We're home......and here comes the gang!

Driving into Blanding was a thrill last week. The fields and yards were wonderfully green, and the town seemed so clean and welcoming. Little did we know, that the weekend, would really be a base camp to adventure for the Wilcox family--thanks to the creative organizational skills of Anthony and Ashley, (despite distractions from Sam and Logan.)

Though my flower beds were full of unwanted grass, our home seemed cheery and inviting. We really did miss it, though as missionaries, we were too busy to think of it much. Rob was our good Samaritan for the move home. He and Ethan were already at our trailer in Ganado when we got home from teaching our last discussion on the 21st. We completely filled his pickup, and then the next day he he helped us clean the kitchen while we visited with friends from Ganado who came to say their good-byes. For us, it's "hasta la vista", for we know we will see them again, but it was still sad.

We truly loved our mission, and we shed many tears saying our good-byes, and then cried again, seeing our family return to Blanding to be with us. It was especially tender, as our kids and their spouses all sat there in church Sunday with our 18 wonderful grandchildren. We are so thankful for their efforts to be good parents, and to be true and faithful to the church and to each other. It was almost more than one heart could stand in a week. It was great being with them again.

Reunion Recollections

Autumn & Theron & family arrived Wed. Evening, and our good neighbors the Stubbs, brought over enough spaghetti dinner to feed an army, which is what we eventually had. Quent & Bev, Anthony & Ashley, and Chris & Pam's family all came Thursday, and then Andrew and Amy came, and then Nathan & Tammy came Fri. afternoon. By the time everyone arrived, there were 34 of us.

Anthony gives advice to the "chitlins"


Friday we worked in the yard, had an Easter Egg hunt, Teamed up for The Amazing Race, participated in Tessa's hope run/walk, and at night had a Fun-dance movie festival with slides from the past year.

Aren't they a wonderful bunch of rowdies! It did my heart good, to see everyone working and getting the yard spiffed up. The family cleaned up our yard, pulled grass, pruned trees, set up the air conditioner, and fixed 3 days of delicious meals. We were treated royally.

We even had on-the-job supervisors!

Rob, Quent, Chris, & Anthony fixed the broken fence !

Getting some of those hard jobs done, was a huge help to us.

The kids even had time to go visit their favorite salamander

Chris also helped repair the Ford pickup, and Nathan hooked up the computer. All that help saved us days and days of work.

THANK YOU SO MUCH--YOU ARE WONDERFUL CHILDREN! WE HOPE YOUR KIDS TREAT YOU EQUALLY AS WELL WHEN YOU'RE OLD AND CREAKY!

NOW FOR THE FUN AND GAMES

Saturday Luau at the Blanding Beach
How low can you go?

 

Everybody went surfin'