The boys and their friends

CCM District 4C

Ty's friends had a shaving cream fight the morning we dropped Aydon off at the airport and then jumped in the Leonard's pool to clean off.  It was a great distraction from what had happened that day.

Drew hanging out at Mia Hartnett's house playing in the hot tub and pool.  

Jr high had their first dance and this group of kids left a bit early and headed to Mia's to do the hot tub and pool again.  

Anna Ortiz, Mia Hartnett, Tobin Henling, & Drew

High school spirit week

Nerds vs Jocks day

Squad Day The kids all wore their FSY shirts and did praying hands for the funny picture.

Disney Day Ty & the Jr Class StuCo were the 7 dwarfs.

Elderly Day Ty dressed up as his Pappaw.  He wore an LSU Hawaiian shirt with a hat and took a slim jim for his stoagie.  :)

The previous Friday was the day Tamie Ramsey tragically passed away.  They changed class color day on Friday to purple day in honor of Tamie so the boys are wearing purple and the Love Like Tamie shirts we sold.  Loved seeing my boys together!

1st day of school

Zack is a freshman

Ty is a Junior

Drew is a 7th grader

Presley's in her 2nd year of preschool at Little Learner's Preschool.  They were going to go Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8-2 but that's exactly when Kindergarten hours go only 1.5 days less a week.  I'm not ready for her to be gone that much so we asked if we could only do half a day.  So she will go 11-2 on those 3 days.  

 

Drew's Birthday

Drew got a new backpack for school, a charging station for his phone, watch and airpods.  Mickey Mouse tie clip.  Aunt Earlene bought him a beautiful new floral tie too.

We had stawberry sheetcake with ice cream.  He was mad because he wanted a friend party but we didn't.  

DeSpain Reunion

This was the first time in years that we were able to make the DeSpain Reunion...for years we've had football on Saturdays and couldn't make it.  I was able to get Preston preapproved and we were so excited to meet up with the Sego's.  We were shocked how few people were there.  Frank Eldon DeSpain who lived in Winslow for a short time and even came out to eat with us had 4 kid sna dhis oldest was 11!  Time has flown.  We all enjoyed visiting with families.

With Uncle Lynn and his wife Carol DeSpain.  He was the Temple President when Preston & I were sealed together and he remembered the boys and said one was crying (Ty if I remember right) and (Aydon) looked right at him and smiled.  When we went up to introduce Ty to him we mentioned Aydon had just left for a mission and Uncle Lynn said, lets take a picture to send to your missionary.  

After the reunion, we went to Bison Ranch where Earlene & Skye had 2 rooms booked.  Zack and Drew had stayed with Gary & Vickey one time and said it was awesome and it really was.  Zack & Drew were staying the night with the Sego's but Ty & Presley took swim stuff so we sat at the pool and watched them swim before going to have dinner at Red Onion.  It was so nice to hang out.

On Sunday, EJ blessed his son, RyDan at church and then there was a baby shower for them at 2pm at the Girl Scout House.  It had rained really good and was muddy and we kept having the kids mop up the wet, muddy mess at the door.  They had so much fun playing "keepy uppy" with the balloon too.

Elder DeSpain has left for two years

Aydon is now Elder DeSpain.  He was set apart on July 17th right after sacrament meeting where him, Austin Westover, Preston & Austin's grandma on his dad's side spoke.  All the speakers did a great job and I only cried like a baby a couple of hours today.  

Allen, Cristine, Matt, Emma, Sarah and Tanner & his newlywed wife, Savannah came to his farewell and his setting apart.  

My parents and Shawna came to listen to Aydon speak but my parents left and only Shawna stayed for the setting apart.  She took Presley with her so she wasn't there for this picture.  Dan & Earlene also came but I didn't get any pictures of Aydon with them.  

Mason Hancock, had left started HMTC the week before so this was at his farewell party the previous week

since it was home MTC he was able to come to Aydon's farewell and Aydon got a picture of him & his dad Roland Hancock with their matching ties Roland gave them.  

We had a dinner and lots of friends and family were there to see Aydon.  

Garrett, Veronica & Emmett came for the farewell too.

Tatum Henling, Ady Leonard, Ava Hancock, Jocelyn Moss, Jacksen Leonard, Cody Fischer, Cole Moss, Mason Hancock, Ty, & Evan Marquez

Jocelyn & Cole Moss

Zack said there wasn't enough space for a Book of Mormon between them so he ran and got his scriptures.  :)

Evan Marquez

Jacksen will report to the Mesa, AZ mission in December.

Savannah & Tanner.  Tanner was so helpful in telling Aydon what to expect and offering suggestions.  We were so thankful for that.  

Presley loved wearing his name tag

and made Ty wear it too.

July 18th Aydon started Home MTC for 2 weeks since he was learning Spanish.

The weekend before he left we visited family, went to the final swim meet and had friends over again.

Zack & Presley not wanting to let Aydon go.

One last spidey pose!

Selfie with Sunshine

Aydon with his 3rd set of Seminary Teachers/Mission Prep leaders...Diane & Gene Hancock who previously served as Mission President in Pocatello, Idaho.

On our way home from the St Johns swim meet we picked up Dilly Bars and enjoyed them together with the Sullivan's.

Elder's DeSpain & Westover

It was so fun to see these two lifelong friends speak together, get set apart together and learn how the Westovers & DeSpain's family history connected.  

Austin, Aydon & Samuel Neat from Joe City went to the Temple when Mason went and his mom shared this picture and a wonderful scripture they read in the Celestial room Alma 57:27 "Now this was the faith of these of whom I have spoken; they are young, and their minds are firm, and they do put their trust in God continually".  It definitely brought tears to my eyes.

The hardest part...I made it through senior year only tearing up twice and not even crying on Graduation.  But...as that ended and I knew the next part was the hard part all I had to do was think about it and I would start crying.  I was so tired of crying almost everyday.  I needed this to just happen so I could stop crying so much.  It did not go well.  I cried so much I basically made myself sick to my stomach and was absolutely depressed all day that day he flew out.  

We finally got to meet Elder Cardiff, he's from Flagstaff and they were in the same district and were going to the same exact mission.  It was exciting to meet him.  

We watched him load the plane and decided to leave.  I didn't need to see him fly off...I was so dang emotional and just wanted to go home and go back to bed.  

Grandma Betty & Grandpa Dave Crandall

We haven't seen them in a long time so we made sure to get a picture of all of them together.

One last friend visit.

There are no smiles...we were all sooo sad.

Worst face ever!!!  I'm so happy he decided to go on a mission but my momma heart was hurting knowing I don't get to get a hug from him again for 2 years!

Presley kept saying she wanted Aydon's bed after he left.  She slept in his bed the first night.

After taking a nap and crying our eyes out we tried to get out of the house and took a drive to the creek.  There's been so much rain that it was flowing over and there were so many dead fish.

Duke loved checking out the water 

I had so many sweet texts checking on me from my friends and Stephanie Westover had secretly asked Drew my favorite dessert (tri-level brownies) and brought them to me.  Then Kelsey Whetten, my counselor in my Stake Primary Presidency brought me this adorable gift filled with goodies.