Our Chase

A few days in August held all these things:

Last visit to the beach:












A good-bye open house: Isn't the cake amazing? A friend in our ward has a cake making business and she made this for Chase's open house. The coolest cake ever!



Visits from family: My wonderful three brothers. Reed lives locally and so does Ben. Gerald is in town from Taiwan and the timing is pefect. He's been able to not only visit with us, but be here for Jacqueline's baptism and some of Chase's farewell activities.



Packing:














Tossing:
















Driving: Cliff, Rayne, Chase and I all squished ourselves in the truck to go to Provo. Cliff and I started out in the front seat, but Chase soon became very uncomfortable in the back seat and he took over driving, Cliff in the passenger's seat and I and Rayne in the back. I had a lot of fun with Rayne in the back. Chase was relieved to drive so he had the front seat in which to stretch his legs. He was not very talkative, though, because he was so upset at having to leave Isaiah behind. Isaiah was equally upset. It will take awhile before the boys, so close to each other, will be able to see the good things about being apart while Chase is on his mission.

A ride in Brad's corvette: If Brad is reading this, I have to apologize for the photo. I had a choice of a photo that showed the handsome faces of both Chase and Brad, OR I had a photo that showed the best view of the car. I chose the car. I'm betting Brad won't mind. :)

Dressing (what's that MIB line? "The last suit you'll ever wear"... well, for at least the next 2 years anyway):


















Hugging good-bye:















Handing over the cell phone and
the unneccesary wallet items: About 10 minutes after we dropped Chase off at the MTC, his cousin Kyllian called his cell phone to say a last good-bye. Sweet and sad.















After we dropped Chase off at the MTC, Cliff and I dropped Rayne off with her friend and he and I drove to Colorado to pick up some furniture from my grandmother's house. Beautiful stuff, don't you think?We drove 5 hours to Colorado, packed up the furniture for 2 hours and drove 7 hours back to Provo through a windy rainstorm, stopping repeatedly to recover the furniture, arriving at the Hutchings house at 4 in the morning. What a marathon! It was good to be alone with Cliff for some hours, though, to process my feelings and to talk. And I love my grandma's furniture.



Cleaning afterwards: We came home and immediately finished packing Chase's stuff and cleaning out his room. Like tearing off a band-aid, nice and quick. I think his room will be the cleanest it's EVER been for the next 2 years. At least THIS room will be clean... who knows what his room in the Boston area looks like.

I'll really miss him; we all will. But he's doing the right thing and we all know it. These are gonna be a great 2 years. Go Chase!