First of all, Brock took the entire day off of school and drove up here to spend the day with Court.
The first thing they did was drive up to the Ogden Temple and do an endowment session.
Then they went to lunch.
Then they came home and began packing up Court's "shrine".
His shrine was 3 1/2 shelves full of his cars, lego sets, drawings, books and dance flowers.
It was a paradise for little nieces and nephews to walk into and see all of his great STUFF.
It literally took ALL DAY to pack up his room, not including his clothes.
Now, it is packed away carefully into boxes and deposited into our storage unit.
One of the last things that Court felt the need to do was to burn his hoodie that he wore when working in the dairy at Bowman's.
He pulled out our fire pit and tried to light the hoodie on fire.
Nothing.
Then Brock got the brilliant idea to douse it in gasoline.
It started on fire. Really well. The flames were impressive.
The fire didn't consume the hoodie, it just sort of melted it so Court threw snow on the flames and threw it in the garbage.
It created the most unpleasant smell in our neighborhood.
While the boys were packing up the bedroom, I decided to label all of Court's possessions with a fabric marker.
That took me almost the entire day.
Who knew that labeling clothing could take so long.
And really, is all of this stuff going to fit into two suitcases?
Court discovered that he had 30, yes 30, ties. He went through all of them, picked out his favorites and left them home. He selected several that had become castoffs and gave them to the DI. Then he picked quite a few and decided to take those with him on his mission.
Finally the boys finished the bedroom and we ate our "last supper" of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls and veggies.
It was really good.
Then Brock did the dishes and packed all of Court's stuff into his suitcases.
Yes, all of that stuff did fit.
The stake president had set an appointment to come to our home and set Court apart to be a missionary at 9:30 Tuesday night.
I was a bundle of nerves as we waited for the stake president and our bishop to come.
President Johnson asked Boyd and I to say something to Court which we did and then he set him apart.
It was such a nice blessing, just what Court needed.
Brock stayed until after the setting apart. Having him come and spend the entire day with Court was a sacrifice for him but I thought it was one of the most unselfish things he had ever done.
Wednesday morning our plan was to leave at 11:00.
Before he left, Kalie came to our home and brought him his ties all wrapped up and a Tide with Bleach pen.
Then she proceeded to make dinner for us to eat when we got home. She made Green Chili Quiche and Blueberry muffins.
Her thoughtfulness touched my heart.
Finally it was time to go. Alyssa had gone to school for a couple of class periods and wanted us to pick her up, which we did.
Then we set off to Provo.
The drive through Utah County was scary. They are doing construction right now and before I knew it, I was driving through a luge and praying that I would make it through safely.
Amazingly enough, we took the exit toward the BYU campus still in one piece.
Across the street from the MTC there is a parking lot where you can go, park your car and take pictures. We took several pictures there with the MTC in the background.
Does Court look ready to go or what?
I wanted to take a picture of Court and Alyssa together. She ran right up to him and threw her arms around him.
It was so sweet. It made me cry.
Here's Boyd and I with Court, and yes, I have been crying.
We jumped back into the car and drove into the MTC driveway.
The driveway curves all around the front and side of the MTC and has numbered areas from 1 to 25 where you are directed by someone from the MTC to pull your car into one of the designated numbers.
We got number 14.
At each number there were 8 - 12 missionaries there ready to greet you and your missionary.
As soon as we stopped, one missionary opened Boyd's door, one opened Court's door and another was asking where his luggage was.
He was so excited to be there! He couldn't wait to get going.
There was no dilly-dallying at all. We got the luggage out and were able to give Court one last hug and then the missionaries hustled Court right up the sidewalk to the doors of the MTC, and that was that.
He went one way and we got in the car and went the other way...straight to Zupa's for lunch.
After all, we needed nourishment to sustain us through the rest of the day.
Now our house is a lot quieter.
I have to be more cognizant of the dog because if I wasn't home to take care of him, Court usually was.
And mealtimes are a lot smaller. I am having to rethink the amount of food I cook.
But I wouldn't trade this time for anything. This is what is right and good and best at this time.
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