Trip of a Lifetime

Almost a year ago, my parents were visiting us in Page and my mom was talking about a trip that some of her friends were going to be taking the following year. They were planning a cruise that would go around Italy. My mom was so sad that my dad was not willing to go with her as it is one of the places that she has always wanted to go. I half jokingly said I would go with her. She instantly lit up and asked if I was serious. Would I really go? I thought, why not? I would love to see Italy, and my mom really wanted to go. So for the next nine months or so, we planned.

As the time got closer to when Drake would get his mission call, I got worried that the trip might interfere with his departure. Fortunately, he was called to enter the MTC a few weeks after we would be back from the cruise. With that major worry out of the way, we were in business.

I drove to Salt Lake where we then flew to New York City and then transferred for our flight to Barcelona, Spain. The following day we borded the ship where we had dinner, got settled and then headed out on our adventure. We toured the cities of Nice and Eze France, Pisa, Florence, Rome, the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii, Venice, Montenegro, and Barcelona, Spain. We ate delicious Italian food, shopped in skinny little side streets, waded in the Mediterranean, lounged by the pool, and ate gelato and more gelato. What an amazing adventure. I think the thing that amazed me the most was how old yet well preserved everything was. It is one thing to see the Sistine Chapel in a picture in a book. It is another thing entirely to gaze up at it from inside the walls of the Vatican. It gave me a whole new appreciation for the cliche "they don't make em like they used to". It was breathtaking at every turn!
So glad I got to share this with my mom!

 

 

    
               

Temple Time

In preparation for leaving on his mission, we went to the temple with Drake so he could receive his endowments. We had to go to Salt Lake to do this since our temple in St. George was closed for maintenance. We were so happy to have Grandma and Grandpa Ross, the Hannays, and Brad and Keryn join us. Happy day!

School Begins 2015

Another school year, and for the first time since Rex started going to pre-school, we will have just three students instead of four.

 

The Call

It came! After checking the mail at the post office several times a day, it came! Drake was in tuba City with Theo getting his wisdom teeth out, so we had to wait until that evening to find out the long awaited news.

 

Drake was a little sore and his throat was scratchy from being intubated during his oral surgery. As it turned out, it happened to be Bowen's birthday as well, so we had family over to celebrate and to hear where Drake would be spending the next two years of his life...

Fantastic Fourteen

Bowen's birthday is usually the last hurrah for the summer. With school just three days away, we had to squeeze in some summer celebrating. We received Drake's mission call the very same day, so we had lots going on all at once. Bowen is such a fun-loving awesome kid, and I am so happy he was born into our family.

  

Sixteen Candles

While we were in Salt Lake celebrating Ty and Whit's wedding, the homecoming of Nate, and having our Ross reunion, a special visitor winged into the Salt Lake Valley. Corbin's best friend from Texas came for a visit just in time to celebrate a special birthday. As in many years past, Corbin celebrated the big One Six at running camp in Duck Creek, and of course Jacob was along for the ride. Since Theo and I were both working for most of the week, we were not up at camp, but we made a special drive up on the evening of Corbin's birthday just to make sure he had cake and a song! Good times!

 

 

A Wedding, A Homecoming, and Manual Labor- Ross Reunion 2015!

Every year, my siblings have a Ross Reunion. We each take a turn being in charge, and that person gets to choose the location. We love this tradition as it brings us together and strengthens our family bonds. This year, we had a LOT going on. Between graduations, mission farewells, homecomings, temple trips and life in general, we were not sure we could make a reunion work.

In lieu of our regular reunion, we decided to gather for the wedding of Kim's oldest son, Tyler as well as the homecoming of their youngest son Nate from his mission. During this time, we would still gather and enjoy each other, but with less of a reunion vibe. Ty and his bride, Whitney were married in the Draper temple on the 17th, lovely.

The following day we did a service project at Brad's house in Lindon digging sprinkler trenches. Mostly, we enjoyed being together. Of course on Sunday, we got to hear from Nate as he reported on his mission to Argentina. What a great weekend! The Rosses are the best!