Emerson at the Park

Today was a LONG day. Glad I was able to help Jordyn out. Preston did a range drive this morning, so he was at drivers ed from 8:00 - 12:30. I dropped him off and Mike picked him up. I headed to Liberty Park in Salt Lake City. I got there about ten minutes before Jordyn's friend Boomer. She brought her boy Emerson and his service dog Max. I didn't expect to be watching a dog too! The dog was great though. Emerson is around 9 years old, but with his brain it is like he is 3 years old. I guess he has seizures frequently. The dog is supposed to detect and warn when he is having a seizure. I'm not sure how that all works. Thank goodness he didn't have a seizure when I was watching him. Boomer lives in Idaho, but was down for tests with Emerson at Primary Children's Hospital. I watched Emerson while Boomer went to a yoga class Jordyn had set up for her. I watched him for around two hours. Give or take. It was exhausting, but I'm glad I was able to help Jordyn out.

Max & Stephanie

Emerson swinging. His shadow looks so cute!

Rachel and the girls arrived right as Emerson and Boomer were walking away. We played for a bit and then went to lunch at Dali Crepes. Jorja met us there. Mina had told me she wants to open a cafe when she gets older. She LOVED this place. It is super cute and the crepes are delicious. It was a perfect way to end the trip. Well, my part in their trip anyways.

Grace & Eve

Eve, Mina, Marie, Stephanie, Jorja, Grace

Grace, Eve, Mina, Rachel, Marie, Stephanie, Jorja

Marie

Grace ~ Jorja taking her weird alien pictures again

Stephanie

Eve

Grace & Eve

Jorja and I had talked about coming here so she could point to Hong Kong on their cool map. We did not remember how high the map was on the wall! Hahahahaha

Jorja

I was exhausted by the time I got home. I went to bed and slept the rest of the day. I know Mike, Maysen, Stockton and Preston all played Mario Party. They had fun and I slept.

Permit Preston

I spent the morning gathering documents so Preston could get his learner's permit. I met Heather and Jordyn up in Bountiful for lunch and it was SO FUN! It has been too long since we have been together! I enjoyed every second of it. Heather and Jordyn were on their lunch break, so it didn't last hours and hours. It was sooooo great though!

Stephanie, Jordyn, Heather

I stopped by Alta to pick up Preston's official transcript. That was one of the forms of ID that was accepted for his drivers license. It was fun too because I got to talk with my friends there about Jorja's mission call. I took Preston to the DMV. I thought I knew where it was without using the phone gps thing. I put it in anyway, just in case. I got off of the freeway and thought I was supposed to turn left at the light. All of a sudden the gps is telling me to turn right. Ahhhh! I couldn't get over fast enough, so I drove through the light and found a place to make a u-turn. I then turned left and was on the road the gps said I should. Almost two miles down the road the gps said we arrived. There was NOTHING there. Just dirt as far as you could see. I had to keep going because the road was so narrow there was no where to turn. I finally found a spot and drove to where I thought the building was. Turns out I was right all along. Thanks gps! Anyway, after that Preston was able to successfully pass his learners permit test. I didn't tell him there would be an eye test though and he didn't bring his glasses. He was struggling reading the letters. The lady asked him if he would want to try with his mom's glasses. He put on my glasses and read them right away. So, he will need to make sure he has glasses if he drives. He is NOT anxious to learn how to drive.

