Completely Random Bagdadness!! Otherwise known as... I didn't take many pictures and I am regretting it now!

For the Labor Day Holiday, we wanted to go on a vacation as a family. So we put the question up to the kids. Guess where they all wanted to go??? BAGDAD of course! And I can't figure out why I didn't pull my camera out more, but I was just so busy chatting with friends, watching a Boise State football game, eating, and eating some more that I just didn't think about it. So, the pictures today are very random, but they represent a wonderful trip to Bagdad. It was hard to leave to come back "home" at the end of the trip. Being there for 6 years really made an impact on our kids and I know they will never forget a little town in the middle of the desert with some of the best people in the whole world....

In Bagdad, you can always expect......

                                                  The boys to be skateboarding before church. 

 I have dubbed these guys, "skateboarding missionaries!" Maybe they will ride a skateboard instead of a bike....ha!

                                       In Bagdad, you can always expect............

some form of wildlife to be lurking about.

In this case, it was a bat starring at us above the door.  Don't worry, Will let us know that it is defnitely not a vampire! Dang! he he

 you can always expect good friends close by. Here is a picture of Dax and Lund at his house in Hillside.

 You can always expect your son to steal your camera and take a candid shot of you... Well, you can't always expect  that, but it did happen this time.

 You can expect to find good people EVERYWHERE! In this picture Lund is with is old school teacher and her baby. She taught him for about three years in Hillside. We LOVED all of their teachers there.

And, you can always expect memories to come flooding back. Like this picture of our kids' Elementary School. There are just two rooms. 1st-4th and 5th -8th.

 Oh, and you can always expect Sarah to be hiding somewhere, playing Pokemon. Canyon is seen with her here.

And that last thing you can always expect is to see Thor's "Angel drawers" as he roughhouses with the kids!! he he he! Not really, I just thought it was funny!  Will LOVES wrestling with his Grandpa Four!

What isn't pictured:

• Talking with my best friend about life, if only for a little bit.
• Watching one of the best kids I have ever known get ready to leave for his mission.
• Bearing testimony in a chapel with only 40 some odd people and knowing that I love and know each and every one of them and their lifestory.
• Having a traditional BrimAnderHulseSon meal. (Families inlcude: Brimhall, Anderson, Hulse, and Johnson)
• Going to the Bashas at 8pm on a Saturday night and seeing the whole ward there stalking up for Sunday before they close at 9pm.
• Going up to "our house on the hill" and realizing that it isn't our home anymore....bittersweet, truly!
• Falling asleep in bunkbeds reserved for the missionaries when they make the "big trek" from Prescott to Bagdad.
• Remembering how beautiful the "high desert" is....(so different from the "desert" in the Valley)
• Feeling the love and support of a whole town as they all asked me how the cancer was going. They were there when it started bringing meals up to our house and checking in on us.

But we also have so much good ahead of us.......but just for a minute it is great to just sit and reminisce.......