Goodbye to Elder Wiberg!

 July started out with me getting Pneumonia on July 2nd, the day before my sisters came into town.  Although the timing was no fun for me, it was definitely better than getting it even a day later, after I would have exposed everyone else.  As it was, I felt so terrible with my high fever and cough, that I didn't feel like being with everyone anyway.  And it kept my family away from home as they played with all the cousins, so no one else ended up getting sick.  Which felt like a miracle!  The other miracle in the timing of me getting sick was that I was feeling well enough the next week to be there when Ryan was given the Melchizedek Priesthood, went through the temple for the first time, and did his mission farewell.  That was an important week that I needed to be healthy and available for!  So, I was grateful.  (On a side note, I thought I had Pneumonia, but the Insta-care doctor was convinced I had Covid and couldn't hear anything in my lungs, but I pushed for an x-ray which she agreed to if the Covid test came back negative.  When it did, sure enough, I had a pretty bad case of pneumonia!).

I had to rely on everyone else for the fun pictures from that week while I was sick.

3rd of July at the Haggerty's fireworks party.

4th of July parade and all day fun at the Hanchett's.

They have a fish thing at their park, and everyone catches them with their hands, out of a big kiddie pool.

Gutting fish

Avery and her friends came up for the fun.

The next day everyone met in Provo at a water park and then Dustin took some of the kids/cousins to dinner after.  Pizza Pie Cafe' is our favorite.

On Sunday, we had an incident at our church building which cancelled all our meetings for the day (someone made some threats), so Dustin stayed home with me (and came with me to the Insta-care), and the kids all spent the day up with cousins.

On Monday, we all chipped in to rent a boat and everyone had fun with a day on the lake!

Maren and her best friend, Sydney, both sent these pictures to me that day.  Maren got permission to talk to Sydney because she just got engaged!  Maren was so excited for her!

That day was also Ryan's 18th birthday!  My family and Dustin were good to make it special for him, and I got to watch him blow out candles through facetime.  Being sick is the worst!

Ryan grew up so much this last year!  He got his first job (besides Mow Bro's), graduated high school with honors, submitted his mission papers and really stepped up in taking charge of his spiritual growth and preparation for his mission.  He is a loving son and so good to walk with me, run errands for me or do chores around the house or yard.  He is a great friend, a good brother and a fun cousin.  We love him!

The next day he was given the Melchizedek Priesthood and ordained an Elder, and the day after that, he received his Endowment in the Bountiful Temple.  It was such a lovely day there together, and we are so proud of him!  We have a wonderful, supportive family, and it is always so nice to be in the temple together.  (And I experienced a third miracle--I only coughed one cough for the entire time I was in the temple!)

We did a sister's breakfast one day.

And went to my cousin, Jason's wedding reception.  Chad and Val even came in to town for a few days!

The next day was Ryan's mission farewell!  He did so good on his talk!  I was really proud of him! We had so much wonderful family and friend support.  After church we had tacos at our house and it was fun to visit with everyone. (These pictures were taken by my uncle off of zoom)

My friend, Jenn, came to help me spray all of Ryan's clothes for his mission with Permethrin to try and keep him from getting awful diseases from the mosquitos in Colombia.

We tried to go to the temple as often as we could with Ryan.  Grandparents and Avery came with us when they could and that was fun.  We took Ryan's mission pictures after one of our temple sessions.

Baptisms for the dead in Ogden with Grandpa Wiberg.

Just trying to enjoy our time with both of our boys still at home!

The next week Ryan was set apart as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!  It was so special to be there with him.  Avery joined us by facetime because she was out of town with her boyfriend's family.  Gramma Lana came, as well.

And the next morning, bright and early, he started Home MTC.  When he came upstairs, he reminded me so much of my Grandpa Shurtz, who died when my dad was a small child.

I love Home MTC!  I love being able to have this time with them at home, and also a missionary.  I love hearing about what he is learning, and having him practice on us.  And by the time he leaves for the actual MTC, he is so ready!

Grant and I found ways to entertain ourselves.

More early morning exercise and temple evenings.

On the 24th of July, we went up to Ogden to watch my niece in the Ogden Parade.  Avery brought her boyfriend, Wyatt, up to meet us and some of the family.  We had met him last October when a bunch of mission friends came to our house for dinner one night, but they weren't dating then, and we didn't really have a chance to talk to him then.  It was a fun parade and then breakfast afterwards.

Ryan was at home, being a missionary.

That night, we got on our roof and watched the fireworks.

Another early morning.

We went to the Bountiful Handcart Days concert the next night with family, and that was fun.  It was a John Denver style concert.

On Saturday, we had everyone over to say one last goodbye to Ryan before he left for the Mexico MTC.

And on Sunday, our friends the Colemans, had us over for dinner for their last goodbye!  We are grateful for good friends and family that love and support our kids!

Fun Facetime calls.

More exercise.

Grant has been wanting to learn how to tune pianos.  Our neighbor knows how and came over to show Grant how to do it.

Loving eating outside!  (Until the wasps started overtaking our picnics)

And then the day finally came!  Ryan flew out to the Mexico MTC.  He had to be at the airport by 4:45 A.M.  He wanted to say goodbye while we were still at the house because he didn't want any long, sad goodbyes at the airport.  In the end, we just got two sad goodbyes (but it was shorter at the airport).

Now he is at the Mexico MTC.  He is doing great and learning Spanish!  We love our weekly talks with him!  It is a little hard to know we send him off a child, and he will come home a man.  And we miss a big part of that growth.  Although, I know that the growth he will experience would be hard to achieve in any other way.  We love him and miss him already, but are so happy that he wanted to serve the Lord in this way.