October already?

Our family in front of the falls on the Yellowstone river.

This past summer whizzed by. I realized the other day that it was already fall and I had not posted one thing about what we did during the summer. Here’s a quick sum up (but it is still a rather lengthy post). Most of this I wrote months ago but never got to posting it.

1. We left Brazil. We said goodbye to Sao Paulo the day AJP finished school. It was raining before our evening flight so it took us about 3 ½ hours to get to the airport. Please keep in mind that without rain or traffic the time to the airport was about 40 minutes. We were lucky because we had a great driver and we left with plenty of time. It was sad to leave so many friends but we know that we will see them again – someday.

2. We arrived in Utah. Our first stop on our home leave was Utah. We arrived at the Salt Lake airport about 24 hours after we had left our apartment in Sao Paulo. We were all exhausted but the traveling was not over. We went to Logan where my brother lives to visit him and to get family pictures. My mom had wanted a family group picture for sometime but it had never worked out. This time regardless of our level of exhaustion I knew we had to accommodate that desire.

One of the proofs from the family picture shoot.

It was absolutely freezing in Utah. We had left early winter in Brazil to come to early summer in Utah. Much to my disappointment, early summer in Utah was 10 to 20 degrees colder than early winter in Brazil. Some said I had grown soft and lost my Wyoming heartiness. I think that may be true since I don’t know if I have felt that cold in a very long time. I felt completely unprepared since I had packed mostly for summer only to find worse than winter conditions. Luckily we did send all of our winter cloths in our shipment.

3. We went to Yellowstone. Yellowstone in a word was “fantastic”. In three words it would be “cold and fantastic”. We decided that it is important to for AJP and BLP to see as many of the gems of the US as they will other parts of the world. We started small and chose Yellowstone. I grew up about two hours south of the south gate of Yellowstone. While we did not travel there a lot it and the Grand Teton Park both played an important role in my childhood. I have vivid memories of the time I did visit. I wanted to share that with AJP and BLP. Yellowstone is incredible and unlike anything I have seen before. We saw wild life and geysers, smelt sulfur pots, saw waterfalls and colorful bacteria, were rained on and snowed on. It was wonderful.

AJP and BLP by some of the natural wonders of Yellowstone.

AJP and BLP in Teton Village outside of Jackson Hole in their new Wyoming sweatshirts.

4. We returned to Utah. On our return trip we were blessed to visit some old friends and see more family. I was able to attend a baby shower for one of my cousins. She is my age and was pregnant with her fourth child. Her child just older than this one will be turning 11 this year. At the baby shower I saw many of my cousins and aunts that I have not seen in years. It was really wonderful. We also saw my aunt and uncle that are on a mission in Salt Lake helping with the Family History work of our church. It was great to see them and see how much they are growing and learning because of their service. We visited friends we made in Brazil and went to church with them. They were gracious enough to invite us to dinner afterward. Another day, we sat down and visited with a friend from my freshman year of college. M is truly one of the dearest friends I have. It has been wonderful to reconnect with her. We also were lucky to go to a park with friends of JTP from his freshman year. They had not seen each other in possibly ten years. On yet another day, we had dinner with a roommate of mine from BYU. She and her husband have become good friends to both me and JTP. We also met up with a somewhat famous fellow that was on our mission. We had lunch with him, one of the young men JTP worked with in Brazil that is now attending BYU and my former roommate. The best part about visiting all of these people is the opportunity to hear about all of their lives, feel their love and realize that bonds of love and friendship really transcend time and space.

The group picture from the lunch with my former roommate and former mission buddy (minus the young man that we met in Brazil.)

A group picture with JTP's friends from freshman year.

5. We settled in NC for 6 weeks. We next went to NC to stay with JTP’s parents. We decided that we would spend the majority of our time there since it is a short drive (relatively speaking) to DC from NC. We were able to leave the kids with their grandparents and look for an apartment. We also had the kids attend a couple of day camps. I think living in that part of NC feels almost idyllic. I really liked it before but love it now. It was peaceful in a time of great change and stress in our lives. It really helped us to slowly enter back into US culture. JTP’s parents were great. I am sure we more than inconvenienced their schedule and cramped their style but they were welcoming and patient with all of us.

One of our only picture from NC. This is AJP and BLP with the Mississippi cousins at a butterfly museum.

6. We firmly settled in DC area. We found our apartment. We received our shipments. We arranged our apartment. We attended our wonderful church congregation and received callings. We met some of our neighbors. More or less, we are now getting into the rhythm of our new home.