Colorado, Part 2 -- Goodbye Party

But first, I failed to mention all of the excitement at Retreat on Saturday morning. On Friday the boys had discovered a location at the campground where bees and wasps were abundant. Joe was the only one to actually be stung, once on his arm and once on his cheek. We figured nobody else got stung because... well, we don't call him Mosey Joe for nothin'. ;-) But being boys, they headed right back to the same location after breakfast on Saturday morning. It wasn't too long before the lodge filled with screams and cries and--although the bees didn't follow them in--there were swarms of little boys escorting the victims. I think Chris Thompson pulled 6 or 8 stingers out of his little boy, Sam. Isaac Hays met up with wasps instead of bees and ended up with about the same number of stings--and a wasp still in his shirt and letting him know it. Both of the boys were pretty panicked and I felt bad for them. I did laugh, however, when some of the dads went to investigate the site and Keven Lewis came climbing up the hill flailing his arms madly. ;-) From a distance they saw a ping pong paddle on the ground near where the bees were. We then assumed we knew why the bees had gone after the boys. Ha! The kids insisted they hadn't been messing with the bees--the paddle was there from the day before when they had used it to dig a hole so they could bury a dead chipmunk they'd found. (It never ends with boys, I tell ya'!) They discovered which boy had instigated that plan (oddly enough it wasn't a Hays kid OR a Horne kid!) and the dads made him go retrieve the paddle. I would never wish suffering on any child, but I couldn't help but laugh at the dads who found it so humorous that he got stung twice on his journey. One of those "serves him right" kind of things, I guess! Ha! It was no big deal though. Clarkson kids are tough and he didn't seem bothered at all about getting a couple of stings. ;-)

We had stayed up late (past 2:00am, I'm sure) playing I Buy with Daniel, Haley, Tammy, and Tayde, then visiting with Brother Chris and Brother Dustin. I love listening to Brother Chris talk. :-) He's got the greatest stories in the world. I especially love to hear about the revival he held were everybody in the building was either asleep or clipping their fingernails. Every night! "I didn't know you could GROW nails that fast!!!" :-)

Boy, that was out of sequence. Just trying to think of what I missed last time. ;-) Before I forget, here are a few more pictures from Retreat. I stole these from Kristin's Facebook. :-) She was a picture taking fiend over the weekend, I tell you! I didn't get any pictures of the Hawkins myself (what a loser!), but I thought this one with Sister Julie was really good.



Love this one of Kristin with Emilee--so cute. There were two others with Em that I almost posted because they are truly grand... but I'm sure Emilee would rather see this one. Ha!



This is my favorite of all. :-)



The Hatch folks cooked lunch on Saturday and it was, of course, the best meal of all. I finally kicked Brother and Sister VanDeventer out of the kitchen (you've never seen such stubborn old people in your life! Ha!) and took over the dish duty and then I realized... the Hatch folks' food is a lot better than ours, but their dishes sure are worse! Ha! It was worth it though. :-)

After we got everything cleaned up we all gathered one more time. The time I'd been dreading--our Goodbye Party. I think I saw Jon recording it--I'd like to get a copy of it because I really can't remember much about it! I know that I cried through the whole shabang, but that's no surprise. Tammy headed it up because she's the one to put all of the thought and work into that kind of thing. Emilee and Jamey had both helped out, too, with punch and cookies and stuff like that. Tammy shared a few words, then Jon came and sang that song I posted a couple of days ago. That might have been my favorite part. It was probably everybody's favorite part! Ha! I loved it. I was cracking up, but the tears just streamed down my cheeks through the whole thing. Then Tammy gave people the opportunity to share a few words if they wanted to. That's the part that I can't remember much about and wish I could. ~sigh~ We love these people sooooooo much and sometimes (particularly at goodbye parties!) it feels like it's just ripping our hearts out to leave them! I HATE that part!!! Anyway, the Craig church had gotten Colorado coloring books for the kids (I was looking through them the other day--there's all kinds of cool information in them) and a Colorado puzzle, along with a picture of their congregation--framed perfectly. :-)



The Region, no doubt inspired by Tammy (since I know she got it at my aunt's store in Texas--ha!), got us the coolest doormat in the world. It's a heavy rubber "frame" that has mats that can be switched out. They are sooooo cute--and you can get one for every season, or for whatever your tastes prefer. Thinking back, I'm sure we didn't act nearly grateful enough--I was so distracted with trying to hold myself together a little bit that I don't even know if I said how much we appreciated it! Anyway, here are some pictures of the three mats they got for us.





Cool, hu?!

After the gifts Tammy asked if we wanted to say anything. Oh, brother. You HAVE to say something because only a jerk wouldn't. Ha! Besides, you'd feel incomplete in the whole "goodbye" thing if you didn't say something. You feel the NEED to. And you WANT to. You WANT to try to express just how dearly you love everybody, how much you appreciate them, what a blessing they've been to you, how precious the time with them has been, and just how desperately you're going to miss them... but it's still miserable! First of all, there are just no words. There is NO WAY I can put into words what I feel in my heart for all of these people. I'm not sure there even ARE words to express it. Secondly, you TRY to convey your feelings, but in the end you feel like you didn't even scratch the surface and almost like you've done them an injustice by not portraying just how deeply you feel. And finally, you can't help but cry all the way through--and I'm so tired of crying!!! Actually, I had done LOTS of mental prep for this part and I was somehow able to hold myself together a lot better than I would have expected. I failed to express myself well (who knows what I said or didn't say!), but at least I didn't blubber uncontrollably through the whole thing. Just moments of it. ;-) In any case... oh wait, I should say AT ANY RATE ;-) we made it through. Then it was the final bittersweet portion where everybody comes by and hugs you and tells you goodbye. *Insert long drawn out groan here* That is sooooo hard! The only thing I remember saying when it was my turn to talk is that I keep wondering how in the world I'm ever going to live without all of these people--and that's what comes to my mind now as I think back on telling them all goodbye. Aaaaauuuugggghhhh!!! I'm not sure I can live without them!!! I don't know HOW to! And sincerely, I don't WANT to! But THANK THE LORD we're all in The Church of God. There is a bond that will hold us together across the miles and I know that I WON'T really be living WITHOUT them--we'll still be laboring together in the very same body, still part of one another. That's the only relief I can find in the whole thing! Ha! I won't be without them. I'll just be desperately jealous when they all continue to get together WITHOUT me! ;-)

~whew~ Enough crying for one night (it will end one day, right Mom???)--I'll try to finish the Colorado Trip posts tomorrow. The next one should have more laughter than tears. I hope!

HOUSE UPDATE: When we got home from church tonight we had a message from Jason saying, "Great news! We got the loan approved!" Sooooo... now we keep waiting and praying and trusting. Just like before. Nothing has changed, actually. At this point we don't even have an offer on the house, just know that there's a lady out there who has been approved to buy A house somewhere (not necessarily ours). Jason spoke with her personally a few days ago though and said she WANTS to buy the house and doesn't even sound like she's planning on looking at anything else. So we're HOPING to receive an offer, maybe even tomorrow. Trying to keep the excitement level down and be patient and wait for God's will in God's timing. He knows best. I'll keep you posted. Keep praying! :-)