Home MTC

We survived Home MTC!  And it did not go as expected!  But, honestly, I kind of loved it anyway.

So beforehand, I figured I'd have a very quiet week and a half where I barely left the house and hung out near Bentley while he did all his Zoom classes.  I was hoping to finally do the paint-by-numbers kits that Camille gave me for Christmas years ago!  I was pretty excited for it!

But then it snowed.  And iced.  And iced some more.  And school was canceled for a week and a half!!!  And even then, they had two hour delays for the rest of that week!

So, basically, I barely left the house and hung out near Bentley while he did his Zoom classes and I tried to keep everyone quiet the entire time!  Which is TOTALLY different ball of salami!!!  But also, I don't know when I'll get to enjoy having everyone home together again, so I also loved it.  It was like this lovely little cocoon time where I didn't feel bad not leaving the house (but also, there were plenty of other people around if I did need to run to the store, I could do it without abandoning Bentley), and I didn't have a lot of other stuff going on to be stressed about (like, ahem, during Christmas).  It was so great.  Also, the missionary rules aren't quite as strict as they used to be, so we were allowed to watch family-friendly movies at night!  So we had fun with that-- we watched Little Women (1994 version, because I figured my kids would get a kick out of seeing Wynona Ryder before her Stranger Things days and Christian Bale before he became Batman!), Sense & Sensibility, The Best Two Years, Tangled, The Saratov Approach (this was a bad idea, it just freaked everyone out), and The Emperor's New Groove...  And a bunch of episodes of The Chosen, too!  So that was all a lot of fun for me!

Having said that, it was HARD for Bentley.  Nine hours on zoom per day is ROUGH.  He did not enjoy it.  And I don't blame him-- I really can't handle more than an hour on zoom.

It's funny, because when I heard that the church was continuing to do Home MTC after Covid lockdowns had ended, I thought that was pretty stupid.  But Craig just shrugged and said, "I'm sure they figured out that there was something good about it."  And he was so right!  Because, yeah, it was kind of awful, but you know what?  It made going to the actual MTC so great!!!  First of all, Bentley already "knew" his district and his teachers, so getting to meet them in person was actually really exciting and happy.  And while nine hours of class is nothing to sneeze at (and I remember thinking it was pretty hard when I was in the MTC trying to learn Japanese), if you've been doing it all on zoom, moving it into a real classroom with actual people feels pretty great!  

So, yeah, Bentley is in Mexico loving the MTC because it's not zoom.  And I will take that!  Good job, church people, figuring this all out!

But seriously-- he had literally ONE HOUR of that time when his siblings actually went to school.  One.  Hour.  That's insane.

We did have time on Saturday, so we took him to the temple and then to Five Guys (which they do not have in Puerto Rico):

And on Sunday, Bentley got to give his farewell talk (technically it was Fast Sunday, but the stake president said it was fine, which I really appreciated).  It was also Ryder's first time blessing the sacrament, so he had Craig and Bentley up there assisting him, and it all made me so happy.  Also, their ties were in primary colors, and then Colton's tie was green.  We didn't even plan that!!!  Then Kendra sat with us during the meeting, and I looked down the pew and my kids just happened to be lined up in age order.  Seriously, I just about burst.

Wednesday was our last night, so Tom and Donna took us all out to dinner at Mexico Viejo, which was delicious.

And Craig took pictures of Bentley hugging all his siblings goodbye...

Bentley used the basement to pack, so he could spread all his stuff out.  He was so scatter-brained trying to do it, but it was hilarious and we were just joking and having the best time.  And then, because we knew we weren't going to get any sleep anyway, we sat up looking at pictures of him in the hospital when he'd just been born.  Really, we didn't everything short of singing "Sunrise, Sunset"...  

Bentley got up at 3:30, Craig and I rolled out of bed around 4:20.  He hugged his siblings goodbye once more, and we headed out to Richmond.  Everything went very smoothly, and I stood there sobbing as we watched him go through security.  (Some poor girl was very concerned about this and kept staring at me.  Finally her mom asked me, "Where's he going?" and assured me that he would do great in Puerto Rico.  It was very kind of her.)  It's very weird to say goodbye for two years.  Nothing can really prepare you for that.  And putting your kid on a plane without a cell phone in this day and age is a little scary!!!  (Spoiler-- he got to the MTC without any problems.  Everything went just fine!)  The drive home was very somber.  I got the kids off to school and pretty much stayed in bed for the rest of the afternoon and tried not to cry too much.

