On Monday June 3, 2019, Terry, Noah, Evie, and I began our long awaited, long prepared for mission trip to Tijuana, Mexico and Los Angeles, California.
Here is a 40 second video trailer overview that Terry made to remind the church to come back that evening (Sunday June 30) to hear about our trip. We ended up sharing for three hours. 😳
Rewind to Sunday June 2nd. The church prayed for and commissioned us before we left the following day.
Praying before we left with all the families of the 32 that went.
Blinded by the sun.
This might have been our very first complete photo with every single person present.
Loading up.
On the bus finally at 6:30am-ish.
We stopped at Wright, Wyoming for what had to be the longest bathroom break ever.
They played lava tag or something.
I liked the adult men (Steven and Eric here, though Mike and Terry were too) on the monkey bars. 😂
I am in very few pictures so I'll take them where I can find them.
Animal on a coil!
Evie hung out in the back the entire time. Noah tends to get carsick so he stayed in front. At one point he moved to the middle and got sick so he had to stay in front the rest of the day. Therefore not a lot of people knew that he threw up several times. Still not sure what caused it; a virus, motion sickness, or exhaustion.
Steven and Prae were always sleeping hilariously. Another "always" was how we sang worship songs collectively on the bus. My favorite singing memory from this day was when Steven and Terry sang All Creatures of Our God and King super deep and fast, like Screamo. It was hilarious. I cried real tears. Wish I had recorded it.
Lunch in Rawlins, WY at one of the only places there, Burger King. They were not prepared for a group of 34 like us and it took forever.
Next we stopped at Echo Canyon Utah Rest Area. We joked that this is where Joseph Smith buried one wife and got another. Ha! Joseph Smith was actually dead before the Mormons got this far.
It was so beautiful there.
Squishy was in high spirits.
She loves people.
Evie and Abby.
I love this panoramic because...
...of Prae's face. 😂😂😂
Terry led a group of lemmings in racing up and down the hill five times.
It was crazy.
He was so winded afterwards that he couldn't talk without coughing.
Love this photo of us.
And I really love this photo. Noah of course was feeling awful. He said this was the worst day ever. It was pretty grueling. We started at 6:45am and didn't finish til 2:00am. Too much that day. Way too much.
There were prairie dogs on the hill and Cade had discovered one dead dog and the others were eating it. That's what Evie's looking at and Prae is laughing at. Just be glad I didn't post that dead dog picture...because I have it.
At this point Steven took over the driving. He got his Commercial License just so he could help us drive farther (our bus driver couldn't drive more than 10 or 12 hours per day and we were trying to get to Mesquite, Nevada and still had to cross the entire state of Utah).
We did make it to Mesquite that night, but it was 2:00am. Noah fell asleep in the bus once it was dark and felt a lot better because of it. We all slept...except Terry who stayed up to talk to Steven. One memory was when a truck in front of us lost its tire and Terry and I were like, "What...is...that...? Tire! Tire! Tire!" Steven took it like a pro and never swerved. He just hit it, which is exactly what he should've done. He was an excellent driver.
Our sleep that night felt amazing. Noah was all better the next day, which was good because there were a lot of uncertainties and surprises that were coming...
