Elder Tay Tay Bugs

Well, the time has come... My baby brother is out serving our church for two years! I can't believe it. I can't believe that my BABY brother is gone! What a little cutie he is too! I had such a nice time with him before he left too! Just perfect!

The night before he left, we wanted to do something fun. We didn't want to just sit around the house staring at each other (cause that's usually all we do anyways :) ). So we decided that all of us would go to Target and buy something for Taylor to take with him. But it had to be small and/or flat, so it would fit in his jam packed suit cases! So off we went... 'WE' being my dad, Jeff, Nick, Allie, Taylor, and myself. Tracey was in bed, and my mom stayed home tending to my cute kids! :)

When we got home, it was time to share what we got for Taylor! My mom had the idea of one by one giving our gift to him, and sharing one piece of advice. It was actually very cute, and fun! Allie bought him a miniature bowling set (the pieces were the size of like half of your pinkie!), Nick got him a fingerboard, I got him a miniature thumb wrestling device thing (kinda hard to explain, yet very cool!), Jeff got him a checkers & tic-tac-toe game, and my dad got him some nice pens. It was very fun, and just so nice to have that special evening with everyone! And I'm really glad my mom wrote down all the advice everyone gave.

Now on to Wednesday, July 28th! Taylor decided to go to Cracker Barrel for a late breakfast. But before that, we went to the MTC to take pictures. Cause we knew it would be too crowded when we actually dropped him off. So we first took pictures.... then we went to breakfast.

Just sitting in the rocking chairs outside the restaurant.


The way things work at the MTC now, is only one car can actually drive in and drop off your missionary. But, seeing as we had seven people, and Taylor... we couldn't all fit in one car. So our plan was to take two cars, park one of them, have most of us walk in, and meet the other car in there. Well that's not really how it happened. Jeff, Nick, Allie and myself were in our car, while my mom, dad, Tracey and Taylor were in the other. We go park our car, and my dad waits to drive in, until we are actually on the MTC grounds. We walk in, and a lady stops us. She says that's as far as we were allowed to go! PLAN RUINED. My dad drives up, and we tell them that we can't go any further... so he drives off. We just figured he was going to drive around and park, so that Taylor could say goodbye. Well quite a few minutes passed, and there wasn't any sign of them. Jeff, Nick, Allie, and I are patiently waiting. I was just watching all the missionaries standing around, waiting for the next new missionary to arrive, so they could greet them. I couldn't help buy get a little overwhelmed that my little brother was going to be doing that! All of a sudden I look across the parking lot, and here comes my cute little brother running towards us!! This tall boy in a suit, with a big smile on his face, sprinting across the parking lot to tell us goodbye.

I LOST IT.........

I started bawling. Taylor gave me a big hug, and it was so tight, like he truly meant it! I told him I loved him very much. He then hugged Allie, Taylor is now crying, I look at Nick, and he's crying. Allie tells him he loves him. I look at Jeff, and he's crying. Taylor then hugs Nick, then Jeff. no words are being said. Taylor than stands there, and gives us his "Taylor" smile, waves, turns around and sprints off... while of course, jumping over the flower beds! :)

It was the most perfect goodbye I could have ever asked for! I had my thoughts of how that 'drop off' was going to go... and it wasn't anything like what I imaged... it was SO MUCH BETTER. I am sooooo thankful I have those last moments to cherish and remember.

Taylor started a blog for my mom to update while he's gone. I'll post a link on here when she writes about what happened that day from their side!

I love these pictures, and I love my brother. I am so thankful he has chose to serve a mission. The people in Costa Rica are truly lucky to be getting such a fun kid! I know He was chosen to serve in Costa Rica, Heavenly Father wouldn't have had it any other way! I'm so proud of what a neat kid Taylor is. I'm so excited to hear all about his adventures!