A Raucous, Rainy Weekend with Josh and the Pothiers

 

Visits to AZ are always exciting!

Josh has a new third grade class that we haven’t met yet at the American Leadership Academy  so we went to pay them a visit. Josh is a much-in-demand, teacher extraordinaire so it’s always fun to meet the kids and see him in action. We forgot to take a picture that day but Shawni had visited earlier and this is the picture she took of those terrific third graders and their stellar teacher:

Shawni and Dave left for China before we got a chance to see their beautiful new home so we decided it was time to get out there and see it, see them, get warm, play a little tennis and soak in some sun! 

Joke on us!  It never quit raining the entire time we were there. We finally got tired of waiting for the sun so the tennis fans of the family splashed out on to their good neighbor’s court with old rackets and balls and had a raucous time playing tennis!

 

We also had a grand time along with about a thousand other people (literally) at a pretty spectacular new place called Top Golf. You have to see it to believe it!

Josh joined us and we had so much fun!

On Sunday we loved being with the Pothier’s and their friends at church. It’s a dynamic ward with so many terrific people.  Shawni leads the singing in Junior Primary and had the kids beating the rhythm with chop sticks. Here they are holding up their scriptures:

When we got home the Pothiers had their weekly family meeting which was conducted by cute Lucy, who kept things moving along splendidly!

We loved hearing the kids and their parents express their feelings about what they had learned in church and their love for each other. And we had a chance to tell them how proud we were of the grand way they had embraced living in China. It was a meeting full of light and love!

After the meeting, Shawni got out that famous camera and took some memorable shots with us with the fam. It was a magic moment in time!

LOVE these awesome kids!

 

 

AND THESE INCRDIBLE KIDS TOO!

This Sunday just happened to be Super Bowl Sunday!  We didn’t realize that when we bought out tickets and our flight was due to leave just as the game started.  Luckily, that was one hour after the Pothers were to meet their neighbors who lived in their neighborhood in China. Grace and their daughter Rebecca had become best friends. They wanted to move to the US and thought that Arizona would be a good place to settle after the Pothers bragged about their good schools and great weather.

Shawni had prepared dinner for them and left goodies at the house that she had arranged for them to rent and the excitement was pretty high by the time we got to the airport to greet this cute family. The mom was from Hungary and the Dad was a US citizen but hadn’t lived here for 20 years. Rick and I were glad to be there to hold the sign so they could hug their dear friends when wild jubilation erupted as they emerged from the concourse!

 

Packing the car with kids, luggage and their new friends, Shawni dropped us off at our gate and then drove them to their new home. Because our plane was an hour late, we got to see the first half of the game on the TV at the gate. But we missed the breathtaking last 30 seconds and had to watch it on the news (it appeared quite a few times) when we got home.  

It was a weekend to remember!