An awesome weekend!

I seriously had the best time this weekend in Minneapolis with Uncle Nate and Aunt Lindsay, and of course all the cousins as well. I got there Friday morning, and Nate was flying in from San Diego a couple hours after me, so I just hung out until he got there. We then went to their house, where everyone was anxiously waiting for us. It was so good to see them! We just kind of hung out together and went out for Dairy Queen that night, which was nice, because I was a little tired (by the way, the buy one blizzard, get the second for 25 cents is an excellent deal, but it only works once!). However, I was definitely not so tired that I couldn't watch part of Avatar with Uncle Nate! It was a great day.

Oh, there was one slightly stressful part of the day. I really wanted to go to the temple in Minneapolis, but I didn't have temple clothing, and the Minneapolis temple didn't rent any out. Thankfully, my wonderful mother sent my dad's overnight mail to their address, and it was suppose to arrive shortly before we got home. However, a couple hours after we had gotten to the house, it still wasn't there. Slightly panicked, I call my mom to check the tracking number, which said that the box had been delivered to the front step. It definitely was not there, so I was REALLY worried at that point. However, Aunt Lindsay was incredibly smart and suggested that it had delivered to a street with the same name but was a Road rather than a Lane, and had Uncle Nate and me go check. To our relief, there it was, sitting on the front porch. However, that was a mistake that definitely should NOT have happened. That's the last time I use FedEx if I have a choice!

Saturday was an awesome day as well. Uncle Nate, Aunt Lindsay and I got to go to the temple in the morning, which was really cool, while Lindsay's parents watched the cousins. It was pretty special to go with them, and Uncle Nate and I did endowments for the brothers of my great-great grandmother, or his great-grandmother. We then went back, had lunch, and I wrote a paper (Lovely)! That night we played Ticket to Ride, and despite all my trash-talk, Lindsay won! A little frustrating for the competitive person that I am :-)

By the way, the food was excellent the entire time I was there. For lunch Saturday we had this chicken salad on croissants with fruits and veggies, and the Sunday night we had past in a cream sauce, with an Asian salad and bread. Yum!

Sunday was very special, because I got to stand in the circle when Uncle Nate gave Baby Silas a blessing. It was seriously one of the best blessings that I had ever heard. It was easy to see that Uncle Nate had thought about it a lot, and that the Spirit was with him when he gave Silas the beautiful blessing that he did. Silas is such a sweet boy too. He lives by the clock--sleep, wake up, eat, sleep. He's amazing!

Unfortunately, I only had time to go back to the house and eat dinner before I had to leave to get back to school. But on the way to the airport I had an excellent conversation with Nate about my mission. It really set me at ease and made me think about things that I really wouldn't have thought about otherwise. I realized that Uncle Nate was the last Kennedy elder to serve a mission, so I felt like he was passing the mantle to me. I felt honored.

Thanks so much Nate, Lindsay, and family for a wonderful weekend!