Taft goes on a mission

OK, so I'm slow on posting. It actually happened pretty fast. Taft got his call the last week of September and had to report to the Mission Training Center on November 4, 2009 in preparation to go to the Argentine Buenos Aires South Mission. The last week of September is also the first week of school at the U of Washington -- and thus the first week of Institute for me (Todd). Taft also got a new job that week. It was a whirlwind preparation. Seemed like we were just sprinting for the 5 1/2 weeks we had to see him off.

Lisa and I decided that we wanted to go down with him, flying down a day before to just have some individual time with him, and hang out in Salt Lake for a day -- especially to take him through the Salt Lake Temple.



One of the fun little parts of the trip was that we had a special travel deal through Sam's Club that included a full size rental car. When we got there they had ready for us one of Taft's favorite cars -- a Dodge Charger. We had no idea that's what we would get. It was kind a fun. By the way -- it was 70 degrees while we were there on November 3rd and 4th -- no a cloud in the sky.

In addition to the temple we got to meet some general authorities (you'll have to ask us about that). And before the sun went entirely down we hike Ensign Peak -- a favorite place of ours from clear back when we lived in Salt Lake during the time Taft was almost 2 until he was almost 7 years old.

We decided we like the new MTC policy of curbside drop off. It was great to do it all in 3 minutes. Todd is fighting off the tears which probably explains why there isn't a picture of Lisa and Taft -- too emotional of a camera operator to press the button correctly. Plus . . . the MTC person was saying (very firmly): "Let's go! If you've said good-bye, let's keep it moving." (She is either a very NON emotional person, or she never had dropped off a son for 2 years.) But we kept it moving -- we didn't want any trouble at such a great event. But, of course, the picture of Taft says it all -- he's ready to go and anxious to get on with it. Sure it's hard to say good-bye -- we can't imagine not having him around for all he is to our family and for all he does -- but we wouldn't have him any other place doing any other thing. It's a deep mix of emotions -- both of which involve tears for parents.