That's that

Mark went to school but Emma stayed home.  She told Braeden he could wake her up whenever he wanted to.

It wasn't an easy task but Pooh Bear finally emerged from her den.  They sat down and started playing Heart and Soul on the piano together.

It was the first happy/sad occurrence of the day.

Here he is posing with his ceremonial last Coke Zero while his dad loaded the van.  I feel like every picture we get from him while he's on his mission will be silly.

And I don't mind.

We got everything into one big and one little suitcase.  For two years.  Amazing.

We picked up Mark from school and I had to take a quick shot of my three in the back.

It's blurry but my eyes were also blurry.  Braeden was still/always opting for drama.

We stopped for lunch and the waitress is going on a mission in three weeks.  There's nothing quite like Utah County.

His drop off time was 12:45 and we got there early.  We drove up by the Provo Temple and there were little clumps of missionaries and their families milling around.  I didn't make eye contact with any of the other mothers.  A few sideways glances showed me that like me, they were barely holding it together.

Solidarity, sisters.  I get it.  This is tough.

It was time, so we walked back to the van.  Braeden gave me his arm.  We walked along, my arm looped through his and I felt the soft fabric of his suit and his strong muscular arm underneath and I thought, "This is it."

We dropped him off, hugged and cried and a kind elder was there to enthusiastically welcome him and ask him where he was going and our role was complete.

Tear stained and slightly blurry picture, but it was one of those times when I've never been so sad and happy simultaneously.

And crying like nobody's business.

I handed out Kleenex in the car and that was that.

He's on his way.