And away he goes.

Jeff has been funny to watch this week. He has been a little on the sentimental side. He knew that this would be the last week at home before going away to college. This week consisted of him waking up early to make his brothers and sister breakfast as they went off to school. Having friends streaming in and out of the house to say their final goodbyes, and then seeing the same friends come back over to say their final, final good byes. Tuesday night he came in and laid down at the foot of the bed and said, "this is really weird to think that tomorrow I will wake up and not see Mandy, Tim, and Jake from now on". Wednesday morning we got up and sent the other kids off to school and it was time to take him to Provo to start his new life. We climbed into the Excursion, and made a couple of stops before leaving town. Jeff was real quiet as we left town, just the three of us. The back of the car was loaded with all of the stuff that is totally necessary to go to college, or at least what we think is totally necessary. In reality some of it will end up coming back on future trips because it takes up too much space or is not used at all. It was funny to think about times earlier in our lives when it was just the three of us. As the oldest child that is one of the advantages, or disadvantages that Jeff had. For instance as we were climbing up I-15 leaving the valley it reminded me of the time that Jeff was just barely old enough to speak. We were in a much smaller car, but the seating arrangements were the same. Kathy and I were up front talking and I made the comment "I'm thirsty", from the back seat of the car came a small voice that answered "hello thursty, I'm friday". This forever had been a Grandpa Mecham joke, passed on to me, and now it was my first recollection of Jeff's sense of humor.

As we travelled it was hot outside. I could only imagine how much different his new environment would be. There will actually be trees, soft grass, cool mornings and nights in the summer and even snow. Kathy did her best to try to review all the things that would be needed to complete enrollment, and knowing her she was going through her head to do a mental checklist to make sure that all bases were covered.

When it was just the three of us life was so much more simple it seemed. Our whole world revolved around just one little baby, and there was nothing in life that was as important, or precious to us as our new baby and meeting his every need. It seemed like our universe revolved around him. As the family expanded it just seemed to get better. Jeff was such a good brother to Tim, although we would later find that their personalities were night and day different. Jeff was Mandy's protector and he would always make sure that she was taken care of and comfortable. To this day it would still not be uncommon to see them snuggled up to each other to watch a television show. Jake idolized Jeff and Tim. Jeff taught him to do a flying header, and bicycle kick when he was really, really young. Whatever happened over the years or what changes happened in our lives their was one constant. We were a family and I can honestly say that we were close. Now that Jeff is going away there is the uncertainty of how that dynamic will change. Will he mature to the point that he doesn't need the same type of nurturing, or will there be a different feeling when he comes home for Holiday's, these are the thoughts that I think both Kathy and I as parents feel, as well as Jeff. This is uncharted territory for this family.

By the time we hit Beaver it was becoming apparent that we had becoming accustomed to modern car travel, the only problem is that the CD player was broke, we didn't have any movies to drop into the DVD player, and the only music on the radio was almost unlistenable.
Fortunately for us we had Kathy. She broke out a book and between her and Jeff they started to read while I drove. Old Yeller, yep I said it, that was the book of choice. Jeff rolled his eyes when asked to read it, I didn't even know that it was even still in print, but there it was. We had two choices, we could either sit in silence or we could entertain ourselves with a book written for
2nd graders.

The time flew from that point on and before we knew it we were in Provo trying to find the dorm rooms. As we drove into the parking lot it was packed with cars. There were no empty spaces anywhere. Jeff and Kathy went into register while I drove in circles waiting like a vulture for someone to leave. As I looked around I noticed that there were tons of young faces. In the dorm rooms you could see parents carrying armfulls of stuff that would be totally necessary to go to school. In one second story window I even saw a mom standing at an ironing board ironing all of the clothes for her son. "Why bother" I thought. In one week it will be wrinkled and the only ironing that those clothes will see will be from the dryer to the hanger.
Someone finally pulled out and I was able to park. We began to unload stuff from the back of the Excursion. As we took the first load upstairs to the dorm, Jeff unlocked the door with his key. I thought how weird it was that my kid had a key to a house that wasn't mine. We entered a narrow hallway and found another door that involved another key. The door opened up to an extremely small room and I saw a tiny bed in the corner, I thought, "this is kind of small, but not too crowded for one person." then I saw the second be and realized that this tiny space was instantly half as big as I had moments earlier imagined it. We put down the first load and walked into the kitchen. As we entered the room we ran into a very nice lady holding an iron and another handful of hangers.... I thought about explaining my earlier thoughts but luckily the filter kicked in and I kept my mouth shut. Besides, I realize that the whole ironing has nothing to do with having neat clothes, it was more symbolic of the things that Moms do for their kids.
We met a couple of the new room mates, but not everyone had shown up.
Once everything was put away we went out to dinner, and stopped by a couple of stores. I was so proud of the knowledge that I could pass onto Jeff in this area. My experience from serving a mission had made me an expert on how to eat cheap and not spend tons of time cooking. Spaghetti can be cooked once and eaten for three days. Pot pies are cheap, hot dogs are good and although they blow up in the microwave it is still the best way to cook them. We got to the checkout and the little amount of food that we picked up was still more than Jeff realized it would be. If you want to see reality set in, watch your kids realize how much the real world is going to cost them.

We took Jeff back to the dorms and dropped him off. Everywhere we looked there were awkward Freshman traveling in packs, trying to find a group to fit into. We left and went to spend the night at Aunt Jenny's house. When we finally laid down it felt so good to finally be in bed......3,2,1.... that is when it finally sat in with Kathy that her baby was not coming home with us. There were a few tears, and I don't think she slept much that night. I remember finally waking up around 2:30 and asking her if she wanted to go for a walk, I didn't know what else to do for her.

When morning came we went back to Provo to find Jeff to help him with some of his list of to do things. We found him waiting for us in a parking lot by the ball fields, along with thousands of other kids his age. He had already taken care of a good portion of things, and it was apparent that he would be just fine without us. I guess we could have gone back to the dorm and ironed his clothes, but we both knew that he didn't need us hanging out with him for the day. Kathy jumped out with the camera to take at least one photo, when she came back I could see that she was crying. Jeff was making it better though, he was mocking her crying (either to calm her down, or to keep from bawling in front of possibly his yet unknown future wife).
We drove off and headed back to Vegas. As we left the Valley, Kathy looked at me and said, "do you want to hear the end to Old Yeller?" "I didn't want to finish it yesterday with Jeff because I didn't want it to be too sad".
She grabbed my hand, started to read, I drove and we both knew that everything would be alright, and Jeff is in a good place, with good people, and his new life will be a fun, full one.