A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE THINGS, including Seth Lorenzo

May had arrived and all the married siblings had departed after saying their good-byes to Seth.  In a couple of days he would be Elder Cosby; life would change dramatically.  Seth asked to go on one more "family bonding" outing.  As our family has shrunk, these requests by Seth usually meant "Walmart Bonding" (Seth's favorite), where he would put things in the cart that he wanted us to buy for him. (We miss Seth every time we go to WalMart now).  However, Seth had everything he needed and so we decided to go to another favorite bonding place:  The Museum of Science and History, taking Joe out of school to be with his brothers for part of the day.  The boys, including Van, love to build, explore, and experiment in this place.  Afterwards we usually go to one of Dad's favorite restaurants: Joe Garcia's.  The place is always packed.  It's been going since 1937, and the original little clapboard house is still part of it, but the fabulous thing about this place, besides the delicious mexican food, is the walled-garden and outdoor eating areas behind the house . . . you can meander around paved trails through beautiful gardens and different porches, areas, and outdoor rooms.  It is truly lovely and unique, a little natural oasis in the middle of cowtown.  We returned home to put Jacob on his plane to Denver, where he will be working and running this summer with friends from the track team.  We were pretty stuffed from our mexican lunch, but about eight o'clock Seth decided we needed one more trip together for family bonding and requested Cici's pizza.  We picked up our neighbor Nick, who was more than happy to have a second dinner, and headed down.  On the way, Joe and Seth sang "The Power of One" song--tropical version, loosely translated . . . Joe doing a rhythmical background punctuated by tropical shrieks from Seth.  Seth is very good at these and it is quite entertaining.  Seth is going to the perfect mission for him.  The three boys sat at one booth and ate (and ate and ate, it's all you can eat) . . . and talked, while Van and I sat across from them in another booth.  Do older boys realize what a great impact they have on younger ones?  All my sons have practically idealized their older brothers.  Seth's roommate at BYU-H, Chase, was a returned missionary   Seth called "Uncle Chase" (we found out that he was the son of a family from Van's ward in California).  He had obviously had great influences and had matured greatly in the year+ time he had been away at school.  It does take a village to raise a person of character and we are so grateful for all the people in our village, near and far, who have led our children to good things.  We came home and had family prayer and went to bed.  Seth's civilian life was over--for a couple of years.