Surprise!

Just so you know, this post is going to be short on words and long on photos, and it still won't be enough photos to make me happy. Nowhere near enough.

Way back in the spring, Romney started casually chatting with me about her daydreams about taking a siblings-only trip to Disneyland when Chase got home. It didn't take long for her light musings to spiral into deep obsessive planning and conniving. What can I say. She talked us into it. (Meaning we finally hollered Uncle when our arms were close to breaking.)

The most exciting part of Romney's scheme, which in my opinion paints her as the cutest big sister ever, was that she really wanted to surprise Emma with this whole thing. She wanted a full-on ambush - for us to pick Emma up from school and inform her, under video surveillance, that she was being taken to the airport right then and there and being taken to Disneyland! Like it or not!

How do I express the extent to which Romney coped with life by planning this trip? By mentally going to Disneyland multiple times a day? I'm not sure it's possible. She planned out the exact sequence of events of kidnapping Emma. She carefully outlined the trip including food and treats and the best days to travel and where to stay. (Some of this required long conversations with two of her Disney-expert Aunts, Sheri and Kathleen.) She even planned Disney-Bounding outfits for each of them. Don't know what that is? I'll tell you. It means dressing up, not as a character, but in clothes that pay homage to a character. Like colors and patterns but not actual costumes. She spent a great deal of time thinking about this. They did Brave, Princess and the Frog, Emperor's New Groove and Wall-E.

It was VERY hard to keep this trip a secret. There were many close calls. And a few times that I wondered if Emma suspected. I don't think she did.

Romney (and I confess, I too,) was pretty much levitating with ecstacy and excitement. And I wasn't even the one going. Truthfully, I wanted to go too so bad! But the fact that my children wanted to travel together as a celebration of Chase coming home and being together again meant that I absolutely was not allowed to go. There was one non-sibling person allowed to go....any guesses? That would of course be Nicholas. And he was as excited to plan this trip as Romney was. 

And finally the day came. Romney spent the day on Tuesday packing. She had the whole week off from school and so could just revel in the packing process all day while I hid at work. We hid the suitcases upstairs and did our best to remain calm. The next morning Troy took Emma to school for her early morning seminary class, and Romney and I tried to act normal. We did an okay job. As soon as Emma was out the door, Romney and Chase and I finished grabbing all the last minute stuff and putting the suitcases in the car. We zipped off to go pick up Nicholas, and then finally made our way to the high school to wait with baited breath outside the seminary building. 

What's funny is that while we were waiting for Emma to come out, we all made videos of ourselves predicting what Emma's reaction was going to be. I won, by the way. I was the only one who guessed that she was going to just keep saying, "What?.....WHAT?" Emma was definitely more in shock than freaking out with excitement. But still, so fun to surprise her. And then, off to the airport!

 

Here's my truth. I'm a very anxious traveller. I always freak out when I have to fly, and not because I'm scared of a plane crash. I'm scared that I'm going to screw up the tickets and accidentally buy them for the wrong day or spell someone's name wrong. So the thought of sending my kids off without me to be OCD about everything was a little challenging. Luckily they were very understanding and kept me updated. Mom, we made it through security! Mom, we made it onto the plane! Mom, we made it to the Uber! Maybe overkill but it helped my blood pressure a lot. I was most anxious about them getting into their hotel ok - they were landing hours before check-in time. But they were allowed to check in just fine. As soon as that happened, most of my fears were over. Most. The other bad part was that their flight home left at 7:00 am and they had to get up at like 3:30 to get an Uber to the airport in time. I was definitely anxious about that...but they did it!!

Here's how it went.  They spent Wednesday evening getting delicious food and ice cream in Downtown Disney, and doing a little browsing through the shops. 

Thursday was Disneyland day 1, Friday was a day in California Adventure, and Saturday was Disneyland day 2. 

And now I'm just going to dump a bunch of photos. But first I will add two of the greatest videos of all time that Troy and I both watched about 100 times.

