Thanksgiving At Our House

Thanksgiving is here! We decided to get out in the beautiful weather and get some exercise at Grandpa's Pond Park. Mikayla explored.

I hiked on the surrounding hills and ran/walked.

Juliet, Merril, and Maxine jogged the whole time.

Julie and Merril even started clear at the house! I drove down. 

Mark and Jack rode bicycles.

Then we ran home to prep Thanksgiving. I wrapped that turkey in bacon and threw it in the oven! (Thank you Vick!)

And then I got busy and did not take any pictures during dinner. 😓 But I remembered to snag a few when some of the peeps were still around.

Gwen was visiting and came to eat.

Besides the turkey taking an extra 45 minutes, everything was delicious! I really like the flavor of the bacon on the turkey. And now I'm done.

I'm not gonna lie, this past 30 days has been killer. Mark's birthday and baptism with people over for food. Jack's birthday and party at the sand dunes and getting his license. Maxine getting endowed, food after. Maxine's mission farewell, food after. Twenty-eight people at my house for Thanksgiving. I am spent. I'm still helping Maxine secure the last few items for her mission. I haven't hardly Christmas shopped AT ALL! I'm usually so much better about getting things done early but not this year. I'm hoping to be able to focus on Christmas and get some stuff done in the coming weeks because I'm so behind! 😭😭😭

Maxine, I mean, Sister Campbell starts home MTC

Maxine should probably be writing this but she's busy. Sister Campbell started home MTC on November 22, 2021. Her mission phone calendar filled with zoom meetings that she needed to attend from about 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with 5-10 minute breaks at the bottom of the hour. I could hear her laughing and commenting in the office. Her MTC district is District 04-E and apparently it's pretty fantastic! They've scheduled their own zoom meetings to get to know each other. Her companion is Sister Fiame. The more Maxine gets to know these people, the more she is excited to get up to the Provo MTC and meet them in person. I think she's going to do amazing things and we are proud of her. Just a few pictures from her first mission email. 

I'm working on a project over here: http://sistercampbellmission.blogspot.com

 

Maxine's Mission Farewell

Maxine gave a fantastic talk and then we had food at our house. I probably should've asked for more help but whatever. We had around 75 people over who were here to support Maxine! It's great to see the people with which she's surrounded herself. These are the people that have had a positive influence in her life! I'm so glad that she's had good friends.

Mike, Chaise, Grandma Gordon, and Jo Anna.

Wade and some of the Zittings.

Amy, John Henry, and Calvin Hummel.

Katelyn, Tesslyn, and Evelyn Hummel.

The Howards and Sheri Beatty.

Maxaroni!

Jeannie, Jo Anna and me.

Jo Anna, Max, JoLyn, and Logan.

Max and Ellen.

Maxine's seminary teacher, Sister Merrill.

It was awesome and we had a great time!

Busy in Baja and Vegas!

I'm just trying to get it all done. We are busy, busy, busy with all the family and fun things we are up to! Merril is off to Baja with the boys. Jack is riding Merril's Adventure 1190, with his motorcycle permit, and Merril is riding a BMX GS adventure bike with Mark on the back. His Baja crew has exploded this year to include 28 bikes or 28 people, I'm not sure which!

It was freezing down at the beach but Mark decided to swim in his skivvies. Crazy! 

While the bois were in Baja, Maxine and I stole away to Vegas to do one more endowment session before she starts the MTC. And to SHOP!

We found some Doc Marten boots for her mission and played around in Vegas a little. We went to lunch and to Trader Joe's.

We went on the high roller, because Maxine has somehow missed out on it.

Baja sand sculpture.

Mark talked Daddy into buying this hat for him.

This dude in his samurai rolled up and offered to go get pizza for everyone in Merril's group. It took like an hour but he delivered 2 mega huge pizzas and drinks to everyone in the middle of nowhere.

The Baja adventure was fun but there was a slight mishap. They went down a road that was supposed to take a few hours but ended up taking several. They had to camp out and ran out of water and supplies. They had camping gear, not a lot else. Merril thinks it might thin out the herd on people who want to go next year. He said Jack and Mark did great and hardly complained. He was surprised at how grumpy some of the full grown adults got. It's called adventure motorcycling for a reason! An adventure is what they got!

 

Maxine Endowed in Cedar City

Here we are, getting to the Cedar City Temple for Maxine's endowment. I have a light mustache from the car's reflection.

My Mom, Jeannie, Justin and Rachel, the Campbell Grandparents, Vick and his wife Lisa, Sara Gilberg, Valerie and John Scott were there. It was a great day but I could tell that Max was nervous the whole time. We're going to Vegas next week to do another session and I think that will be good.

One step closer to starting her mission next week!

Jack's Driver's License

The day is here! Jack is 16 and got his driver's license and motorcycle permit! 

Merril and Jack went riding on his birthday.

Now he can drive himself to school instead of riding the bus! I just hope he doesn't run into any mailboxes or small dogs. Yikes!

Mark's Baptism Day

My boissssss! Grandma Campbell made Mark's vest and tie. The vest is like black minky. It's very soft. 

We thought it would be a cool experience if Jack could baptize Mark. So that's what we did!

It was an awesome day! Fun fact: November 6th is the same day that Maxine was baptized! 😇

I made all the ladies in red pose for a picture!

Maxine's Job

I don't think I've talked about Maxine's job. She started working at a residential treatment facility. It's for Native American youths with addiction problems, anger issues, self harm, etc. She got a tip from her seminary teacher that they were hiring. This was after she graduated and wasn't sure about it but decided to give it a shot. They hired her on the spot. 

It's in Hildale, UT and is called Red Circle Lodge. She helps the girls with school work and basically has to be a second set of eyeballs on the kids at all times. She works on the girls side mainly but it's been really good for her. She's been able to use skills she's learned in therapy and I think it has been an eye opener. She loves these girls and learned how to work hard. She had to pull between 8 and 12-hour shifts and had to commute. This is the only picture I have of her at work. 

She's actually showing off her new haircut and her ability to grow out her nails finally but she happens to be at work. The Native American center had cool cultural activities like drum circles and singing, sweat lodges, equine therapy. I really feel like this job has been great for mission prep.