Preston 

Here are some random pictures I put on Instagram/Facebook. Jorja said I picked out the worst pictures, but I love them. This is what I wrote on my post: After 12 years of studying Mandarin, Jorja has been called to serve as a missionary in Hong Kong speaking Cantonese. Haha! Poor girl. She has always done the hardest thing. Entering a Chinese Immersion class in 2nd grade, a year and a half after everyone else. Forcing her extremely introverted self into doing brave and scary things. Putting herself out there and running for student government. She has been brave and worked so hard and has been wildly successful. I have no doubt the same will be true with her mission. Jorja exudes love and is not afraid or embarrassed to show it. It has been one of the greatest joys of my life watching her become the person she is. I will miss her terribly while she is in Hong Kong, but man am I excited to see how she conquers her next adventure. Love you Porge!..... oh, and Preston can drive now. :)

Stockton, Jorja, Preston, Maysen

Jorja & Mike

Jorja

Jorja right after reading her call

Stephanie, Stockton, Jorja, Preston, Maysen, Mike

Jorja ~ my brother John guessed Hong Kong

Preston with filters....

Bear Bread

Jorja went hiking with Ivan today. She was excited. It is the first time we have let her hang out with him since the social distancing thing. Once they watched the sunrise in separate cars. She has begged me to let her go hiking with him. Hiking should be easy to stay six feet apart she said. I told her I didn't believe she would stay six feet apart. Welp..... Jorja is a hugger. This social distancing thing has been hard for her. Hopefully her immune system will be strong. It has failed us a lot in the past few years though.

Ivan and Jorja

I met Heather and Jordyn at Zac's for lunch today. We did better than Jorja and Ivan at social distancing, but we weren't perfect either. We sat outside at a table to eat. It was soooooo wonderful to talk with them. I love having them live so close to me. Both of them are also the only girl in their family. We relate to each other really well.

Heather

 Jordyn

 This is the biker gang that Jordyn joined

 I got a sunburn just from lunch. Didn't expect that today.

Bear is still lethargic. We do give him sedatives to keep him from running around while his stitches heal. Bear came in and dropped a loaf of bread by Mike. What the???? Preston set up some play tents outside to hang out in with Mike and Bear. He loved that.

Bear and his bread

 Preston

 Mike

 Bear

Riley had asked Jorja if she could come down and talk with him after work. Jorja came home Monday from work sad. When I asked her what was wrong she said she just friend zoned Riley. Well, they weren't able to finish talking because he had to leave. He sent her a message when she got home Monday and asked if they could talk. He said that no matter how things shake out he would still be her friend. That made Jorja feel so much better. Anyway, they talked for a long time after work. A lot longer than I would have liked! I got annoyed. But they decided that being just friends would be the best thing for them right now. Jorja came home super happy. They are planning on going on an early morning hike tomorrow. She went to bed at 1:30 and wants to get up at 5:30. She said she could get herself up. Hahahaha

Riley & Jorja

The Dead Sea

Sunrise at the Ron Beach Hotel

Our first stop was at Best Shean. Paul preached here and Jesus probably did. The ruins are cool. Dad said this was one of Brett's favorite parts of the trip last year. He was running up and down all the ruins.

John & Renee

Stephanie

We didn't realize this was the back of the lady at first hahaha

 Stephanie ~ front of the lady

 Jordyn

 Dad, Stephanie, Rachel, Steve, Sharon, Jordyn, John, Renee, Mark

 Jordyn, Renee, John

Rachel wanted a picture with Rachel. She didn't even realize they dressed like twins until she looked at the picture later. Hahahaha

Rachel & Rachel

 Amphitheater

 Possible site of Mount of Temptations

 There is a monastery up there

 And a restaurant

 You take a gondola to get up there. We didn't do that, but my dad was excited to see two cars cross

 Amazing structure at the top

 Random tires at the bottom

It's crazy that Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River when it is so gross! There were flies everywhere! The buoy line you can see in the picture is the border between Israel and Jordan. No one is allowed to cross.

 My dad teaching

 People on Israel, people on Jordan ~ everyone coming to learn about Christ

 Mark getting some Jordan River water to take home

 Jordyn

While my dad was teaching all of a sudden people came from everywhere and started baptizing each other. It was the craziest thing. Everything was so peaceful, then people started walking over us while my dad was trying to teach. It was pretty funny though.