Oh my goodness. Watching these again just makes me smile, and also I want to go to there.

Okay, photo dump, here we come. They are not really in order, just so you know.

 

Okay, here are my kids' favorite parts of the trip:

Chase: Interacting with Chewbacca, Monsters After Dark

Romney: Eating dinner at sunset in SanFransokio with bread bowls and honey lemonade, Kebabs, eating all the food, being in charge, "being the Sheri of the trip," Incredicoaster at night

Emma: All the food, Main Street at night, talking with siblings and Nick in line

First Greetings

The first place we stopped after we left the airport was Chase's grandma's house. She is the only grandparent he has left, and it was very tender when he said goodbye to her in 2022. It was pretty fun to pull into her driveway and see her come out and get a giant wonderful hug of her own.

After some very good and teary hugs, she joined us in the car and the six of us went to lunch at the nearby Eggs in the City for a little afternoon brunch. We sat on the patio in the very warm October air and just stared at Chase in wonder as we ate a delicious lunch, and even had a wonderful chat with our Hagrid-like and very gregarious waiter. 

After lunch we had a really amazing experience. When a missionary is about to start their mission, they receive a special blessing called getting set apart. And when they return home, they meet with one of their stake leaders to get released from the calling of being a missionary. It's a really tender time, and kind of sad to know that you're done with the experience of 100% full-time service. Also it's so joyful, and even a relief. My release from my mission was really anti-climactic. No pomp or ceremony at all. "Oh hi, Rachel, nice to see you. You're released." But for Chase, it was a little more carefully carried out. We went to the office of our friend and leader Randy, who works in downtown Salt Lake. We went into a private conference room together, and Randy so kindly asked Chase to tell him some of the most important things he learned and greatest experiences he had while serving in Spokane. It was so sweet to hear our son share in such a heartfelt way. And then Randy officially released Chase as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We all had a good cry. Then Randy asked if he could also give him a blessing. Again, so incredibly sweet. It was a truly powerful experience, and having our whole family there experiencing it together was a moment of my lifetime. Core memory, for sure. 

When we finally got home, Chase didn't waste much time. He was ready to shed the suit, wander around our house and point out all the things that looked new to him, including some of our silverware, which he insisted he had never before seen. (I can promise you, we've had it for years. Whatever. He liked the "new forks.") I'm very happy to report that he absolutely loved his room. It wasn't quite finished, as you know, but that didn't stop him from being so thrilled to move right in. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent with us bringing down his storage bins and him absolutely covering the living room with piles of things. Some things were going straight to his beautiful new shelves, mostly his favorite action figures and dinosaurs. (Some things about my son have changed exactly zero percent. His love of figs and dinos is one of them.) Some other things were going back into boxes to wait for the addition of more shelves, and some for boxes for longer term storage. And it was a relief to see that there was also a large pile of things meant for the Deseret Industries, our local donation center. It took many hours but some semblance of order was found. 

Then what was it time for? If you can't guess, then you don't know my son very well. I whipped up his requested first dinner home: biscuits and gravy, of course. And then we dimmed the lights, plugged the tv into the BIG speakers, and pushed play. Our eyes all got misty as we heard the opening strains of the Jurassic Park theme. We cranked it. It was almost more fun to watch Chase than watching the actual movie. All of us swore off watching Jurassic Park until Chase came home. This wasn't a huge sacrifice for the girls, but there were times when I had really been missing Chase and had been sorely tempted. Great to see it again.

The day after Chase's return, we hosted an open house in our backyard, since his official homecoming meeting at church wouldn't be happening for another week and half. We wanted to give friends and family a chance to come greet him and say hello. Another series of absolutely wonderful hugs. It was so fun to see him just leap into the arms of some of his friends. His Aspen Grove friends' arrival was especially energetic. Maybe the most tender was him seeing Cameron Moore, who had returned from his mission when Chase had only been out for a few months. They didn't see each other for about three and a half years. So sweet. 

Here's what is lame. I don't think I have a single photo from that night. 

