Brayden's White Coat Ceremony

This past Father's Day weekend Brayden had his white coat ceremony. The white coat ceremony usually happens before you start working in the clinic on real patients. So for MUSC that is at the start of his third year of school. I seriously cannot even believe we are already half way done! It was so great to have Brayden's parent in town for this special weekend, they even drove Brayden's car out to South Carolina for us I might add!! My brother was graduating(yay!) from dental school in San Francisco the same weekend, so my parents were not able to come. Seriously what are the odds it fell on the same exact weekend. But it was such a great weekend celebrating Brayden with his parents! 

After the ceremony we were able to go to dinner at Wild Olive with Brayden's parents. It was sooo good and so much fun! The rest of the weekend was spent exploring Charleston with his parents! We went on a carriage tour, walked around the market, went on a little hike, and ate some yummy food! We loved having them come and visit us! They were so sweet to take the long trek to South Carolina in Brayden's car from college so that we could have a second car here! It has been so nice to not have to worry about sharing a car now that Brayden's school and volunteer hours vary so much now! We are so lucky to have such wonderful love and support from our family. I am so proud of my future dentist and all of his hard work!!

Logan's Farewell...

Well. We did it. We all made it through our awful goodbyes and Logan, I mean Elder Zylstra, is off to serve the Lord. I am so extremely proud of him and his decision to give up two years to serve the Lord and the people of the Philippines. They sure are lucky to have him and his wonderful spirit! He is just over a week into the MTC and I am already looking forward to his P Days, which are on Fridays! I love to get emails from him and how he has the best attitude, even though it is so hard. I seriously cannot even imagine learning the a new language(Tagalog) especially one I have never heard before. I am happy to report he is doing great and that he was assigned to be the district leader at the MTC. We are all so proud of him and know that his testimony will grow so much through this experience.

A few weeks ago we were able to go to California for his farewell. The week that I was supposed to leave, Brayden found out his Friday class was cancelled so he was able to go with me! We arrived in California late Thursday night and of course we had In-N-Out waiting in the car for us, all thanks to papa dave! When we got home everyone was already there, it was so fun to be with everyone.

Friday morning we took family pictures that my mom coordinated last minute when she found out that Brayden was going to come. Then the rest of the day was spent preparing for Logan's party. His party was amazing! I loved being able to see so many of my cousins and aunts & uncles! We of course had the In-N-Out truck for his party, and yes that does mean that we had it twice in 24 hours, but I am definitely not complaining about that.

Saturday, all of our family was able to go in the temple together. It was such a special experience having everyone there. I love going to the temple and the special spirit you feel while inside. After the temple we went home and had dinner with everyone and hung around to play some games.

Early Sunday morning Brayden had to leave to go back to school. I stayed an extra day so that I could be there for Logan's farewell talk at church. Logan seriously did amazing. I definitely cried a bit, but I am so proud of all that he is doing and how selfless he is being at this time in his life. We all miss him so much already but know that he will do such great things for the people in the Philippines.

This was such a perfect weekend filled with much needed family time before Logan left. My countdown to June of 2020 has already begun. Love you so much Logey!