Elder Oliver: And he's off!

Hayden gave his farewell address to the congregation on Sunday. Included in our congregation were many loved ones. Many of his friends from school and other wards and the community came to hear him speak, as well as family members. Included in this group were Grandma and Grandpa Abersold, Grandma Hoho, Grandpa and Grandma Oliver, Alice, Karen, Lamont and Louisa, Larry and Judy, and Jenny and Chris Olsen and their adorable twin boys. He gave a wonderful talk. He will be a fantastic missionary.

The Stake President came over late on Sunday to set him apart, after which he was officially a full-time missionary. It was a really special meeting. We all went around and said something about Hayden, and gave him advice for his mission. I will leave it to Hayden to share what he wants from that meeting, but I will give Regan's advice to Hayden. "DON'T BE A SLOB!" Then she put her hand to the side of her mouth like she was telling us all a secret, and whispered loudly, "He's a SLOB!" It was pretty funny.

All of the out of town family members left on Monday, which is when we pulled the suitcases out and got serious about packing. It was a little frustrating as we kept losing things that were important. We packed for most of the day, with several errands in between. When he finally went to bed, Hayden found the last thing that he was missing, and we packed that. His bags had plenty of room, so hopefully that doesn't mean we forgot something important!

We saw last night that his flight would be delayed, but we decided we would still leave at the same time because we wanted to make sure we would have plenty of time. Hayden had already packed his alarm clock, so he asked for me to wake him up at 4:50. I then went into my room and set my alarm for...5:50. Whoops. When I woke up, I checked the flight status right away and luckily it was running late. It was delayed from 8:15 am to 10:00 am. We celebrated his departure by eating pop-tarts in the car. The kids thought that was about the best thing ever. Landon had left on Monday with the Abersolds so that he could visit in Washington for a while before school starts, so we missed him terribly while we were saying goodbye. However, it did enable us to fit in the van instead of the (no air-conditioning) Suburban.

We ended up making it to the airport in good time, parked, went in and checked his baggage. He had to pay an additional $100 to check two suitcases. But it will be worth it so he won't have to be short on space on all of his transfers, especially if he ends up buying things.

I held it together pretty well until we got to the security checkpoint where we would say goodbye. The kids all gave Hayden hugs. Everyone was a little teary, but they did pretty well. A sweet couple walked by and offered to take a picture for us. She told us that they have two missionaries out right now. Again, this would be my favorite picture if Landon was in it. Hayden then gave me and Dix hugs, and we all put our hands in for our family cheer and hug. I noticed a few people stopped to watch us. Then he was off to wait for security.

Here I am taking a picture of Dixon taking a picture. Clever.

As he disappeared, we all yelled, "Bye Hayden!" and he turned and waved and smiled. The waiting passengers seemed to enjoy watching us. Probably wondering why I hadn't shriveled up yet after losing so much water from my eyes.