After a short visit in NY we flew to Utah. The primary purpose was to attend the Rees Reunion, however we were able to squeeze in a few visits with some friends too! We flew in late Monday evening and stayed with an old missionary companion of Rick's, Justin Allphin, and his wife, Jenny. We stayed up entirely too late but it was so fun re-living mission experiences.
The next morning we met up with Rick's mission President, Gene Hymas and his wife, Diana. Rick and Justin drove in one car to continue with mission stories while Jenny and I followed. I totally love Jenny and Justin!
President and Sister Hymas were so great and you could really tell how much they loved their missionaries. So I was able to hear even more mission stories! President is very soft-spoken and has to be one of the most humble men I've known. Sister Hymas is all smiles and personality. I instantly loved them both and can't wait to visit them again.
We attended our third ALS walk to support Kimmie's Ladybugs this year. Who knew that two days later we'd be having a baby! It was so great to see Kim again. If you don't know what ALS is it is also called Lou Gherig's disease. It's horrible and so hard to see the ones you love lose their physical abilities. They've made quite a few advances but we're still far from curing or even preventing it. Hopefully one day...
This is Rick and his friend Doug. Doug got married a few weeks ago. It provided Rick the opportunity to return to New York and see all the friends he grew up with in Lockport. I wasn't able to go since I don't have spare vacation days. Rick seems to get a trillion vacation days since he works at least one Saturday a month and is then able to take a vacation day during the next week. Anyway, I was so glad he was able to see everyone. They even got together to play some music, just like they used to!
Rick with his best friend, Aaron and his girlfriend Leah.
Last Saturday we were in Rochester, NY to see Franca Monachino and Matt Borthwick's wedding. It was so beautiful and so fun to be there. Congrats you guys!