Alice Springs- Day 1

As much as Garrett and I loved our time in Cairns, we were both pretty excited to finally see mom and dad in Alice Springs. At the airport we ran in to the Melbourne international team and I stopped to talk to a couple guys who looked American. Turns out one of them went to High School with James Lang who I filmed on the Utah Flash last year. Small basketball world.

Garrett and I got on our flight and as you may have noticed one of the recurring themes of this trip has been, “What’s going to happen to Garrett today?” Sort of like Where’s Waldo, but not as interactive and engaging. Now that I’ve set the stage I may as well tell you, the stewardess spilled some apple juice on Garrett that she was pouring for someone else. I caught it out of the corner of my eye, but couldn’t believe it really happened until I saw the stain on his shorts and heard the attendant say, “I’m sorry.” That’s all, sorry. I mean, I guess there’s not much else you can do in that situation but say you’re sorry, but somehow it just doesn’t seem enough.

Garrett said it was ok, but then we both started laughing hysterically. Both at the fact that another bad thing happened to him, and at the fact that she spilled and just said sorry. I told him he should toss his drink at her as she walked by and when she turned just look really apologetic and say, “Oh, sorry.” What else could he do? Then they could both be sorry together.

The good news is right after we met mom we went to get ice cream and something weird and pink was dripping from an unidentified source in the mall…right on to Garrett’s shorts. And a day later the green box he carried rubbed off all over his white t-shirt. Need I say more? Garrett has resigned himself to the fact that fate is against him. Either his clothes are lost, or pink mystery goop is dripping on them.



It was so great to see mom at that airport and dad a bit later. You forget or get accustomed to being away from them and then on sight remember just how much you missed them. When mom picked us up at the airport it was in classic Delsa fashion. She was waiting with the camera up to take a picture of us, but she got so flustered or excited, she put it down right after she pressed the button and said, "I can't figure this thing out" and then it flashed and took the picture. We suggested a little patience might help the mechanics. But she was already rushing over to hug us, camera forgotten.

We met dad and walked over to a park and sat and chatted or a while before having an early Christmas dinner with all their missionaries in the Alice Springs area.



We also got our first glimpse of some of our other favorite people—the Shumways. My sister in Law’s parents are also serving missions in Alice creating a literacy program for the aboriginals in the outback. It’s doing surprisingly well, and everyone is really excited about it. You can see mom and Linda are carrying on as usual.

Our dinner was at a surprising location for a bunch of missionaries—a smoke-filled casino. Merry Christmas.