 Jordyn, Stephanie, Rachel, Mark

 Stephanie

My dad wanted a picture of me pointing at this sign

Dad getting Jordan River water

We had lunch and went shopping at Jimmy's Bazaar. I had planned on buying an olive wood nativity while I was here. We had one growing up and I thought this was something I wanted to do. I am not a haggler. The set I wanted to buy was $250. Jordyn told me that the guy said he would give it to her for $200. While I was looking at the pieces he told me he would throw in a free camel, so I didn't want to try and get the price down. They let me mix and match pieces so I could get the wood grains to look how I wanted them to look. Jordyn helped me with this. My dad was watching and the guy helping me kept telling him he needed to buy this for his daughter. I kept laughing and told him he should buy it for me. Haha ~ Anyway, I wanted to look at some more things, so they took my stuff to the front of the store. There was something I was interested in, but it didn't have a price. I took it up to the front to ask how much it was. Rachel was talking to me while I did that. The boy said it was $80. I told him never mind and I was ready to pay for my nativity. He asked me how much it was and I told him $250. The guy that was originally helping me came up and took the $80 item and started wrapping it up. I was thinking, "Shoot! I don't want to spend $80 on this. I hope he throws this in for free or super cheap." I knew he had given Brett some pieces for free. Still, this was $80! The guy asked if Rachel was my sister. I said she's my sister-in-law. He grabbed everything out of Rachel's hand and started wrapping it up. Rachel and I didn't know what was going on. Then the guy handed me my two bags, and Rachel hers and said, "Your dad paid for you." I laughed and said he didn't and handed him my credit card. He said, "Your dad paid for you." He kept talking like this and I was so confused. He came around the counter, put his arm around me and said, "This is a gift from us, but shhhhh" Then he ushered me out of the store. WHAT THE HECK? He just gave me the entire nativity set for free! He gave Rachel her things for free too, but she had just randomly picked things up and hadn't decided what she was going to buy yet. She was just talking to me in line. I definitely got the better end of that deal. Rachel is convinced that my mom is giving me a present. She said that lots of my mom's family is here and she hasn't been able to give me anything for years. That's a nice thought. I can not believe I walked away with a nativity set for free. (I knew they sometimes gave my dad's relatives good deals....but this one....)

Our last stop for the night was the Dead Sea. That place is BEAUTIFUL! It was so much fun! Getting in was cold at first, but then it was great once we were able to get use to it. I brought my phone to take pictures. I'm so glad I did!

Mark & Ron

Stephanie

The Dead Sea was so much fun. It is weird how you just float. I was standing without touching the ground. Mark was touching, but I was taller than him. Steve was the one who went floating position first, but he splashed so much on the way down that he got salt in his eyes and mouth.

Steve

 Rachel

 Sharon

 Mark

 Jordyn

 Jordyn & Rachel

 Dad

 Sharon

 Jordyn with the Rachel photobomb

 Jordyn

This sweet Japanese lady is traveling with us. She is a widower and is traveling by herself. We convinced her to try and float. Mark and John helped her.

Mark, Hidoko (I think), John

 John

 Renee

I asked a lady to take our picture together. Didn't turn out, but we tried!

Mark, Rachel, Stephanie, Jordyn, Sharon, Steve, Dad, Renee, John

 Stephanie

 Jordyn, Stephanie, Rachel

I took pictures of other people in our tour group and then put my phone away, hoping no one would take it out of my bathroom pocket. Spoiler alert: no one did.

Tiny Parry heads

 Stephanie's face covered in salt

My dad, Mark, Rachel and I went to the spa. We swam in big hot tubs, there was another salt water pool, but heated. That one kind of hurt. Rachel thinks it's because we were in the hot tub and opened up our pores. We went from different pool to different pool. Rachel even liked the cold one! Crazy!

We had a delicious dinner and then went walking after we got back. We walked to some stores. While I was waiting, Rachel suggested I play with the cats. I don't know about playing with them though....

And that's it! What a day! Gotta get up early to start again tomorrow!