Last weekend was one of THE best weekends of my life. I was able to eat Sunday dinner with an apostle and every single one of my brothers and sisters. It was so awesome.
Two Sundays ago, Mike and I went to my parents for Sunday dinner and my mom started assigning out jobs for everyone for the next Sunday (stake conference) to make different things for dinner. When I asked my mom how many people she said were coming, she said 17. I asked her who was coming to make it 17, because that was A LOT of people. Her eyes got all watery and she said, "People your dad loves." She wouldn't tell me who because she said it was a surprise for my dad and she didn't want us all gawking at him when he got home from a meeting. That night when Mike and I got home, we were talking about it and wondering who it was, and Mike said, "Could your whole family be flying in?" I started counting everyone in my family and it added up to 17... Hum..
The next morning I called my mom and told her our idea and she said we were right! She was flying in Trent, who brought Erin and their boys, Justin and Angie, and Brooke. She bought all of my siblings tickets in December to come home to see my dad be released. The last time we were all together was when my sister Andrea got married, 3 1/2 years ago so I was SO excited.
Friday rolled around and everyone flew in. My mom wanted everyone to stay low until the Saturday adult session of conference. She asked all of us to be sitting on our families bench (which is where we always sat in church growing up) before my dad came in. Before the meeting started my dad came in with Elder Perry and sat on the stand and was looking around. He looked at me and winked and then I saw him wink at Andrea and the rest of us were smiling like dorks. I was right next to Justin and my dad didn't even notice him. Then, my dad saw him and he definitely was surprised. The rest of my siblings (Brooke and Trent) weren't there yet, but when they walked in, my dad was even more surprised and broke down crying. It was a very special night. After the meeting we all went home and spent the rest of the night talking and staying up late together. It was so fun!!
The next morning we all got dinner ready, went to an amazing meeting together, and had Sunday dinner with Elder Perry and Elder Fischer of the Quorum of the seventy. Elder Perry is such an amazing person. He was so genuine and so sweet. He gave the blessing on the food and you could feel the spirit radiating from him. Elder Fischer and his wife were also so nice and fun to talk to. It was such an amazing experience.
After he left, my whole family spent the rest of the night playing games and talking. It was honestly one of the best weekends of my life. I love my family so much and I was so grateful that my mom had the idea to get all of us together.
All of the girls getting dinner ready
All of my siblings