I do, however, have plenty of photos from Chase's post-homecoming-talk brunch, also held in our backyard. But before I get to the part where everyone came over and ate up 5 full pans of sweet rolls, I have to tell you about the meeting part.

In a sacrament meeting, there is almost always more than one speaker, even when a missionary comes home. They don't get the meeting all to themselves. And our leaders decided to ask our girls if they would also speak. You know, seeing all three of my kids sitting up on that stand, getting ready to share their thoughts and feelings and testimonies, was pretty much a highlight of my life. It was so amazing, in fact, that I pretty much wanted to quit parenthood right then and there because I knew it wasn't going to get any better than that. In fact, I was sure things were only going to go downhill from there on out. 

There were two other really magically special things about that homecoming meeting, besides hearing the beautiful and moving words of my kids. 

First, I got to meet Chase's first mission leaders. Chase absolutely adores this couple. They profoundly changed his life in ways I'm sure I can only begin to imagine. They live in the south part of our valley, and I wasn't sure they'd be able to come to his homecoming. I figured that with the hundreds of missionaries that had come and gone from their mission, they had to be invited to more meetings than they could possibly attend. But I decided to send them an invitation just in case. And when I saw them sitting in our chapel my heart just swelled. This couple gave three years of their lives to lead this mission, and I feel really quite strongly that Chase was called to the Spokane mission so that he could serve with this couple almost more than with the people of Washington state. I hugged them both and did my best to express this to them, in a very inadequate way. What wonderful people they are. Also in the photos below is the one companion of Chase's who was able to come to his homecoming - Elder Miner. So nice of him.

 

The other absolutely magical surprise happened just as I was sitting down and waiting for the meeting to start. I was looking fondly at my kids when I felt a tap on my shoulder, and looked up to see a good friend of mine standing there, saying hi. I said hello back, and it wasn't until I said hello that it registered who I was looking at. It was my dear dear friend Krista, who lives in Texas! She and her wonderful husband and her two daughters just happened to be in town that weekend and decided to surprise me. And boy did they ever!! I basically leapt out of my seat and into her arms and cried into her hair for a minute. Krista is just one of the most lovely wonderful people I have ever known, and to have her there just meant everything to me. They were able to stop by our house for a few minutes after the meeting and I actually snagged a photo, thank heavens.

Oh my heart is so full! My life is so blessed with so many wonderful people - friends and dear family! It was incredible to have so many people we love so very much with us that day. This includes both of my brothers - I love them so much and was so grateful that they came! It was asking a lot of both of them - Adam had to fly in, and brought two of his kids. Peter and his whole family came, and they couldn't even stay one night. They had to come up and back in one day. That is a lot of love, to do all that driving. Here is the best photo of my brothers I've ever seen:

Isn't that cute? I love my brothers. I love my sister too - so much. Wish she could have been there. 

And here are a ton of other photos from the day:

Aspen Grove Folks

Pehrson Boys

Ok I'm feeling horrible about a certain photo that is missing from this group. That is a photo of my sister-in-law (and sister at heart), Kathleen, and her mom, Judy. First of all, how nice is it for Kathleen's mother to come? And then, do you know what they did? They worked and worked and worked. They manned the kitchen - keeping the sweet rolls warm and the bacon toasty, the plates on the porch full and the plates in the kitchen washed. Here's the truth of what they did. My own mom is in heaven and my own sister is in Maine. I don't have that trusted combo of mother and sister in my life to help me. And Kathleen and Judy showed up and were absolutely my real mother and sister that day. (And just to be clear, Sheri steps up for me all the time, but since she only had one day here and family she doesn't usually get to see, it wasn't her day to be a helper in the kitchen.) Anyway, I tried and pretty much failed to express to them what they had done for me. Not just physically, but emotionally. I felt so loved and supported. 

Okay, so finally I'm to the end of my tale of Chase's return. Whew. That took a lot of of me. And I don't mean just writing the blog entry.