Good Bye, Adam and Sam

This same week, we geared up to say good bye to another sibling.

Mark's baby brother Adam and his wife Sam were leaving us for Australia.

He had been asked to play baseball for a team down there.  Both of them had finished school, and they didn't have any babies yet; the timing couldn't be more perfect.

So two weeks after deciding, they were gone.

Mac is teaching Uncle Matt about Truck Tunes.  Matt is so impressed.

Mac asked for a picture with them, so they would never forget him.

We talk to them on Facetime occasionally, and drool over their adventures.  Adam plays for the team, works part-time in a hotel, and coaches a little league team.  He says the kids have the best commentary during games; calling everyone "mate" and "johnny".  Sam has searched for a nursing job, but as one hasn't come along yet, she gets to spend her days reading and exploring.  She told me that kangaroos are about as common in Australia as deer are here in northern Utah.  She sees them on the side of the road all the time!  Can you imagine?

They had a little break over New Years, so they took off to New Zealand.  And do you know what they did?!  Explored the Shire:

Climbed Mount Doom:

And slept on beaches and jumped off bridges.

Can you imagine?  The rest of us Gunn siblings are living through them while we change dirty diapers, wash loads of laundry, and referee arguments. I sometimes catch myself dreaming about the day that our babies will be grown and we will be going on adventures, while Adam and Sam are raising their own babies.

Of course I wouldn't trade my life for anything ... but I gotta say, I'm ready to set up a savings account for traveling again.   We had one back when we were newlyweds ... but it morphed into our move-to-California fund.  We've been penniless our entire marriage, but now Mark is killing it in the chiropractic world, and I am ready to add world travel to our never-ending list of purchases.

Someday.

Good Bye, Trent

Before Trent left for two years, my mom wanted to get a picture of our whole family.  I brought my camera and one of the Luke girls snapped some pictures for us in the back yard.  The colors were perfect.  The weather was perfect.  There was only one horrible thing about this photo shoot:

I was 38 weeks pregnant.

In our two week window between getting the keys to the house and actually moving in; my awesome parents came back and forth between updating our house and getting Trent all packed for his mission.  

He left for Oklahoma just a few days before my due date.

Mac loves his "Trentie Bear".  Whenever he misses Trent, he gives this bear a giant hug and feels better.  Sleeps on it every night.

I swear, Jamie just gets more and more beautiful.  Marriage has been reeeeaally good to her.

My two little crazies kept everyone from crying too much ... 

When we were driving away, Jake shuddered.  "I am so glad that's not me just starting my mission."
I laughed.  An incredible, difficult two years ... one you want to do but are relieved when it ends.  Makes a real man/woman out of you.

His letters home have been full of good humor about awkward moments and incredible miracles.

We miss him.  We love him.  We are so proud of him.

Family Fix-Up

The benefit to moving into a fixer-upper while being 38 weeks pregnant is that everyone pities you.

We had a lot of offers of help.

So I sent out an email to all the family and friends that said, "Let me know if I can help!"  And told them our two-week game plan. Then they knew what we were up to, and if they had time they could show up and work on a project with us.

I was blown away by the support.

Chris spent several nights in our home.  Still had cat hair everywhere, and the heater didn't work.  She did non-stop detail painting.

Curtis helped Mark plot out how to make the kitchen functional.

Rachelle took my kids multiple times.

My family drove up several different times to paint, sand, and stain.

Danika moved in my boxes.

My young women from our apartment ward came and painted one afternoon.

Michael fixed my washer, dryer, toilet, thermostat ... and probably at least 15 other things.

Ben and Katie came with the whole family and sanded every ugly oak surface in the house.

And Matt helped Mark install our gorgeous fake wood floor.

Mark and I don't really like asking for help.  But there was just no way we could've done this without it, and we were shocked at the response.

So grateful, so humbled.  LOVE YOU ALL.

Halloween

Halloween was a complete after-thought this year.

We had just gotten the keys to our house and were scrambling to get things done over there.

Thankfully, Mac wants to be the same thing every year.  And Belle found a princess Belle dress at Costco she just had to have ... and I was okay with that.

Not knowing any of our new neighbors, we opted for a Gunn cousin Halloween.

Couldn't have made a better decision.

Trent's Farewell

The very weekend of the softball tournament, my family had planned my baby brother's mission farewell.

He was taking off to Oklahoma one week before my due date.

Mark and I debated a divide-and-conquor strategy verses a do-it-all strategy.  Mark was okay with picking one event.  He actually admitted a mission was more important than baseball ... which I appreciated, but given the face that this tournament had been planned for seven months, it just felt wrong to bow out.

So we did it all.

As soon as the boys lost their last game, we hugged all our Gunns and turned the car north to speed to the opposite corner of the state of Utah.

We made it late Saturday night to a house packed to the gills with people to support Trentles.

He gave the sweetest talk.  Just the right amount of funny and spiritual.  He dominated the sneak-a-Lord-of-the-Rings-quote-into-a-sacrament-meeting-talk-and-relate-it-to-the-gospel game my family has got going; he said it was a dangerous business to step outside your door, if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you'll be swept off to.

Brilliant.

Well done Trent, we knew you were worth the drive.

Gunn Control

In the midst of all this, we had planned a little trip to St. George.

Mark's oldest brother was turning 40, and his awesome wife planned a giant surprise party.  She began calling all the Gunn women clear back in March to ensure we could bring our families to a softball tournament.

Heidi was planning a softball tournament for Josh's birthday.

How great is that?

The weekend slipped into our insane month of October seamlessly; we filled out all the paperwork on our house just before we left, played ball, drove back to Logan for my brother Trent's farewell, and when we returned Monday ... the keys were ours.

The tournament was a blast.

Did we win?  Nooooo.  Our poor baseball boys never really played softball, and were in a tournament with competitive softball teams that played all over Vegas and Southern Utah year round.

But we sure had fun.

Mama Gunn seemed thrilled to plan a birthday party for one of her boys; she went all out.

One Snow Canyon baseball hat for each of Chris's babies.

Well hello, Freddy.  Fancy seeing you here.

A little pre-dinner beanbag toss.

And some pre-game chiropractic treatment from the birthday boy.

Soooo many cousins.  Too much fun.

Players-Only Table

"Let's go Gunn Control!" (repeated 63x)

Five minutes later I turned around ... and these two were naked.  Sitting in the puddle.

You guys are winners to us ... team Gunn Control for life!

Look at that Gunn family.  They are the greatest.

Gosh, I lucked out in the in-law department.  Thank you thank you Heidi, for making us all get down there!  Josh, way to turn 40.