It's funny how I can be so happy that Bentley is finally on his mission, and also be so sad and missing him!  Life is hard.  And bittersweet.  And wonderful.

Hodgepodge Post!

In the process of adding Bentley's photos, I came across a bunch of pictures on my camera roll that hadn't been added to our Google account, meaning they never made it onto the blog!  And who am I to deny you any photos???  So here's a mess of pics-- in absolutely no order-- for you to enjoy!  Cheers!

Gideon, Colton, and Jason-- these boys are so cute!

Here we have a time-lapse video of the boys doing service and moving a pile of chopped wood!

At the open house for Toby Cramer's mission farewell!  This was actually really funny, because the stake seminary coordinator texted me asking if I would be there so she could bring me some seminary supplies, and I said I didn't know anything about it.  Sarah had posted the open invite on facebook, which I never check.  Kris assured me I was invited, but I never like to feel like I'm crashing a party so I demurred.  Naturally, Kris told Sarah all this and I quickly received a personal invite from Sarah!  Ah, the LDS Network!  😂 Toby is now in the Provo MTC, and will head out to Idaho Falls pretty soon!!!

Camille at the school library programming her Bee-Bot

Camille after the pumpkin pie eating contest at the ward Halloween party

Kendra on Senior Night

Kendra and McKinley (who was there with the opposing team's marching band); these two were forced to share a tent when we hiked and camped at Crabtree Falls.  There were no flat areas to set up a tent, and theirs ended up rolling a bit down the hill so that at one point in the night they realized that their sleeping bags were ON the tent door!  Stuff like that has a weird tendency to bond people, and they've been best friends ever since!

Colton climbing into the leaf igloo he and Camille built

Now that he's no longer bishop, Craig has been enjoying subbing in primary whenever possible.  Here he's having the kids tell him how to make a peanut butter sandwich, much to their delight!

You have to know some church history for this to make any sense, but I about died laughing when Bentley sent me this meme!

Camille makes good use of an Amazon gift bag!

Which had wrapped up this awesome dartboard that Natalie sent Ryder for his birthday (way back in November!  I told you I'd missed a lot of pictures!)

Kendra and Jadyn sledding

Colton and Walker got to do the morning announcements, with their buddy Leo helping!

And poor Colton had two Christmas presents that didn't arrive until mid-January!  We felt really bad for him on Christmas Day when we realized what was missing.  He was a very good sport about it all, but I sure was excited for him to finally get his presents!!!

So happy!

He'd actually forgotten that he'd even asked for this

He had NOT forgotten about the 3D printer that he'd asked for!  So that face is some pretty good acting!  😂

Craig took the three younger kids rock climbing...

And then they all watched Free Solo, which Craig assured them they are NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER allowed to do!

Here we can see May, Miller, Adam, Camille, and Mara at library time!

And working hard to clear the driveway!

Colton's throne!

I think that's all for now!

And now... Elder Smith!

Bentley arrived home late Thursday night after once again catching a very quick connection in Baltimore.  Why do we keep scheduling these tricky flights?  He was supposed to land in Richmond at 9:50, but arrived early and managed to get his luggage before we even got there, which meant we just pulled up to the curb and grabbed him!  And it was only 9:45!!!  So that was awesome (even if I did feel really bad that we weren't waiting for him to come through security like we usually do)!

I'd canceled seminary for the next day, which was nice-- we were up way too late that night!  So I got to sleep in a little bit, and then got kids to school.  Once everyone had left and I'd showered, Bentley and I went to Target to get him whatever toiletries he would need for the Mexico MTC, and then we also stopped by Costco to get a few more groceries before the storm.  I was dreading both these stores because I figured they would be absolute zoos.  And they were plenty crowded, but they weren't terrible.  So that was good to get done!

There was time for lunch and naps, and then Adam picked up Bentley and they went to the temple to both do missionary pictures and let Bentley do a session.  Here are way too many of my favorites:

You gotta have a shot like this!  (And I like the temple behind him!)

I really love the lighting in this shot!

This is what we picked to go on his missionary plaque!

I love our Richmond temple so much!!!

I know he's not really smiling here, but this is such a Bentley look!  And I love that orange lighting in the background!

And I love that there's some green in the background here, despite it being January!

As always, I can never thank Adam enough for helping us out and taking such beautiful photos.  Where would we be without him???

We had a dinner date that night, and Adam got him back right in time!  We were celebrating Donna's 80th birthday (!!!!) by eating at the Melting Pot and what a delicious evening it was!!!  We all ate way too much, but we had so much fun being together!  The meal went on for about three hours (which is insane, even for fondue!), but I wouldn't trade a minute of it!

