about three years. I'm trying not to think about that too much because I don't want our last memories to be of me crying or being upset. That's something I'm really trying to work on. It's just practice.
So it was time to go... and she drove me to the airport, and we said our goodbyes... which was so hard! This girl has been with me through my toughest days, and has been a part of my happiest days. She is such a blessing in my life to call her family. I can't say it enough of how much I LOVE HER. It was hard saying goodbye, but I know it's not forever. :')
I get to my gate, and we finally get on the plane... and all of a sudden the pilot comes on saying that there are some issues with the hydraulics and they needed some specialist who works for another airline company to come check on it.. so we wait for another hour on the plane, and it's already about 9 pm by now.. another announcement comes on saying it's going to be a while and so we can go wait out at the gate.. I go out there so I can stretch my legs. Now it's about 11 PM and we all are getting bitter and tired and frustrated.. after hours of trying to get paperwork signed, they cancel our flight. I'm just laughing because of course this would happen when it's late at night and I can't get a hold of my mom or Ash and I can't get a hotel room because I'm only 17. Oh it was great fun. After waiting in line for another hour to get a rescheduled flight for tomorrow afternoon I get a hold of Ashlyn and she comes back to the airport to get me. So much for our hard goodbye!! Haha I felt so bad! And they were supposed to leave to their vacation in Cali that same time my flight was leaving...

I was expecting to wake up in my own bed in Arizona, but I woke up in Ashlyn's bed in Idaho, but that's okay because we got one last sleepover. :) Kind of a blessing!! But my hours were short and we got to talk a little bit more, and we were back off to the airport one last time! Luckily they were going to be headed through downtown at the same time my flight was leaving, so it all worked out!! We said goodbye AGAIN, this time a lot easier and a bit funnier... ;) but then I was walking through security, and then sitting on the plane, and then watching the cars get smaller and smaller, and watching the farmland quickly turn into desert, then plateaus, then pines and red rock, then brown dirt again. It was so sad to leave Boise behind! :( I fell in love! But I got back to Sky Harbor and then headed back to Queen Creek. Me and my mom and Maizey all got lunch at Chick fil A, and then we pulled up to our house, not in Boise. But what really made me happy was seeing a silver Lancer without a rear-view mirror in our cul-de-sac. :) Cal and his brothers were over at my house... quite the welcome home present!! ;) We spent the rest of the night playing foosball and other things before they went home. Now to prepare to say goodbye to this future missionary..

Wednesday I went to mutual just for kicks, especially since I can only go about five more times before I'm officially an old maid. :P I just like talking to my girls! I never get to see them because I'm in Primary all day long, I need to get caught up!

The days went on, and it was Saturday and I got to babysit for the Millers! Super cute kids! :) But the tricky part was the fact that a HUGE thunderstorm came in right as the kids were about to fall asleep... and of course they were all crying and upset, and I couldn't play in it. :P but they were pretty good about it, their parents came back and the kids were wide awake, which never happens when I'm watching kids, so that was a bit difficult, but they swore up and down that it wasn't my fault. And it's not but I just feel weird when the parents come home and the kids aren't asleep. :/ oh well! It's weird because normally AZ gets really good monsoons in July, but we haven't had ANY, and this was the first and only good one. But it has been really cloudy all month long, so I'll take that over the sunshine!