A Tough Goodbye

Saying goodbye to Ty has been a long time coming. All summer we just kept thinking this is the last time we will do this for 2 years! One weekend Ty came to St George for the weekend and spent some time with just the three of us. We shopped, swam a lot since it was like 115 degrees!, went out to dinner and just enjoyed being together. I think it started to get really real for us at Ty's farewell on July 21st. SO MANY people came down and stayed in Ephraim the night before. It was a really fun weekend. Ty did so amazing on his talk. When he spoke the spirit was strong and I got some peace of mind knowing that he was meant to do this right now. Here are some pictures of that weekend.

I took almost a week off to be home before Ty left. It was so incredible to just spent time as a family, without any of the stresses of life. We stayed up until all hours of the night playing board games, we slept outside one night, ate some good food, watch movies, just savored every single minute together. The night before Ty left he got set apart, then we went up Ephraim canyon and spent one last night with our brother. It was a really special evening. Something I remember Ty telling us was that he knows we are here on this earth for a reason and that Heavenly Father gave us everything so we could have our family together and a sweet little baby to love.

On Wednesday morning we headed to Provo. We went out to eat at Tucano's, took some pictures in front of the Provo temple then had to drop him off at the MTC. It was a hard goodbye. As we rode from the temple to the MTC Ty just held Riken as he slept and just kept kissing him. We were all crying our eyes out, and I remember Zack saying, "Dude, put down the baby. You're killing us!" 

When we got to the MTC there were literally hundreds of missionaries, girls and boys, lining the sidewalk and it gave me the chills big time. I got the coolest feeling, knowing that this was the place for Ty and that he would do so well there. The missionaries were so sweet to my mom, who was hardly breathing from crying so bad! Haha. Ty just looked in his element and I just became really excited and happy for him. Here are some pictures of the days leading up to our tough goodbye:

I will keep you posted on how Ty is doing. He is already doing amazing. He was called as a zone leader during his two short weeks at the MTC and now he is in New York, doing the work. He got to call us the day he flew out. I waited by the phone all day and it was so great to hear his voice. He sounds like him! He sounds happy and he said he's not homesick at all! I am thankful for my brother and the person that he is, and I can't wait to see what the next two years hold for him!