CHANGING OF THE GUARD...

So today I was released as YW President. After 3 1/2 years I can truly say today is bittersweet for me. I am really looking forward to having more time... but I will miss the YW and the leaders I got to serve with. It has been an awesome journey for me and I will never forget the great experiences and some of the trials I have had during it!

Here are some ( but not all) of my favorites during this calling:

1. Learning that the Lord knows what's best for us more than we do.

2. Four FABULOUS years at girls camp! (this could be a section all it's own!)

3. Being able to be in YW for Matt's last 2 years of YM.

4. Being in YW with two of my daughters.

5. Making up songs to skits from Enchanted with the Laurels.

6. sewing pajama bottoms

7. Rootbeer float fight

8. Doing something SPAZY to shock the YW or the leaders! ha ha!

9. talent shows

10. firesides

11. Youth conferences

12. AWESOME stake YW leaders as great role models to me!

13. Sunday lessons.

14. Learning so much from a great Bishop!

15. Seeing each YW grow in the gospel

16. Tri ward dances.

17. Grammie dinner

18. CR ward YW summer super activity

19. Being stretched out of my comfort zone

20. My testimony growing!!

IT'S BEEN GREAT! I am now going to be an RS teacher and I am really excited about this! I haven't been in RS for FIVE years! :) YEA for change... it's a good thing.

TEARS

So I saw these pictures on facebook today of Matt-- one of his friends posted them and it made me CRY. She REALLY captured his personality here... I have seen these looks SO MANY TIMES... they are SO MATT! I miss him. . . I am not going to lie. I miss this boy so much it hurts sometimes! This smile and that laugh... that is what I miss so so so much!! Even though I know WITHOUT A DOUBT this is where he should be and where he WANTS to be more than anything he has ever wanted... I still miss my friend! :)

I hope he has lots and LOTS of moments with these expressions on his face during his mission!! :)

GARDEN TIME

Dave did the dripper system... this took him one whole Saturday
Ellie and Katie looking at their tiny beets growing
Cabbage plant
Golden bell pepper
Brussels sprout plant
Tiny zucchini
tiny beets
Big tomato plant
Lindsey and Katie checkin out the garden

A little known fact about me is that I LOVE to garden!! YES I do! We always had a HUGE garden growing up with just about everything in it... especially tomatoes. Dave and I had a garden in Cedar City and then we moved to VEGAS. Fail. We tried tomatoes every summer for about 4 years and then finally gave up.

Well now that my Dad (master gardener) has moved here we are gettin serious about it!!! There are two growing seasons in Vegas-- fall and spring. We are trying our hand at the fall season. My Dad is SOOOO excited.

One of Matt's big projects before he left was building four huge planter boxes for my Dad. He has his entire back yard (which is small in Vegas, mind you) full of garden. It's awesome. Matt really worked hard on this for his Grandpa. He built the boxes and then shoveled and hauled a dump truck full of dirt into it!! It was truly a labor of love because it was about 109 degrees outside while he was doing it. Dave did the irrigation system, the girls planted and Grandpa is tending to it! :)

We have planted several from seed... beets, zucchini, green onion and tomatoes, then we planted some small tomato plants, Brussels sprout, 5 cabbages, and 2 yellow bell peppers. We'll see what happens... Our tomato plants are doing awesome. The tomato seeds are slow coming... hopefully we can harvest before it gets too cold! But it has been SO MUCH FUN! I am so happy that my girls are learning to love to garden and that they are being taught it by my Dad. They got to plant most of it and they run over everyday after school to see what has "popped up". It's so cute! My Dad says he feels a little more "spring in his step" since he planted the garden. It's amazing what watching a seed grow does to you. It's seriously something so simple, but can bring you joy.

AND HE'S OFF!!!!!

Oh boy! What a bittersweet day! Words can't even come close to describing the emotions of this day and the last week or two. We are so proud of Matt. We love him so much. But OH HOW WE WILL MISS HIM!!!!!

What a great son/brother he is. We are so thankful for him and for the wonderful boy he is. He has blessed our lives so much.

He is soooo excited to be going. It is going to be the adventure and experience of his lifetime! We know he will do great things and bring people unto Christ.

His farewell on the 29th was awesome. We had so many family come into town and it was such a special occasion.

We had a great open house for him on the 28th and couldn't believe the kindness of our friends/ward members. It was wonderful.

It meant so much to us all to receive the kind of support we did. We are so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives!

Our family trip last weekend was just awesome. It was wonderful to be all together without any distractions and just HAVE FUN!

Last night Matt was set apart by Pres. Tew and it was a great thing to witness. When he came down the stairs wearing his badge I just envisioned him walking down the streets of S.Africa and knew he was going where he is meant to be. We had a very special family home evening last night!

The airport scene was a toughy. Saying goodbye for 2 years to your child is not easy. The tears have been flowing pretty freely for Dave and I and our 3 girls. We will miss him so much but know that he is doing what he should and that he will be so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CHECK OUT HIS MISSION BLOG AT elderdoxey.blogspot.com where we will be adding pictures and emails as we receive them for the next two years! :)

Last but not least... the beach... aaaaaaahhhhhhhh! Love it!

We love the beach! It had been over a year since we had been and it was great! We got to go to the beach all day Saturday. We picked Zuma beach this time (One of our favorites) in Malibu. There really weren't many people there so it was awesome! The water was freezing though. Poor Katie got so cold she couldn't get warm. I wrapped her up in this blanket and she fell sound asleep for about an hour! :) Ellie had a blast running from the waves, Dave, Matt, Lindsey and I boogie boarded for a few hours!! After a while you were so numb you couldn't tell you were cold! ha ha! It was a beautiful day. I love watching my kids in the ocean! They just can't get enough of the water (sort of like their parents!)






A huge shout out to Emily and Chad for letting us crash at their house Fri and Sat night! It was awesome! Thanks for showing us a good time! Senor Fish's ROCKED!!!

The harbor...

One of our favorite places to go in San Diego is the Harbor. We have a favorite seafood restaurant we go to called Anthony's. It is awesome! There happened to be a ship festival going on there for Labor Day weekend so we got to see some cool ships too! It was great. The weather was AWESOME! :)

California getaway!

First we went to the San Diego Zoo. . . Somewhere Matt has wanted to go for years apparently. He told us that this is what he wanted to do for his "going away trip". So we spent the whole day Friday at the zoo. It was LOTS of fun. Mostly it was SO CUTE to see Matt just LOVING being there! Just like he was a little boy again! He has loved this stuff since he was about 2 years old! The girls loved it too! We noticed particularly that about 3/4ths of the animals there were from SOUTH AFRICA!!! That made it AWESOME for Matt... It was a great day!