Sister Smith

Nicole came back from her Spring Semester a few weeks ago and it has been a whirlwind since! I laugh more with that girl than is tolerable to most around us. We started every morning she was here with a "breakfast party"and came up with some delish foods. One of the days the whole fam headed to Cardston for some "mission pictures".

Our trusty helper

After pictures we had a fire on Smith owned land. Which is rare. As in it had never happened. Pops is particular about his land and only Nicole suggesting it a week before leaving on her mission could convince him to dig up a chunk of it and start a big ol bonfire. A direct quote from dad to Nicole "You can get away with just about anything until you leave". In my opinion she should have taken advantage of that more than she did.

Grandma, Bud, Aunt Judy, and Aunt Tonya came up for Nicoles farewell. There was a lot of things to get ready so we spend a lot of time setting up chairs (by "we" I guess I mean "they"... I was less than helpful) and cutting buns. But we had lots of fun with them in the short time they were here. We went to some horse races, a baseball game, and had a insane game of pictionary.

For some reason kissy pose seemed like their best option 

                                      

The next week we expanded our meal "parties" to lunch and dinner. Nicole said their was something wrong with mom and dads scale because it told her she had gained 10 lbs since she left BYU. Im not sure that was the case. Sister sympathy prego weight? 

Last weekend we went to West Castle for our last family trip for a year and a half. We couldn't go too far because of my "condition" as my family calls it. My mom kept talking about how the group is only as strong as the weakest link.... I obviously being the weakest link. Ouch my heart. Not really. We got to stay in a really nice cabin, which is my kind of camping. We bobbed around in some unbelievably cold water, had a good bonfire, and played an insane amount of games- and dad hates games- back to the "get away with anything" theory.

This last week was mostly spend packing and getting the child ready to live out of a suitcase for a year and half. She was way past her 8 outfit limit..... but really, how hard would that be?!? Monday night we went to Despicable Me 2... twice, because the first time it was sold out. That was really the only thing she really wanted to do before she left... and shoot a gopher.

That night there was a bit of a baby scare and mother and I hung out at the hospital until 3 am. All is well and it seems I am just a bit on the nervous side, but it resulted in Nicoles last day here being a pretty groggy one. This is a crazy summer for the Smiths I tell you.

Nicole hates goodbyes more than anything, and decided she would rather fly out of Lethbridge rather than have us drive down to the MTC. She flew out at 5:30 am yesterday morning. I have been dreading that since the moment she told me she wanted to go on a mission almost a year ago. But it wasn't nearly as devastating as I thought it was going to be. There were no ugly cry snorts or year long hugs. She looked more excited than nervous and as far as I could tell her tears were gone by the time she got through security. 

Breakfast this morning was less than a party... and I have gone to text the kid about 10 times today... but I know that what she is doing is so important and right and that there is no place better for her to be for the next 18 months than teaching the people in Nevada.

And dont worry, Mom and I have both a package and a postcard that we are sending off to her tomorrow. No sense in wasting any time right?