Day 11 - Imposters, sushi and the rain chain

At this point, we are eating so much yummy vacation food, we ABSOLUTELY MUST keep dropping on on local Crossfit classes. It's that, or buy new clothes to go home in....

Today....Hermes Crossfit! I always like this place. The are funny and welcoming. In fact, during this visit, Mark made a new friend! And then that friend asked him to take a picture of his bare butt to send to his wife, proving that her gift of an "anti-raspberry" ab-mat worked perfectly! 

You can't make this stuff up.

We leave for Moon Lake soon, so we wanted to make sure that we put up mom's rain chain. It was a gift from Me, John and Kaira...with the promise that we would install it when we came out. We grabbed a special drill bit from the store and Mark knocked it out in no time. He's so handy!

Works like a charm! I wish I could find a good spot to put one at our house.

With the rain chain up, we headed back downtown to find Kylie and her companion and take them to lunch.  We're not sure they'll be able to handle our coolness.

We met up and she led us through the super secret doors and tunnels that the missionaries and other "temple square elites" use to get around. We felt like spies.

We all had lunch at the awesome cafeteria in the church office building. It was crazy!! It was super inexpensive and had tons of options! She may have fibbed to several of her acquaintances when she introduced us as her family...but we sure love her like a daughter!

She took us all over temple square and gave us little snippets of history and tour talking points.

Everly got the deluxe tour package.

It was fun to listen to the information that they share with their tours. Kylie has learned so much and we're so proud of her!

Soon is was time to say goodbye and let her get on with her day. We had promised Megan we would go back to the big Deseret Book store to let her play the piano...she goes through withdrawals when she can't play for several days in a row. The rest of us wandered about and looked at the books.

We were hoping to catch Seth (Jim and Ameli's son) and say hi before we had to drive back, so we killed a little time riding scooters around the block. The big kids got to go on their own, but we took the little for rides too.

We dropped all the kids back in Spanish Fork for the evening and then came right back up to meet Jim and Ameli and Mat and Lori for dinner at their favorite sushi place, Takashi. It was such a cool restaurant.

I was so grateful they had non-sushi options! It was so delicious and the rest of them were happy dining on raw fishies...I did my best to seem worldy and open-minded...it's hard to do when I really prefer tater tots.

I am so grateful I got to know these guys better. They are so fun and it feels great to be more connected to Mark's side of the family.

Kylie is Official

She was set apart tonight.

She's a missionary. And she's leaving soon and she's gonna be great. We've had a roller coaster couple of weeks with her. We went to the temple as she took out her endowments. I'll never forget her face. She was scared. She was completely turned upside down by everything she was experiencing. I remember looking over at her and she mouthed "what is this?" to me and I mouthed back "It's okay. Just breathe. It's okay."

And her tears in the celestial room. She went there expecting peace and she was met with unfamiliarity and strangeness.

Oh boy. I can definitely relate. What comfort level I feel at the temple has been gained "line upon line"....I have fought and cried for every inch.

So we have spent the last weeks talking and talking and talking. We went back to the temple again. Without everyone looking at her and needing her to feel any particular way. We talked about the symbolism. We talked about everything she knows now that she didn't always know. And that is the way the temple works too. There is so much to learn. And learning it changes the way you see it and experience it.

And then tonight.

Mark and I left to attend her setting apart. As we were leaving, Ethan was just getting home from work. He was headed down to shower and we said goodbye. Something nagged at me that he should come with us. But I told myself that it wasn't my place to invite anyone to this.

We arrived and went into the Stake President's office and he began. the whole Flynn family was buzzing with nervousness and excitement. As he was speaking, Kylie kind of zoned out. It was obvious that she wasn't listening to him. And then she suddenly stopped and she said, "I'm sorry. This isn't right. Ethan needs to be here." I cry every time I think of her saying that. She was right and I knew it. She was brave enough to say it.

President Boyack stopped. And I jumped out of that room and called Ethan. He was just out of the shower and I told him he needed to come down as fast as he could. And in 8 minutes, he was sitting there with us...hair dripping.

See? Crying again.

I don't know the future. I don't know why that happened. But I am grateful it did. I am grateful for the Spirit that comes rushing back to me when I think of that night.

See you in a flash, Sister Flynn.

Concentration

This is....concentration! **clap clap clap**

No mistakes!  **clap clap clap**

or hesitation!  **clap clap clap**

Cuties.