God Bless America!

I am still catching up on the blog- but I am getting closer...  I now present early June... 

After 9 months away, we returned to Utah (and the sunshine!) the first week of June.  Our schedule was so jam-packed that, in the end, there was much left undone and many people we weren't able to see- but we had a great time with the time that we had.  If only we could have had 1 more week!  

It was surprising to me how easy it was to plug right back in and exist in Utah as if we had never left.  It felt so natural and familiar that it seemed like more of an odd dream to think that our life, home and our belongings were waiting for us thousands of miles away across the globe.  

One thing that was instantly different and noticeable about returning to Utah was the amount of space that each person/thing could enjoy.  So much room to breathe and move!  I literally sensed all the space available per person in multiple dimensions of life.  In London, every belonging is smaller, in general, and serves multiple purposes, personal space goes as far as the inner-most layer of your own skin, and everyone/thing is allowed much less space to exist.  It made me realize how much I truly miss space -and also how much I deeply appreciate the freedom and peace of mind that extra space provides.

Here is a quick run down of some of the things we did while in town:

* I took the final test for my class

* I got surgery done on my eyes- so I can now see without contacts!  Wahoo!  I was expecting to get Lasik, but found out that I have thin corneas, so the doctors recommended I get PRK, which takes much longer to recover from.  But I went forward with it anyway- and am very happy with the result.

  

* We caught our nephew Bryson's last baseball game of the season while enjoying some greatly missed Cafe Rio and visiting with family.

* Because most EVERYTHING is much cheaper in the U.S. than here, we had to get a ton of shopping and other things done.  A couple of products we have missed the most in jolly England are good quality floss and mouthwash- the stuff there is awful and expensive.  I now understand a little more why Brits have bad teeth.  We loaded up on clothing and shoes and other necessities.

* Ady got to play with her cousins!  Seeing her play with them made me have guilt that we live so far away.  She loved so much being one of the gang.  Thank you to Jen and my parents for letting Ady stay over with you.

* We celebrated Ady's 4th Birthday early with family

* Tyler spent a couple days visiting his friends and co-workers in the Salt Lake office.

* We spent time with family playing at Tracy Aviary, making sushi, playing at the bounce house, & going to Seven Peaks.

* We stopped in to see how our house in Stansbury was holding up, to meet the couple (and their dogs :( ) living there, and to check in with a few of our friends and neighbors.

* We took a drive over Guardsman's pass to get some much longed for time in the mountains and a breath of fresh air.  We couldn't go too far past the top though, because a front was moving in and the visibility through the low clouds got poor quickly.  It was awesome to watch the clouds dropping so quickly over the mountains and down into the meadow.  The temperature at the top was a chilly 30 degrees!  We weren't expecting that.  We took a quick jaunt from the car (in our shorts and flip flops) to get out into the clouds and go touch a patch of snow.

* We loved staying at the Baron's condo in Park City.  It was so beautiful and quiet up there.  A BIG BIG thank you to Clark and Joyce for your generosity with your condo and your vehicle!!!  We had some bad luck and timing though, because the vehicle sprung a major radiator fluid leak and had to be towed away, and we discovered a leak in the plumbing at the condo that subsequently required some major (and probably expensive) repairs.  Oh dear!  I think we brought some bad luck with us.  We felt awful to leave Clark and Joyce with these problems.  So in addition to a big thank you, we want to send you a big sorry as well.  And a big sorry to my grandma and grandpa Ed who we could not go visit the night of the car trouble.

* Without a vehicle, we discovered how great the Park City bus system is!  We were genuinely impressed!  Park City really is a great place.  We had a nice time there.

*  We enjoyed visiting Swaner Nature Preserve in Park City.  We had signed up to attend an Owl Prowl hike where we would see and hear the owls there, but they misquoted the time and location, so we couldn't take a bus to the new location and we also had to leave early to get Ady to bed- so maybe we'll try another time.  Sigh...

* We had a great time eating some mexican food and chatting with friends.

It was so nice to see our family and friends again and we miss you all.  The end of our trip came way too quickly and we found it a bit difficult to leave.  Living in London has been an amazing learning and growing process for us.  It has helped us learn a lot about ourselves and things we want in our lives.  Going back to Utah after being away for 9 months brought clarity and ideas for our next phase in life.

Here are a few photos from our trip.  (We were still without a camera for much of the time- so thank you to those who shared photos with us).