Abby's Home! (and several other things)

This is Abby's Alaskan crew that she had so much fun with the 4 1/2 months she was there.

Eventually, it was time for her to come home though and we were happy to receive her!

Her flight came in late afternoon of Conference Sunday.

Andy and the two boys went to go pick her and her 90 lbs. of fish up from the airport.

It was so fun to have her walk through the door!

She had prepared me for a fishy stench to encompass her and everything she brought back, but honestly, I really haven't smelled it at all!

That night the fam came over for dinner and many festivities;

* Matt's B-day celebration

*Welcome Abby home

*Traditional General Conference Quiz

*Treat Tasting from Mom and Dad's latest cruise.

After dinner, Mom assembled her spread!

Mostly Norwegian chocolates and goodies!

(Correct me if I am wrong Mom)

Everything was labeled and delicious :)

It was so fun to experience the different flavors.  My favorite was probably the black currant white chocolate!

 

Next it was time for the conference quiz!

Ben was enjoying having Abby home :)

Mom always has a basket or two full of yummy prizes for the participants.

Then it was time to celebrate Matt!

He finally had his cheesecake!

He had either not been feeling well or the family had not been together the few nights since his birthday so this was our first chance to partake.

Here Abby is counting her mucho tip moolah as we all ate our cheesecake.

I guess on the drive to get Abby, Matt started feeling his nausea come back from his birthday adventure so he was kind of low key for much of the evening.  But it was a fun night having most of the family together and celebrating so many things!

Matt is an Adult

 Matt's 18th birthday arrived...and I truly hope it wasn't too big of a disappointment for him 😬

I had asked him long before hand what he wanted for gifts and what he wanted to do (as far as a gathering with friends etc. and he wouldn't give me answers.  Finally, one night a few days before his birthday he found a sweatshirt online that we ordered but it wouldn't come in time.

The day before I texted a couple of his close friends from different groups and asked if they would both get the word out and ask as many people as possible to text him a Happy Birthday message by 7:30 a.m. so he would have a bunch of texts when he first checked his phone in the morning.

When he woke up and was getting ready he was frustrated because he couldn't find the shirt he wanted to wear.  He didn't say anything when he looked at his phone and barely had time to grab some of the birthday breakfast that Andy had made for him.

His friend Holly had asked me the night before if she could decorate his car that morning so I slowed him down even more by making him stop for pictures.

There was an improv show that night but he hadn't wanted to commit himself to it in case he ended up with plans.  Feeling bad that I didn't really have any gifts for him, I ordered a bunch of his favorite treats/snacks to be delivered from Sam's so they were waiting for him when he got home.  He ended up just kind of hanging around the house for a while after school.  He had wanted to go to his favorite spot in Mt Sterling to watch the sunset.  He went alone since his friends were involved in the show.  When he arrived there were a bunch of "annoying teenagers" and so he left and went to the improv show and watched his friends perform.

Afterward, a few of them were willing to go to his spot again and hang out for a little bit even though the sun had long since set.

He came home that night in a little better spirits than when he had left.

He had determined that because of multiple scheduling things, this day would be his day to celebrate with friends and the next day would be his day to celebrate with the family so we held off on dinner and cake and everything.

His biggest wish for his birthday (but something that he wanted to pay for all by himself so I couldn't give it to him as a gift) was to go skydiving :)

A neighbor friend and a cousin had both done it for their 18th celebrations and he really wanted to as well.

He scheduled it and Andy was able to drive down to Ogden with him the day after his birthday.

***Matt had not signed up for a video of the experience but our neighbors, the Malans, said it was a must so Andy checked into it when they got there and he was able to add it on.  We did pay for that pricey memorabilia so I felt a little better about no gifts at that point :) ***

He was so pumped!!!

Does he look a little green around the gills?...the smile a little fake?

Andy texted and said that Matt had come down and everything in his stomach had come up :(

He had an amazing experience until the last little bit as they approached the ground and then he got terribly nauseous.  Andy said he was silent the whole ride home.  When they got back he immediately went down to his room and stayed there for at least a couple of hours before Andy went and checked on him.  We were all prepared to go to dinner with him but were unsure if he would feel up to it.  He slowly came around and said he wanted to go to FireHouse.

When we got there both of the boys immediately went back to the cooks and talked to their friends for a while.  (I can't remember if I have posted anything about this but Josh had been working there for about 7 months at this point and Matt had worked there beginning in the spring and he quit the end of summer since he didn't want to have work on top of school his senior year.  So, they knew everyone back there and our server too.)

In speaking over dinner, it was evident that overall, he really had had an amazing time...I think it was everything he hoped it would be for the first 90-95% of the experience.  It just got to him right at the end.  Andy was convinced that the fact that Matt hadn't really eaten anything that day and then had an energy drink about an hour or two before he jumped was the problem.  We found this out afterward of course! Live and learn.

Matt would end up feeling the effects of his jump for days but he was able to rally enough to enjoy a large pizza with Josh that night (not enough to have his birthday cheesecake yet though).