After all the excitement in San Diego, we drove seven hundred miles north, back through Nevada and Arizona, and into Utah again. We stopped in St George to see the temple:
And then had dinner with four friends who’d served with us as senior missionaries in San Diego:
Eventually we arrived back at the Villa and enjoyed another few days with the posse there. It included an epic hour-long game of Jenga.
Much to his chagrin, Zack ended up collapsing the tower.
Finally it was time to say farewell to the kids.
We continued north, destined for Alex and Kaitlyn’s home, but stopped for dinner with another group of senior missionaries. Brent and his wife Jackie (who couldn’t join us that night) are actually serving another mission now– they support couples who are working on serving missions of their own. It sounds like a great gig.
Up in Tremonton we had a few more days with Alex, Kaitlyn, and the boys. At last it was time to go.
We drove over three thousand miles in ten days, and managed to spend time with sixty-two friends from our mission. And that wasn’t even all of them! I’m so grateful for the opportunity we had to live in California for a year and meet so many incredible people.