The balloons were fun!

That evening we also added another kid for the weekend-- the Gaskins were going to Utah for their granddaughter's baby blessing and they asked if Sawyer could stay with us while they were gone.  We LOVE Sawyer, so that was an easy thing to say Yes to!  Bentley had two movies he wanted to watch before he was set apart, so after the Melting Pot we stayed up way too late watching About Time, which is probably my favorite movie ever.  (I did do some light editing to clean it up just a little.  I'm not a terrible mom, I swear!)

The next morning, I took Camille to her volleyball game while everyone else stayed home watching Bentley's other movie choice, La La Land.  (I was sad to not get to watch it with them, I love that movie, too!!!).  And then we all met up at the stake center so Bentley could be set apart!  This was a change-- it was supposed to happen after church on Sunday.  But with this crazy winter storm coming, we were pretty sure none of that was going to work after all, and it seemed very strange to have Bentley begin Home MTC not officially set apart, so this was our best option.  (It did mean that I sat at the YMCA cheering Camille in my church clothes!  I looked extremely formal compared to everyone else!)

Camille searched for our various mission locations on the map while we waited a few minutes for the stake president.  (Sawyer offered to sit outside, but we told him as long as he wasn't being disruptive, we were happy to have him stay!)

Google is being dumb and putting my pictures all out of order.  But here we all are right after he was set apart:  

Group photo with Sawyer!

And a shot of just our family!

And here's Bentley with President Papin.  This man has been so patient with our whole family as we've gone through this process, I cannot sing his praises enough!

Puerto Rico bound!

Camille got to put his pin in the map, so it was a good thing we'd had her looking at it beforehand!

And this is back to when we were still waiting

From there we split up.  Craig took Colton and Camille with him up to Culpeper to buy a new hot water heater for us (!!!) and also stopped by to check in on his parents and take care of a few things.  I took everyone else back to the house for lunch and to hunker down before the storm.  Topher was able to come by and visit with Bentley, which was really nice.  And Craig managed to pick up pizza from Costco on his way home, which made me happy!

That night we watched Coco-- a little more G-rated than the previous two movies in honor of our missionary!-- and the snow started falling around 10pm.

Church was, of course, canceled (and along with it, Bentley's farewell talk.  I'll guess he'll give it as a "testimony" next Sunday instead).  And after it snowed quite a bit we got a layer of sleet freezing on top of it, so the roads are just awful.  I have no idea when school will reopen!  I have to say-- this is quite possibly the ugliest snow storm I've ever seen!  It didn't stick to the trees or anything, it's like frozen white sand that just sort of drifted around.  

For comparison's sake, last Sunday we got a little bit of snow and it was beautiful!!!  It was also kind of worthless, because it happened after church and the next day was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, so we already had the day off, and it melted so fast we didn't get Tuesday off, either.  But at least it was pretty!!!

See???  This is pretty snow!  Not like what we got this weekend!

Anyway, we all slept in, and I was kind of shocked when I finally woke up and looked out the window and saw how ugly it all was.  But then Craig made cinnamons rolls and I just was happy we were all staying home together!  We had home church and a family testimony meeting, and then the kids played games and played in the snow.  

We loved how Kendra, Ryder, and I ended up being color-coordinated like this!

Then Kendra pointed out that we were also in gradiated shades of grey with our choices of sweatshirts!

And then she noticed that we were also standing in height order, which was way less cute of her to say!

How did I end up as the short one???

We're probably lucky he didn't break his leg trying this...

See what I mean about it being all drifty and ugly???

Looking down the sledding hill

Kendra took this video of them sledding down the hill-- you can see how icky the snow is!!  NOT Utah powder, that's for sure!

And here's Sawyer pretty successfully using his sled as a snowboard!

We ended the night with lasagna soup for dinner, which was absolute perfection if I may say so myself!  And then the kids all played Culpeper-opoly!

Camille was actually having a great time, I don't know why my kids insist on pulling these dumb faces for all my pictures

And finally, we watched a couple episodes of The Chosen before playing Among Us all together!  What a GREAT snow day!!!

Which brings us up to this morning!  There's a thick, crusty layer of ice on top of all the snow, I have no idea when we'll go to school again!  The Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl, so that's happy!  Craig has been outside with (most of) the kids shoveling our driveway

and Bentley began his Home MTC experience!  He'll be doing this until February 5th, when he'll fly to Mexico to spend a month at the MTC there, and then it's on to Puerto Rico!!!  😱😱😱

I can't believe this is finally happening!!!!