The Dairy Queen ice cream cake . . . a traditional favorite of my kids. This year Annie upped the ante and asked for a Dairy Queen blizzard cake.

Yesterday was my baby girl's 21st birthday. My...baby...girl...is...21. There, I said it slower and it still isn't quite computing. I believe it wasn't so VERY long ago that I was a young mother with small children and babies and then it was just yesterday that I was a middle-aged mother with teen-agers and NOW I'm a grandmother with adult children, grandchildren and I don't really qualify as middle-aged unless I'm planning on living to be 106 years old! Anyway, we had a great evening with Annie complete with her requested birthday dinner of a roast beef and potatoes and gravy dinner and a Dairy Queen Oreo Blizzard Cake for dessert. Brent sang his usual rendition of Happy Birthday (can't be described. . . only experienced . . . it makes birds fall out of trees) and we snapped lots of pictures to mark the event.

So, as if having your baby turn 21 isn't enough of a shock for the system, how about that baby announcing, straight out of the blue, that she's decided to serve an 18 month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! That's right . . . my little Annie has turned in all the necessary paperwork and is awaiting her mission call. She told us on the evening of September 21st while we were all enjoying a leisurely dinner up in Park City. Brent's parents, Brent and I, Laura and Jordan and Lucy, Scott and Rachel, Annie . . . just eating and chatting and talking about this and that. So Annie, asks for our attention and tells us that she has an announcement to make. An announcement? What could Annie possibly be announcing? Maybe another semester abroad, perhaps a change of course at school? So she says, she's decided to change her course of study next semester (I knew it!) and I say something like, "you're changing your major?" and she pulls a "Preach My Gospel" manual out from behind her back and I'm STILL not getting it and I'm thinking "is she going to pursue Religious studies or perhaps teach Seminary" and then someone says "you're going on a mission?" and I just sit there in stunned silence (uncharacteristically speechless) with tears just kind of floating under my eyeballs trying to take in what she had just said. Holy cow. I didn't see it coming. She had already made all of her doctor and dentist appointments, she had her wisdom teeth out two years ago, she has a passport if she needs it, she had already spoken to our Bishop and had the whole process rolling. Then she told us. And eight days later, on Sept. 29th her interviews were over and her papers were officially turned in. And now we wait to see where Annie will be living and serving for eighteen months. She is very sure that this is what the Lord would like her to do at this time in her life and she's very settled and peaceful about it. I'm starting to get used to the idea and even a little excited for her. I haven't let myself think too much about how much I'm going to miss her.

So, speaking of Annie, at the end of August Brent and I had the awesome opportunity of hosting a Jerusalem Center reunion at Lake Powell for some of her Jerusalem buddies. We had so much fun boating, wake-boarding, skiing, tubing, water weenie-ing, eating, swimming, star-gazing, reading, talking, singing, slot canyoneering, and the list goes on. Most of them were Lake Powell Newbies but they caught onto life on the lake fast and became seasoned Lake Powellers in just a few days. We loved being with this group and felt sad when our time with them was over.

This is a young hawk (or something like a hawk) that Brent rescued out of the water while we were at Powell. It was flailing in the water and it's feathers were water-logged. We're not sure how it ended up in the water but it was clearly not going to make it. Once Brent got it out he took it to shore where it eventually dried out and flew off.

Lisa catching some rays. Wasn't so interested in risking her life on the water-weenie. Good survival instincts!

Elyse, Susie, Angie, Josh and Alexis at a calmer moment in their ride.

Jordan, Anne, Cameron, Stefanie and Valerie. Must be going into big waves . . . definite looks of concentration . . . Must . . . hang. . . on

Big smiles from Angie, Annie, Karly and Chris.

Brent lives for this. He loves to watch bodies flying in every direction off the water weenie!