More January things

Caden spent lots of one-on-one time with each of us before he left, and none of us could get enough of him!

he's pretty patient...:

I helped him pack as much as I could, and watched him do the rest while I tried really hard not to get too teary:

And then we took off the next day to Provo.  We left the little boys at mom and dads and Caden cried as he watched them waving to him as we drove away.  They will be so much bigger when he sees them again...

We allowed Isabelle and Maddie to come with us. We had hopes of arriving early enough to attend a session at the Salt Lake temple, but found out it was closed, so instead we left Maddie and Isabelle at Aunt Lindas, where we stayed the night, and Shawn, Caden and I went to the Provo City Center temple.  It may be our favorite so far!

Caden playing the piano at Aunt Linda's:

Yes, I was taking as many pictures as possible before he left:)

Aunt Linda took us to breakfast:

Aunt Linda and Caden - they have had a close relationship ever since Caden was a newborn-toddler and we lived in Provo near her:

Before we knew it, it was almost time for Caden to check into the MTC, so we took lots of last-minute pictures:

It's actually really hard to get serious pictures of Caden. He was really humoring me this day:)

And then it was goodbye and I had some of the strongest emotions I have ever felt.  It was super hard to send Kami off, and something about doing it again so soon after was almost more than I could take.  One last picture before he walked away. We all smiled for the picture, and then everyone but Caden was dissolved in tears the second after this was taken:

And I cried all the way to Tremonton.  Again. It's hard, but it's happy and I wouldn't want it any other way. My grandpa Kerns always said, "What a weaning process!"  It is for sure.