Bill and Ruby finished their mission. They were supposed to serve in the Tapei, Taiwan, temple, but because of Covid restrictions, they weren't able to serve there at all. Instead they did a lot of family history and library organization in Salt Lake City. At first, they stayed in an apartment in Salt Lake City. They rented their house to a young couple. But that didn't work out, so then they decided to stay in Salt Lake City during the week, and come home on weekends.
Anywayyyyyyy, they invited us to go to their home ward for their welcome back talks in church. William was on-call, and he couldn't get it traded, so the kids and I flew from Mesa to Provo. It was the easiest flight, ever! We got there 2 hours in advance, just to be sure, but we soon realized that had been completely unnecessary. Paul and his family boarded the plane, just minutes after we sat down. I'd been nervous about them missing their flight, but it turns out they timed it perfectly.
We got there mid-morning on Saturday. The boys stayed in Provo to celebrate Charlie's 12th birthday at the arcade. The girls drove to Layton to see Carissa's annual barn market. It was super cute. There were about 12-15 little shops in there. I bought a blanket from a lady who has cancer and uses the money to pay for her treatments.
That evening, we had a catered dinner at the house, with some of Bill's siblings (and husbands) and some of Bill and Ruby's friends.
On Sunday, we went to church and listened to Bill and Ruby's talks. They're actually really great speakers. And the kids behaved! I think Dave fell asleep, though... or maybe he was pondering...
Back at the house, we had lunch with a lot of the family again. When they left, we played a couple of rounds of Mafia. I hadn't played that game since COLLEGE! It was actually really fun!
That evening, we had a 10 PM flight. Because we were on the same flight as Paul, we got there at 9:45 PM. Cutting it that close was definitely out of my comfort zone. Thankfully, the plane had hit a bird and they delayed the flight by 20 minutes. It relaxed me a ton! But at least the Provo airport only has one terminal, so we probably could have boarded the plane and been fine.
It was a quick trip, but I'm so glad we were there to show our support for Bill and Ruby. Plus it was kind of the highlight of our otherwise pretty lame fall break.
