farewell jimmy
First off, I’ll just quickly say sorry for the long length between posts. Life has gotten a little bit busier around here. The girls are taking an extra day of gymnastics lessons each week, and Annie has started up piano lessons again with a local instructor. We’ve also had a few sickly bugs travel through our home. Annie stayed home one day from school while Mike was sick the week before last, and then Violet and I both were sick last week and continue to fight it off even today. In fact, Violet has had a fever since the middle of last night.
Now on to the reason for this post. Our nephew, Jimmy, is getting ready to go on his church mission to Tijuana, Mexico. This is very exciting for our family because he is the first of his generation in our extended family to go on a mission. I think this is a great opportunity for his brothers, sisters and cousins to be so close to a full-time missionary. I’m very excited for my girls to keep track of their cousin while he is on his mission. He’s a warning for Jimmy: expect lots of letters from your cousins, uncle, anut. We hope he will reciprocate.
This weekend we traveled back to Minnesota to see Jimmy off at his farewell party. There are actually three missionaries in his ward that are leaving around the same time, so they had a group party at their church building. It was a huge turnout, and the parents did not disapoint with lots of good eats.
Here is Jimmy posing with authentic Mexican items such as a piñata (of course), Mexican sodas called Boing and Jarritos, and very spicy candy (yuck). According to Jimmy’s ma he is very excited about his upcoming mission. He’s been spending lots of time with the full-time missionaries in his own ward. When Jimmy and his dad helped move us into our house this summer the full-time missionaries from our local church also helped. I could definitely see anticipation in Jimmy’s eyes as he talked to them.
This is the area of Mexico where Jimmy’s mission will cover (see the black marker lines at the top and bottom).
Sara and Jim were very busy getting ready for the party which included making 10 pans of enchiladas and a few tres leches cakes. They are very proud of their son, and they have every reason to be. He has grown into such a nice, hardworking man. The tres leches cake was so good! It’s basically white cake soaked in 3 different milks: sweetened condensed, evaporated milk, and heavy whipping cream. My seams are busting just thinking about eating another slice.
Jimmy was well-represented at the party with lots of his family in attendance including us, Uncle Dave, Uncle Jake and family, his siblings, parents, and two grandparents.
Here’s Grandma and Dylan with Annie in the background doing only what we can guess.
Aunt Stephanie claims she had to bribe Violet with her iPod to get Violet in her lap, but I know that Violet is smitten with her aunt without any coaxing.
Three peas in a pod, Mimi, Maya, and Annie.
I decided to track down Jimmy’s siblings for quick snaps.
Matt looks a little taken aback by my camera, but that’ll never stop me.
Hayley has gotten a lot more outgoing in her “old” age and hammed it right up for the camera.
This was as close as I was going to get to Paul who was busy hacky-sacking.
Mike chattin’ it up with his dad and stepmom.
We can’t forget the silly uncles.
Us old folks with the young, spry missionary.
Mimi and Daddy.
Apparently, there is a new game of tag in our family where the one who is “it” has to tag the other person on the forehead with their pointer finger for 10 seconds. Don’t ask!
We wish the best to Jimmy on his mission and are really looking forward to hearing lots of news about his adventures down there. Good luck, Jimmy!
January 22nd, 20129:29 pm at
Well, you’ve saved me the hassle of posting about Jimmy’s open house! I’ll just link to your blog. Great pics! I’ll have to steal the one of Paul hacking
Thank you so much for driving all the way out here to attend the open house. I wish I could have spent more time visiting with you.
I’m sure Jimmy will love getting letters from his relations.
January 23rd, 20127:36 am at
Way to make me tear up at school. I wish we could have been there. I’m so glad there were so many family members there. Looks like there was delicious food!! I just can’t believe it!! I see that Steph and Vi are good buddies. And it is great to see all the little girls cousins getting along so well.
January 23rd, 20129:26 am at
I have known lots of people who served in Mexico, but never in TJ! That is practically my hometown. Ha,ha! How awesome to send out the first missionary. His parents look so proud and I am sure he will love mission life. I still miss it sometimes. It is A LOT of work but real life is so much more crazy.
January 23rd, 201211:24 am at
Thank you so much for the pictures. I have such a beautiful family. Handsome grandchildren beautiful sons, daughters and daughters-in-law. Like Jenni I teared up (I do it easily and at the drop of a picture). I just can’t express what a wonderful family I have been blessed with.
January 23rd, 201212:08 pm at
Congrats to Jimmy! Looks like you had a nice weekend away. We were gone last week and you guessed it now the kids are sick – Bronchitis – yuck – but hopefully back to school tomorrow b/c I really have sooo much work to do (Naturally that’s why I was blogging today and reading blogs
P.S. Mike commented on my blog and said you have your first eggs! How exciting – can’t wait to see them, are your girls thrilled?
Our rooster died while we were gone last week so now we just have the ladies – he will be missed – but it is easier to have the kids tend the chickens now – he started to get protective of the ladies in his old age… Look forward to some photos of your eggs!
January 23rd, 20122:39 pm at
Mike’s conference in Boston, eh? We are two hours from Boston. We would love to see him (and you and the girls, too!) Hawaii certainly sounds nicer than busy Boston, though! We are considering a conference in June in Boston with the kids. Want to meet us there? It’s an ADCPA conference. We need to find someone in the family to hold down the farm but I think it could be done. It’s the week of June 18. Email me if you want more info. It’s a tax write-off, well at least some of it
January 23rd, 20122:40 pm at
Sorry I meant a conference in HAWAII in June 2012 (on Maui, I think). I got so caught up in Boston and just kept typing, then hit submit before I re-read what I wrote. Sorry.
January 23rd, 20122:46 pm at
Okay, I looked it up, it’s actually in Kuaui, Hawaii, starting June 17 (for the week). The courses are great, classes usually for a few hours in the morning, kids welcome and then the rest of the day free to just enjoy island/beach time. Anyway, let me know if you’re interested – just send me an email and I’ll pass along the info. – Erin
January 23rd, 20129:21 pm at
Hey Erin-
Not sure if you’ll check back, so I’ll copy/paste this onto your blog comments. We would absolutely love to meet up with you guys for a trip! I just don’t know if it’ll happen this summer. We are still very much in the trying to get up and running phase of the business and just don’t have much extra money to justify a conference for more than just Mike. Don’t get me wrong, I’m on the verge of just saying “what the heck and we’ll clean up the mess later”, but I know it’s not the right thing to do at this point. I’d say in another year or two, then we’ll be able to do that. I’ve already sat through a couple of lectures from our accountant; I’d think he’d blow a gasket if he knew we were trying to squeeze in a trip…LOL! Don’t forget about us completely though and keep checking back when you plan for future conferences to see if we can swing it yet.
January 28th, 20127:26 am at
Can I tell you how much I LOVE tres leche! Most delicious.
Congrats on a missionary. That’s awesome.