Missionary Mom Retreat

In February, I had the amazing opportunity to fly into Salt Lake City, Utah, to join a bunch of awesome ladies! We all met on a missionary mom site. We each have a son serving as a missionary in Honduras. Until Feb. 18, 2011, I had never met a single one of them in person. Could have been risky, huh? But it all turned out great! We have named ourselves "The Spider Moms" because in Honduras our sons have each seen some HUGE spiders!

(L to R: Lori, me, Jodi, Sherry, Linda, Renee, Robin, Rina and Bernice)

4 of the moms have sons in the Tegucigalpa mission and the other 5 (me included) have sons in the San Pedro Sula mission. That first day we went through the Salt Lake Temple and then ate at the Joseph Smith Memorial building. 4 of the moms lived closer than me (okay all of them did) so after that first day they went back home. The others stayed overnight together........like a big slumber party! (Lori, Robin, Bernice and I stayed at Rina's house)

Other events included a few of us going to hear John Bytheway and Emily Freeman speak at a Relief Society/Laurel Conference. Then more joined in and we shopped and ate at Archibald's and Gardener's Village. We watched a missionary movie and ate popcorn. It was fun to get to know these sisters and share things about our missionaries. They truly felt like they were my sisters and saying goodbye was hard.

I have only seen snow a few times in my life, so it was a real treat for me when it started to come down! It just so happened to be the day that Lori and I were going to go in to Idaho to hear the missionary homecoming speech of a young man she knows. The snow got pretty bad during our 2 hour drive. We ended up stopping, in hopes that things would settle down. Sadly, we never made it to the meeting, but the weather did settle a bit. I was able to then spend 2 fun nights in Clifton with Lori and her neat family. BTW, she has some mighty cute grandchildren! I got a taste of small town life and loved it! I love how everyone knows each other! Only problem......I would be afraid to leave the house looking like a mess, because chances are I would always run into someone I know. LOL

It was all so beautiful! Can you imagine if this was your backyard? I know they all get tired of the snow because they see so much of it.........but I sure enjoyed it!

Lori was a great hostess. She treated me to a pedicure and then showed me around Preston, Idaho. This is the place where the movie "Napoleon Dynamite" was filmed. My kids have loved that corny movie for years! It was a fun day. The only thing I didn't get to see was Uncle Rico's orange RV. I even got to go to a Westside basketball game! (Clifton's high school) Too bad they did not win, but they sure did give the other team a great fight! I hear they won their next game though.......so "GO WESTSIDE!"

On Feb. 22, it was time to head home. Lori drove me back in to Utah and I was able to spend a couple of hours with Kris (my dear adoption buddy). It was nice to get caught up. I was so sad to leave, but I did miss my family so much.......and it was time. I am so thankful I was able to go on this trip. We made some wonderful memories and I would not trade it for anything! The only thing that would have made it better is if Rob could have gone and if we would have been able to visit with family. Hopefully we will have that opportunity sooner rather than later.