As I've mentioned before, I have a great husband. One who allows me to travel by myself now and again to various events and take a break from my usual Mommy duties.
I found out recently that my first Mission President was going to be visiting his daughter in Seattle, and was planning a small reunion with several Sendai returned missionaries. With the blessing of my fabulous husband, I had the opportunity to go. I've never been to a mission reunion before, and with this one being in Seattle...it was the perfect place for me to attend.
As I was heading out, look who I ran in to? I dropped off the kids with Mitch's parents, and they helped watch the kids until Mitch finished work...which happened to be right when I arrived at my gate! What coincidence! I rarely get to see him all dressed in uniform, so this was a treat for me. :)
I had only a short 2 day stay in Seattle this time, but on the first day of my trip, I hooked up with Rachel for a nice little run in the Snohomish area. It was a fun and short 5 mile run and I'm so glad Rachel looked it up & convinced me to participate!
And lookie! I even finished 3rd place in my old lady age group! :)
Rachel placed 2nd in our age group, but also ranked 3rd in Women's Overall! Good Job, Rachel! She got a painted rock as a reward. Totally worth it, I think!
And then it was off to the reunion!
President Yoshino was my first mission president, and only for one short month before he finished his service and was released. I was a little worried that they wouldn't remember me! But thankfully, he did...and even claimed he thought we had served together longer! He he...maybe I left quite an impression on him? (for good or bad, I wonder?)
Anyway, I hadn't seen President or Sister Yoshino in over 15 years! They hadn't aged a bit, and looked exactly the same! I still remember the first time I met them in the mission home in Sendai like it was yesterday. I am amazed at how much time has passed...and yet how short it feels that I was a missionary in Sendai. Such wonderful memories that I will forever cherish!
Getting to see my mission president once again brought all those memories back, and I was thankful for it!
And then I got to see my good friend Conrad and Christina! Never served with Conrad since he was a tad before my time...but through family we are connected and I was so happy to get the opportunity to see them once again too!
I realized, rather belatedly, that I neglected to take pictures with some of the individual missionaries here...but it was such a fun and memorable reunion! Getting to see once again some missionaries I served along side ...and getting to meet a couple of missionaries that I had only heard about but never met...words cannot express how grateful I am for having the opportunity to serve as a missionary. And for the countless memories and experiences I had while in Sendai and Fukushima as well.
Seeing everyone bring their families made me a little homesick and miss my own family back home...but since I was gone for only a couple of days, I did take the time to enjoy every last minute of my solo trip to Seattle. This is definitely one of the BEST solo trips I have ever taken.
Since my stay was such a short one, we didn't get to do any fancy dinner with Makoto and his family, but they DID come over and we did feast on some yummy food together.
We facetimed my girls with Makoto's kids and they were laughing and chatting and I can tell my girls miss their Seattle cousins terribly. Hopefully we can all get together soon!!
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