Saying farewell to "The parents".

This past week has been spent celebrating and saying farewell to Darin's parents. As I type this, they are on a plane over the ocean, heading to their mission in Albania.

They spent five days in the MTC. Which is sure not very long to train for a two year mission speaking Albanian!! 

On Friday evening they came to OUR HOUSE and stayed for three nights!! We have been so excited to have them stay with us, and have felt blessed and spoiled that we are the house they ended up at this weekend. When they only live 90 minutes away, we just don't get to have them stay at our home for any amount of time. So this was a fabulous weekend for us. End especially for Logan and Ellie. Marilyn is the only grandma they have ever known, and the kids have both been emotional and sad about Sam and Marilyn leaving. It was priceless for them to get such special one on one time this weekend. And we also had the treat of having Devarie Dawn stay for two of those nights as well. Lucky, lucky us!! It was so fun to have her around. She went on a bike ride with Darin. She's his favorite biking partner! Thanks Devarie!

Saturday evening we headed to the Bountiful temple to meet all family members who were able to come. It was so, so good to be in the temple with all of them. A rare event for sure. We took a walk around the temple grounds afterwards and enjoyed the beautiful evening.

We drove to a nearby park, with an incredible view of the Great Salt Lake, and had a picnic. Another rare event....most of the adults in the family together, with NO KIDS!!! Wahoo!!! We talked and laughed and joked and mostly just enjoyed the brief moment. 

This was our view.
And....we saw President Uchtdorf. And....I had a conversation with him!! (Another post.)

Took lots of  photos. See how much Darin loved the photos?

Sunday afternoon, everyone who was able, came to our house for one last family get-together, before "the parents" as they are called, left for two years. Here are the gals of the group. (Emily and Melissa.....we MISSED you guys!!! An incomplete picture for sure!!)

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Dallon had to work, Fode and Mel couldn't come from California, and Em had to stay home with her FIVE sick kids!!! How did that happen??!! We really missed them all. We made cupcakes and notes to send home to the sick kids, and cupcakes in honor of Fode and Mel sat in the center of the table. This was the perfect occasion to use fun red, white and blue decor, and plates and napkins, and flags, etc. And since it was the week of the 4th of July, and Sam and Marilyn are leaving the country, we said The Pledge of Allegiance before the prayer. I LOVE hearing a group recite the pledge. 

Maddie Mae is always a favorite!!! Such a sweet girl! She sang right along with all the other kids as we all sang "Called to serve" and "Praise to the man". I love it that the primary kids are learning some great hymns these past couple of years. Notice the name tag Maddie is wearing. I made missionary name tags for all the kids, with a picture of their grandma and grandpa on the back. 

After we watched the DVD that I made, we presented Sam and Marilyn with a gift from all of us. It came in the form of a letter, and Sam read it out loud. What do you give? What would they appreciate? What would be meaningful? We came up with the idea of giving Sam and Marilyn the gift of all of us attending the temple often while they are gone. Most of us pledged a number of times we would go to the temple over the next 23 months, and added them up. They both have such strong testimonies of temple work and want nothing more than for our own lives to be blessed from attending the temple...so we are going to give them what they want!! And of course we all know that we will be blessed for it, more than they will. 

It was a great last hoorah together. The littles were so stinkin' cute!!

The grandkids all got along beautifully and the time went to fast. 

Lots of just chillin' out, shootin' the breeze. A very rare thing for the Jones family to sit still...so this was super!!

 

Each family member slowly said their good-byes. Some more emotional than others. Ellie and Logan sobbed and sobbed in their beds, and eventually Ellie got in our bed because she was so emotional that grandma and grandpa were leaving. Logan was up at the crack of dawn asking how much longer til they have to leave. And when they hugged, Ellie and her grandma cried. Marilyn is an amazing grandma and truly has made all twenty grandkids feel like they are her favorite! I stood in the driveway with Logan and Ellie, as they drove off in our van with Darin. It was all a little bit surreal that they are leaving. There is a little bit of a lost feeling knowing they are so far away now. The vote was unanimous to not hold an official family reunion while they are gone. We'll wait til they get home!! The two years will fly by. We sure do love these two amazing people and can't wait to hear about their adventures on the other side of the world!! 

"May the Lord bless you and keep you."