Because of Sophie: Shipping off

Yesterday we took my younger brother, Gregory, to the Missionary Training Center in Provo to send him off on his two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He's headed to Ventura, California, and has been pretty excited about it since he found out in July.

Sending him off was one of those bittersweet moments when you're super happy he's doing something for the right reasons and for a good cause, but you're sad to see him go and not get to see him for the next 24 months at least.

He had a bit of a time getting his tag on, as his jacket pocket was still sewn shut. Greg said he unpicked part of it, but it was still shut, so he assumed it was a fake pocket. The lady that gave him his essentials and his badge at the door also handed him an unpicker and told him to go open up his pocket so he could put on his name tag.

Of course everybody but me shed tears — because I have to be Mr. Tough Guy, you know — with Greg shedding the most, of course. He's a good egg, and I know he will be able to make the most of his mission and come back better for having gone out to serve.

Good luck Gregory.

Just for fun, here's a picture (below) of Greg living up his youthful days before it ended a couple days later when he got his call and started to seriously prepare for this moment.

Annie, Sophia and I went up to Provo Tuesday night to avoid rushing and to get in a little shopping while we were back in the big city area — since we've become such the country bumpkins these days living in Austin — Population: more cows than people.

We stayed at Annie's grandparents' house — Gene and Elaine Carson — and though we got there late, I found time to mess around, taking a few pictures with a nice flash — something new for me.

Sophia was a little doll as usual, and, though she was tired and shy when we first got there, she opened up pretty quickly. The Carson's house is very big and open, and Sophia thought it was the greatest. It's not like she hasn't been there dozens of times in the past, but it has been quite a while.

If you know Sophie, you should know that she has this thing for dogs. She loves dogs more than anything in the whole world (I'm backposting again, give me some time and I'll give you some photographic proof). At the Carsons there is a big stuffed lion and tiger on a walkway that goes across the front of the house upstairs that you can see from the living room. Every time anyone would say antyhing about a dog, she would point up at the stuffed lion and get excited. It was so cute.