Tchau, Elder Eide

Tomorrow, this handsome guy, my nephew Andrew, enters the MTC in preparation to serve a two year mission for our church to Brazil. My parents came out for the weekend to have a chance to say good bye to him before he left. On Sunday, we drove up the canyon for a picnic. I was a little disappointed that the leaves weren't more colorful, but it's always nice to be in the mountains.

Alex, meeting his newest "cousins". My sister and her family now have chickens who dutifully lay eggs for a large family of teenaged boys, which is great, but I just have this aversion to chickens, so to see Alex go in the coop and pet and feed them was pretty impressive to me.

I was so glad Jordan was able to come to our family dinner on Sunday so that he could say good bye to Andrew. They're only a few months apart and have some fun memories growing up.

Seems like just yesterday I was 20 and going to see Andrew when he was a newborn. In January, my other nephew leaves for his mission to Indonesia. I sound like a broken record, but I really wish everyone would stop growing up, it makes me so sad!

Andrew played football at Southern Utah Univ. It appears that Alex thinks he can play with the big guys!

One last group pic before Andrew leaves. It cracked me up when I noticed that Alex (who idolizes his 7 yr. old cousin Adam) was trying to hold up a peace sign like Adam in the picture. But Alex is signing the number 4 instead... he got the right idea anyways.

On a whole other subject, this is Alex playing the drums along with what I deem to be the most obnoxious kids show on t.v. these days, The Fresh Beat Band. Annoying as the show is, it's pretty cute to see Alex sing, dance and drum along. He's such a well rounded child.... :)