March has been a pretty crazy month! All good things, though! On Saturday, we had Nathaniel's Eagle project. I was concerned that we might not have enough help because it was the last Saturday of Spring Break, but we had an excellent turn-out. I was so grateful to Nathaniel's friends from church and school and their families--they all worked so hard! About six families came and we got everything done in less than three hours. The project was planting various plants and flowers along the road in front of the temple and also down the road to the south. Michael said that someone counted and it was over 130 plants. Many of them were aloe vera plants, but there we also some flowers. We also weeded as we went. I was so impressed with my own kids, too, because they worked hard without complaining. Nathaniel did a great job working and over-seeing everything.
What a great crew! Two more families came soon after we took this picture. We provided Bosa doughnuts, juice, and water for everyone.
Hard at work
I love this video of Jonathan digging. He had a great time!
Daniel did a great job on weed duty
Nathaniel with Brother Rudd, who helped him plan this whole thing.
All done!
My boys
The proud parents, who are so relieved the project is finally done!
This is how I found Jonathan about an hour after we got home. He never takes naps, but he was pretty exhausted!
I am so relieved to know where he is going. I have had a sense that it would be South America, but I wouldn't have guessed Bolivia. Nathaniel is excited! He's been researching the mission and the country.
I had no idea that the call would come so early. He just submitted his papers on March 4. They said it would take 2-3 weeks. Michael and I had to run some errands Saturday morning, and on the way back we stopped at the mailbox. I was shocked to see the envelope in there! Nathaniel was at work, but when he got home we decided to invite everyone over that night. It's a fun tradition for prospective missionaries to invite family and friends over to see them open the envelope and find out where they are going. We invited everyone over at 7:30pm. It was a pretty good turnout, considering that it was the middle of Spring Break and it was last-minute.
Daniel testing out his videography skills
I was glad to have chores to keep my mind occupied because I was starting to freak out about the possibility of where he would go. I am so glad to know where he is going and that we can now start learning about Bolivia and preparing. He doesn't leave until August 7, so we have plenty of time.
I made cookie dough truffles, one of Nathaniel's favorites. They were a big hit!
Nathaniel with some of his friends from school
Nathaniel and his cousin Sarah
Chatting with friends and family
We are so proud of him!
Nathaniel with the Akers
Sibling love! Andrew had just left to hang out with a friend.
My handsome boy! He's going to make a great missionary!!!
We are all so excited that Nathaniel made it in to BYU!!!! He has dreamed of going there for a very long time. The decisions were supposed to come out on Friday, but their servers were down so he didn't get the email until Saturday morning. It was worth the wait, though! We went to help clean the church Saturday morning, and then went to breakfast at Golden Corral. Andrew was on a Scout campout, but the rest of us went and Grandma came, too.
She had a fun day with her friends to celebrate a couple of weeks ago; that's the only day they were all available. They went shopping, and then came back to our house to hang out and have pizza and cake.
On the day of her birthday, she had a band concert. She played very well, of course. After the concert, we went to dinner at Chick-Fil-A (her choice!).
