Home. . .Family!!!!

We arrived home on Wednesday evening, August 18th. Our daughter, Kari and her husband Marc picked us up. We arrived at our home and were met by our parents, some of our siblings and a dear friend. We got released later that evening.

Kari, Sister Jones (Marylee), Elder Jones (Blaine) and Marc

Family: Troy hugging Marylee, Blaine with his Dad, Bill, and Mom Clawson

We spent Thursday doing a few things and then took off for Utah on Friday morning to meet up with our son, Marc, and his girlfriend, Eunmi. We got to meet Eunmi's mother, sister and brother.

We also got the chance to meet up with Bill and Judy Petersen., and Phillip and Barbara Squires. We got the chance to have a nice lunch together and to spend an hour or so chatting and remembering the wonderful elders and people in Sierra Leone.

We stayed at Stan and Sharon Miller's (Blaine's eldest sister) home. We got the chance on Sunday of meeting with some of the extended family. We are very appreciative of the Millers giving us the opportunity to see extended family again.

On Monday, we drove back to Gilbert (about a 10 hour drive), dropped our son Marc off at the house and then continued on to Tucson (another 2 hours). Derek, Melanie and children were getting ready to move to Rio Rancho, New Mexico. We got to chat with Derek and Melanie for an hour or so on Monday night. On Tuesday morning, we took care of the grandkids while Mom was involved with the moving people. The grandkids loved watching their stuff being packed up to move to their new home. We had to leave on Tuesday afternoon in order to be home to report to the High Council about our mission.

Maeley and Chase playing with the dolly.

Chase and Maeley watching the movers and playing with the bears that they had gotten from some friends.

Zoe eating pizza while wandering around while things were being packed.

On Saturday, August 28th, Bill and Judy Peterson arrived to spend the weekend with us. We were assigned to speak in Church on Sunday. We loved having them here with us. It brought back great memories of the mission when we would sit around the Peterson's table at the end of the day and share the adventures of the day. We were so glad that they would take the time to come down and be with us.

Phillip, Stephanie and boys arrived the next day (Monday). We got to spend a little time with them before Kimberly, as well as Eunmi and Marc (who had gone back to BYU to start school) all flew in on Thursday evening. We all got to spend some fun time together. We missed not having Derek, Melanie and family with us, however.

We went out to the lake and spent some time skiing and playing in the water. We had a picnic on one of the beaches.

Kari, Eunmi, Marc, Kimberly and Phillip on the Banana boat.

Stephanie, Eunmi, Braden and Kimberly on the boat.

Parker and Braden with Grandma.

We have loved spending time with our kids and grandkids. We are so grateful for the time and effort they made to come home and spend some time with us. We were so happy that the grandchildren remembered us--even Zoe who was 4 months old at the time we left--we can thank Skype for that. We thought we might have to look like we were inside a computer in order for her to have anything to do with us, but she came right to us and gave us a big hug. Those kind of things are PRICELESS!!!! We are so grateful for our wonderful family--our kids, grandkids, parents, and extended family. They were all such a blessing to us on our mission. We felt their love, prayers, and support.

"Familes can be together FOREVER through Heavenly Father's plan. I always want to be with my own family and the Lord has shown me how I can." How happy we are for that knowledge.