It's That Time Again! (Vancouver 2010)

I love the Olympics. I'm pretty sure I mentioned that two years ago. I can't believe the last time we watched the Summer Olympics, my sister was on her LDS church mission in Quito, Ecuador. Now as I watch them, she is back home and Ian is serving his LDS church mission in Cordoba, Argentina. Well, honestly, he's still just in Provo, a few miles away, but it might as well be Argentina as we don't get to see or talk to him. By Friday afternoon, I had designed my own spreadsheet of all the coverage so I know what time to set which DVR and when to be watching live. (Curling's always from 1-4 a.m., so I guess I'll be taping it to watch later.)

John and Ellie had a Daddy/Daughter Date on Friday and Maggie was going to hang with her "besty" Anna, so Griffin and I had the house to ourselves. After a hot date through the McDonalds' drive-thru, we settled in for the long evening watching the Opening Ceremony. Convinced that they couldn't top the Beijing performance, I was prepared for just a good show, nothing spectacular. Griffin just wanted them to light the torch. I must say that I really loved the middle portion of the ceremony with the 2D/3D whales, wheat fields, and music. The Joni Mitchell song "Both Sides Now" was redone beautifully! k.d. Lang's Hallelujah was gorgeous as well. We even chuckled as Steve Nash and Wayne Gretzky kept looking slyly at each other to figure out what was going wrong with the torch lighting portion of the evening.

But even better than the Opening Ceremony is the competition. By Saturday night, I had no voice. The final Apolo Ohno race: unbelievable. The women's moguls: phenomenal. Today's Nordic Combined: heartbreaking. And tonight, as we settle in to watch more competition, I'm already a jumble of nerves with no voice.

Did I mention I love the Olympics?

Grandma's Annual Valentine's Day Party

Each year, Grandma Asplund has her granddaughters over to make valentines and cookies.

Monday's Child is Fair of Face, But Eleanor is Playing "Grace"

This year, Westmore Elementary is putting on the musical, "Annie" as part of the 4H afterschool clubs. Auditions were a few weeks ago with parts announced last Tuesday--except for 3 roles: Annie, Grace, and Pepper. And Ellie was one of those three girls who needed to wait to find out which role she would have.

After being relatively patient, she found out last night that she has been given the role of Grace and is thrilled, as are we!

The MTC

Today was a great day! The kids got to say goodbye to Ian before they left for school. I ran to work for a few hours while John stayed home as Ian's "companion." We then loaded up the car to head for breakfast together before heading to the MTC.

We went to Cracker Barrel where there was another hugely extended family with their missionary (who was heading to the Philippines). After an amazingly delicious breakfast and a chance to be selfish and have him all to ourselves, we started the drive back to Provo. The only problem was that we had a lot of time to kill before his check-in time. We stopped by a local store, the Vacuum Vendor, to visit with one of our friends for a few minutes.

Having taken up some time, we continued our drive towards the MTC and decided to stop by the temple to take our last few pictures.

Being unable to stand it any more, we decided that it was close enough, even though it was 20 minutes before his official check-in time. Having driven past the MTC earlier, however, things were already in place for receiving the new missionaries, so we loaded back in the van for the inevitable parting.

Since H1N1, the procedure for welcoming new missionaries has changed. Although I have never been part of the former orientation process, I thought this was excellent and very moving. As you pull into the parking lot, elders with bright yellow vests start directing the incoming cars. Stopped and asked if we had a missionary with us (what are we going to say, um, "No, we're just out driving around and this looked like a fun place to stop"), we were then directed down the road that surrounds the MTC. The sidewalks were lined with hundreds of missionaries, eager to help and welcome the new ones.

We pulled in where directed and were greeted by several eager missionaries who helped with luggage, introduced themselves, and took Ian off to his new home.

What impressed me the most was that as we continued to follow the road that led around the MTC, there were even more missionaries, waving at us as we drove past. This was a true life Army of Helaman. It was so moving to see all of these young men, dedicating their lives to serve the Lord and share the gospel around the world. It was actually the only time I shed a tear the whole day.

Ian will be a great missionary and I sure hope he gets a chance to be the same welcoming face that greeted him today to another family, waving and smiling as he ushers another servant of the Lord into the fold.

He's Officially Elder Asplund...

This evening, Ian was set apart as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving in the Argentina Cordoba mission. He enters the MTC tomorrow, with a curb drop off time of 12:45.

He is already struggling with his first companion (Griffin, who asked if he could do it) and patience. I think it's great training.

January 2010 Family Pictures

As I mentioned in an earlier post, our family gathered to take our last pictures before Ian left for Argentina. Below you will find the results, courtesy of my nephew, Ben Roden, who took time out of his Saturday to help us bring our silly notions to fruition.

A Fort Upgrade

It goes without saying that given some time, Griffin would find a better use for his fort. Not content with the fact that, at times, he would have to relinquish control of the TV in the kitchen to, well, ME, he set up the fort to be his own movie theater. That afternoon, he even invited a friend over, popped popcorn, and made their own snacks to eat while they enjoyed "Star Wars: Clone Wars." I'm sure if we hadn't had to take it down to prepare the room for Ian's open house, he would have somehow engineered rumble seats or surround sound coming out of the chairs.