On Saturday, Kevin and Derek flew from San Antonio to Boise to come and join us in Twin.  Just like Arthur and I, they had to get their very early, but  enjoyed honey butter chicken biscuits for their breakfast in the airport, which they loved.

Kevin’s parents, Dennis and Valerie, were awesome and drove to Boise to pick them up, which meant I had another full day of helping my mom and spending time with her.  After they got them, they went to Big Judd’s for the fabulous burgers for lunch – and milkshakes too.  Then they went to the PGA Super Store there in Boise, and they did not leave until they had fulfilled their mission of Dennis getting a new driver.  Awesome.  Sadly, there was a crazy fire along the highway that added an extra couple hours to their drive to Twin Falls.  Bummer.

Originally we were going to move over to Kevin’s parent’s house for the second week, but since it turned out that Kevin’s brother, Brian was coming to town, we decided just to stay at my mom’s.  Once Lily arrived, Derek just slept on the couch in the family room, and it worked out fine.  On Sunday, after going to church, I made dinner and Holly came over to join us.  And we had cherry pie from Costco for dessert for Kevin, Arthur, and my mom, which they loved.  Kevin had a very large piece of pie, because he “had to make it even” since my mom had cut a weird piece out of it instead of a wedge – ha ha ha!

Monday was the day that Kevin had been waiting months for – finally fixing up, putting together and finishing the golf simulator for his dad.  With Valeri’s Alzheimers sadly getting worse, and knowing how Dennis is transitioning into the caregiver, Kevin wants his dad to have this space to be able to have something for himself, while being right there to help his mom.  It is going to be so awesome.

Unfortunately, as Kevin was up in the attic doing the wiring for the new recessed lighting, he slipped and fell through the ceiling.  It was crazy.  But it was also a miracle.  The ceiling was twelve feet about a concrete floor, and instead of falling straight through, like really should have logically happened, he strangely caught himself with his right hand, twisted strangely behind him on the 2×4.  And so, hanging there by his hand, dangling six feet down, with another six feet to drop, his dad, Derek and Ron were able to grab his feet and help lower him down.

When Kevin came to my mom’s to tell me about it, with his massive scrapes and bruises, and his hand so bruised it looked like it had been dyed purple, he told me straight out that he knows that he was protected.  He just knew that God was watching over him, and that he was protected.  If he had fallen all the way through, he could have died or so many other things.  It really was a miracle.  

He did end up going back to his dad’s to work some more (some of which required him to go back into the attic), but after dinner, I took him to the emergency room (since that is what the VA prefers for him to do).  It turns out that he demolished the ligament in his right thumb, and a chunk of the bone broke, making so his thumb can just bend back forever, with nothing to stabilize it.  They think he may have to get surgery when he comes back to Texas and sees his doctor, but once again, all he ended up with was bruising and a broken thumb.  Sadly, it is ruining all his golfing plans for the week, but it’s all good.

Oh, and in all the craziness, Lily loaded up, checked out of her apartment, and drove to Twin Falls.  We are all so happy to have our girl back!!  And she was back in time to go to Paula’s with us to swim on Tuesday.  Holly and her girls came as well, and the kids had a fabulous time.   We sure do love Paula, and it is so much fun to have our summer tradition of going to her house to swim each time we visit Twin Falls. 

Holly and I put on our suits, but ended up only putting our feet in the water and not actually swimming. In fact, we ended up spending most of the time chilling in the shade and talking with our mom and Paula.  Good times.

On Wednesday, we had the best surprise!  Our dear friends, Brent and Marilyn, just happened to be driving through the area on their way home from a trip to Oregon with some of their grandkids. I had shared my location with her years ago, and when she saw we were in Twin Falls, she called to see if they could stop and say hi.  It was only about thirty minutes, since they still had to drive to Ogden, but it was amazing!  Seriously a gift and a tender mercy to see and talk to them, especially since we usually visit them in Utah when we come out, but this year we didn’t have the time.  Oh, how we love them!!

On Wednesday afternoon, Derek, Lily and I went to the the Twin Falls Temple for an Endowment session.  (They went on Tuesday night with Arthur to do baptisms, but I forgot to tell them to take a picture.). It was so wonderful to be in the temple with my kids, and I love that Derek was able to attend the temple all three possible days that he could, as he and Lily went on Thursday as well.  It had been a while, since the San Antonio Temple is closed the beginning of June for five months for some construction.

On Thursday morning, I had all three kids get up and go on a walk on the canyon rim with me.  It was awesome to be together in such a beautiful place.  And my favorite part was listening to them talk to each other, and seeing how much they love each other.  What a blessing that the three of them are such good friends.

We also spent some time with Kevin’s parents, and his brother Brian and his family, which was great.  I felt bad that I didn’t get to spend as much time with Valerie as usual, but Arthur was there almost every day to practice piano, which she loved so much.  I also got to have one last fun adventure with my sisters, Heather and Holly, and go to book club.  It was the same book club that I used to attend during the year we lived in Twin back when Kevin got out of the Army, and it was so fun to see the ladies again, but especially to get to spend more time with my sisters.

Thursday was our last day in Twin Falls, and we realized that because we had been watching all the mystery movies, Arthur and my mom had totally neglected one of their favorite things – reading books together.  So, on Thursday night before bed, she read him a picture book.  So sweet.  We also got to spend some time with my mom’s best friend and old college roommate, Cheryl, who came to visit her.  She had arrived on Wednesday, and I was glad my mom would have her for the weekend so that it wouldn’t be as hard when we left Friday morning.

We were out on the road on Friday by 6am, and we watched the sun rise on the road.  It was so sad to say goodbye to my mom.  She got up extra early to see us off, and then waved until we were out of the driveway.  But I am so grateful that I had two amazing weeks with her.

A few months ago, we happened to see that the Farmington, New Mexico Temple would be having the open house right as we would be driving through the area, and so we purposefully left early enough, so that we could attend.  It was such a wonderful experience, and the temple was so beautiful.  I am so grateful for special experiences like this with my family.After the open house, we drove a couple more hours to Albuquerque, where we stayed at a hotel for the night.  It turned out that it was cheaper to get two rooms with a king sized bed, than a room with two queens, which meant that the kids had their own room, which was awesome.  Lily snapped this cute picture and sent it to me when they were going to bed for the night.

The next day, we were out on the road again, driving through the wide open spaces and tiny towns of New Mexico and west Texas.  It is always an adventure finding places to eat, as most of the towns are too tiny for any fast food restaurants.  Usually, we can eventually find a Dairy Queen – thank goodness!

We got to our house around 7pm, and it was so good to be home.  It was such a wonderful two weeks in Idaho, but there really is nothing quite like being home.