Smithsonians: Jorja's HOME and Scoop's EIGHTY

Yay! Yay! Yay! Jorja is home from Taiwan! She had THE BEST time there. She loved it. Not the food, but the people, her new friends, her host sister, the kids she worked with. Best experience of her life. I'm so proud of her for finding this experience and going for it. It was amazing.

Marissa, Nicole, Mindy, Jorja, Abi, Emily, Camille, Ethan, Trevor, Grace

Mike, Maysen and Preston were all with me when we picked up Jorja from the airport. I cheered when I saw her. She rolled her eyes at me. Haha. We took her straight to Zupas and she was so happy. Madison met us there. It's so great to have her home!

I was able to talk to Stockton for a bit. I had already sent him pictures of Mike's storm cloud, but I forgot about the pirate. While I was talking to him I emailed this picture. The pirate tells pirate 'dad' jokes when you wave a wand at him. In Stockton news, the family from the Congo he has been teaching has set a date to be baptized! I don't know when that is, but that is pretty exciting.

Mike's pirate

Cori threw Scoop a surprise party at LaCaille. He turns 80 today. It was super fancy. Beautiful. The food was delicious. Basically it was a wedding. We had a lot of fun. Jorja was going on 28 hours with no sleep by the time we left the party. Lisa, Nathan and Taylor flew in from California. Lisa said it was so hard not to let her dad know she was here. Today was a great day.

Jorja, Mike, Maysen, Preston

Jorja

Preston & Jacob

Weston & Jorja

Jacob & Weston

Mike's parents ~ Scoop and Sharen

Weston on the phone, Jorja, Taylor, Michael, Nathan

Nathan, Jorja, Taylor, Michael

Miah & Xander ~ how awesome is Xander's shirt?

Scoop being surprised

Scoop and Cori's table

My attempt at a picture ~ Mike, Maysen, Preston, Shannon, Steve, Jacob, Weston, Jorja

Mike, Maysen, Preston, Shannon, Steve, Jacob, Weston, Jorja, Stephanie

Jorja's lemonade

Mike made his dad a pirate hat for his birthday. It's awesome. I love Mike.

Mike, Jorja, Stephanie, Preston, Maysen with Scoop/Papa

With Cori

There was a 'photo booth' there. Pictures were printed out and paste into a book for Scoop. We were able to write a message next to it. The photos were also emailed to us, but I couldn't get it to work. Maybe another day. Anyway, here is Mike and his siblings getting their picture taken.

Lisa, Steve, Mike, Sherry

There was a cute little duck pond outside. Jorja took Preston on walks out there. He loved it. Later we saw Nathan helping his grandkids feed the ducks. Preston laughed and laughed because of the sign outside.

Preston

Preston & Jorja

Melissa, Preston, Jorja, Michael

Nathan feeding ducks with Nova, Leo & Derek

There were so many candles the workers brought out a blow torch. This is Isaiah with it. He said, "This is the best day of my life." Haha. He didn't get to be the one to use it though. Probably good because it didn't work and just melted the candles. They had to be lit the old fashioned way.

Isaiah with a blow torch.

Lisa helping light the candles....and look at Scoops hat!

There was dancing after dinner. Jorja going over a day without sleep had a blast. She was so excited when they played Boot Scootin Boogie. They had to do that dance in Taiwan. The photographer showed me an awesome picture of Scoop during the YMCA song. It looked like he had a lot of fun tonight. Although when he was giving his speech he was noting a few people that were here. He said, "And there's my stock broker. I'll be meeting with you tomorrow to figure out what to do about this." Haha. Everyone busted up laughing. He also said a few things about each of his kids. Mike's stories were all about him taking things apart to make other things. Scoop would go to use something only to find out it didn't work because Mike had used parts for random things. Also how Mike almost set the forest on fire.

Taylor, Melissa, Michael, Jorja, Cori