sept: Chuck's El Paso trip!

Once upon a time Swensons moved to Texas and it was a pretty rough transition all the way around. Shelly and Chuck did a bit of brainstorming and a plan was hatched to surprise Dan with a visit from Chuck at the beginning of September! I couldn't resist chatting with Dan around the time I knew Chuck was going to walk in the door and it was so fun: 

Sidenote: Chuck and I have never flown together but when I looked through his pictures I realized this is yet another way we're compatible: I'm obsessed with taking pictures when I fly (you know, the like three times I have haha). So I was thrilled to find all these that Chuck took - I wanna say he had a layover in Oakland? So some of these are Boise to Oakland and some are Oakland to El Paso:

Aaaand here's Dan's fb post about the surprise. Definitely worth driving to Boise at the crack o' dawn (okay, like 7ish) to drop him off at the airport.

We sent presents for the boys - lego sets for Jaxen and Nathan, Pokemon lego mini figures for Andrew, and a water bottle filled with candy for Cameron. AND awesome pictures from all the kids that promptly made it onto the fridge!

Chuck got caught up on the El Paso routine pretty quick - this is a park just a short walk away in their neighborhood that's an absolute favorite and where a lot of time is spent.

The next day he was initiated even further with a stop for lunch at Whataburger. He sent me the picture of his burger being labeled 'dry' and I died laughing. Chuck generally prefers his sandwiches/burgers/etc with no sauce and I can never understand how he can eat them that dry... so glad that Whataburger doesn't mince words with their opinion of his order!

Chuck and Dan and Cameron and Andrew spend Labor Day four wheeling in the dirt and appeared to have had a great time. They mixed and matched passengers and drivers and sent me a million videos of how fast they went haha.

Chuck loved being there and hanging out around the house - even when it meant encountering some sort of lizard type creature haha:

Jax and Chuck got ambitious one day and put together the trampoline! I never get tired of seeing that cute little face.

Wednesday was take your best friend to work day! They both kept me updated with pictures of each other - looks like office hours were pretty exciting!

Tough break about Chuck failing the quiz, though. Let's face it: he probably just wrote at the top "NOT AN ANIMAL PERSON" and turned it in like that ;).

Chuck, Andrew, and Jaxen had some adventure time so of course they wound back up at Whataburger.

My favorite thing when Chuck is out of town is guilt free McDonalds visits to feed my kids haha.

While Chuck had those boys, Shelly made her first visit to the temple in Juarez with the help of wonderful sisters in El Paso that go regularly. In my 'good luck/hope you get an English session' text before she left, I promised Shelly five bucks if she sent me a picture of her in front of the temple and she totally did it!

And I totally never paid her haha! I was visiting Cody at the time, so I came back out to my car to find these pictures and absolutely teared up. Such a blessing to have that temple so close and for Shelly to be able to go there and know that Jaxen was in good hands and happy with Chuck.  (And of course, little did I know that seven-ish months later I'd be at that temple with Shelly! So amazing).

More fun around the house - cute boys snuggling with their daddy and convincing him to play video games with them:

Three Swenson little boys were pretty cooperative with Chuck taking pictures of them to send to me. Cameron was not, which is okay because without lots of pictures showing how tall he is I can pretend he's still my little Cub Scout ;).

Chuck's accommodations were in the open office area, also home to the many amazing Swenson scrapbooks, so he took some fun pictures to show me - starting with some our boys were in, the Columbia High School play school back in the day! The top picture has Will, Clyde, and Andrew and the bottom picture has Clyde and Andrew along with lots of other little friends from our ward:

 And holy moly, how beautiful are these pictures? Shelly is clearly the most beautiful bride ever and I love watching their family grow. Their family has continued to grow and change (these pictures are all before Jaxen was born) and there are still more changes and growth to come. I love that no matter what, a family is a family. Sometimes it looks different but when there's love and shared memories like exist here, those are bonds that can withstand even the most difficult of circumstances and change. The Swensons are and will always be a beautiful family that our family loves so much.

Ha, we sneaked in some FaceTime calls while Chuck was there and they generally ended with Carma and Jaxen giggling haha. My favorite was trying to kiss Jax through the phone and his shrieks of terror ;).

Aaaand all too soon, Friday morning rolled around and Dan dropped Chuck off at the airport - not before taking their thumbs up picture though.

We definitely missed Chuck, but I felt very buoyed up during the week and I feel strongly that Heavenly Father gave us extra blessings while Chuck was gone, confirming to me that this was where Chuck needed to be that week. It was a sacrifice on all of our parts as Shelly and Chuck and I made this trip happen - but so so worth it, especially to get texts like this from Dan the Man:

And I got more pictures from the sky, this time between El Paso and Phoenix and then Phoenix and Boise! 

I put together this collage for fb/instagram with this caption: Good news: I'm waiting at the airport for my hot husband to land. Bad news: this morning he had to say goodbye to six people he loves more than... bacon? Star Wars? New socks? Not having to shave? Probably all of the above 😉.

And then he walked through the doors and I was so happy! Cameron texted to see if Chuck was home yet so we sent him back this only slightly terrifying picture as proof haha. So happy the trip and surprise worked out and so happy Chuck made it home to me safe and so so happy for texting and calls and all of that to keep close to our favorite El Pasoans in the meantime xoxoxoxoxoxo.