Adam and I had the amazing opportunity last month to take a short weekend getaway to North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. We NEVER do things like this, so the whole thing felt like it wasn't going to happen, I was sure something would come up, but we planned and prepared and the stars aligned and we were able to go! Hooray!
We got word in June that Adam's mission president and his wife were not doing well, and didn't know how much longer they had. Adam was very close to his mission president and decided that we should make the effort to go say goodbye. We made plans for labor day weekend, got a hold of some stand by tickets that got us 75% off the ticket price, and arranged care for the kids. We found out ten days before we left that Sister Heywood passed away. We were too late. We spoke with his family and they let us know that President needed visits now more than ever. So we kept our plans to go.
Flying stand by is crazy, we'd never done it before. The flight we planned on taking was filling up fast, so I went into panic mode--went to Adam's work to see if he could leave his classes, called the sitter to take the kids two hours earlier, and we left for the airport 1 hour before the flight would leave. It's a 1/2 hour drive! This was crazy! We got through security, RAN through the terminal and arrived at the gate 5 minutes before departure. CRAZY! But we made it!
This little adorable car drove us 12 of our 16 hours of driving over the weekend. Thank goodness for unlimited miles!
Our weekend lined up with BYU's first game of the season in Virginia. Our friends the Welly's just moved to Virginia, so we were able to stay with them during our trip. They had tickets and a big tailgate party arranged so we joined the fun!
It was crazy hot we we got there, we were dripping sweat by the time the game started. Our tailgating lasted about 5 hours but we had a great crowd! It was awesome seeing all the BLUE!
BYU! They put all the BYU fans in the same section, and it was awesome. There were a ton of us!
After the first quarter they delayed the game for lightening. We then got to watch a crazy storm for 2 1/2 hours. That was nuts! We just hung out in the hall of the stadium doing nothing! Then they finally said that we would play, so we ran to our seats. It was great, we scored, they scored and then--
It started to POUR. We decided a little rain couldn't hurt us but after about 3 minutes we looked like we'd hopped in a swimming pool. We were completely DRENCHED! And unlike Arizona storms, you don't dry after. We were soaked until after midnight when we returned home. I haven't been that cold in years!
The next day we visited President Heywood. It was a very sweet experience. President Heywood has Leukemia and Lou Gerrig's disease and is not doing well. He was able to talk more than we expected, and was still telling jokes. When he smiled, we could see the real him under all his symptoms. We spent the afternoon telling stories and crying, he is very emotional and cannot control his emotions due to his illnesses. He told us some things from the mission Adam never knew, that I thought were very touching.
Adam served as President Heywood's assistant for about 5 months, and usually he would let the assistants stay until they finished, but Adam was put back in the field for his last transfer. He had a special assignment with a missionary that had some difficulties. President Heywood told us that that missionary needed to be loved, and there wasn't a missionary that had more love than Elder Jardine. That was my favorite story.
We were able to take the sacrament with President Heywood, and share lunch with him and his family. We are so glad that he is well taken care of, but we could tell that he misses his wife very much. He told us that she wouldn't have wanted us to see her the way she was before she died. It was so great to see him, and a sad realization that it would be the last time. We are so grateful that things worked out and we were able to make the trip!
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