Back home, back to computer access, which means back to trying to keep up with the blog. I was HORRIBLE at taking pictures to document our summer - I dragged my camera all over the western US with me but I hardly pulled it out. I'll use the few pictures I did take, as well as a few I bummed off others, to try and give a glimpse of our crazy summer fun. Our adventures this year began in Northern California. After our 21 hour flight to LAX, we hopped on another flight up to Oakland. We spent a wonderful week in our old neighborhood visiting with friends and remembering how fantastic life is in Danville, California. We were lucky to have some friends who loaned us their home for the week (while they are on a mission) - the kids got to run the neighborhood with friends, just like old times. Craig spent that week working at the office and visiting suppliers - jumping in on the fun in the evenings. Our week there ended too quickly. Next we headed to Utah for a visit with Bruschke family and a taste of the beautiful outdoors of Utah Valley. We checked Ashlyn into EFY and Breann into Basketball camp at BYU. The rest of us spent the week enjoying BYU campus, exploring the new area around temple square, hiking in the mountains, attending a rodeo, motorcycling, and spending lots of time with grandma and grandpa and cousins.
Bryant experienced an important milestone at grandma and grandpa's house - he lost his first tooth!
Next stop, our annual trip to Lake Powell. Spent another fabulous week at one of our favorite places in the world - Lake Powell. The kids water skiied, wake boarded, tubed, hiked, swam, ate, etc. etc. Had a great time with all our Bruschke cousins.
Next, Arizona. Most of the family hadn't been to Arizona since we moved from there over 5 years ago. It was fun for the kids to see our old stomping ground. We were able to visit with 3 of my sisters and their families, as well as a few friends. It was great for the kids to spend some time with some of their Larsen cousins and family there - including a number of my cousins and their families. Our time was short in AZ (too hot in summer to spend too much time there) but we had a great time. We spent our last days there at a resort in Tempe with our good friends, the Plewe's. We said goodbye to dad here as Craig returned to Singapore not long after our arrival.
Last stop - southern California. We had made a full circle - from southern Cal to northern Cal, over to Utah, down to Lake Powell, over to AZ, and then back to southern Cal. We were pretty wiped out by this time and looking forward to a bit of R & R at my parents beautiful home. We spent a few days on the beach but other than that we just hung at my parents and did alot of visiting with friend - oh, and a lot of shopping (we do most of our shopping in the US - limiting what we need to buy in Singapore where it is more expensive and just not the same). Ashlyn was able to spend some time with a few of her close friends from Danville that happened our way down south. We got to spend a bit of time with our Bruschke and Larsen cousins that live close by. I got my annual girl time with my two close friends, Sarah and Kristi, whoalso came down to spend a few days with me there.
Always sad to have our time in the US come to a close, but ready to return 'home' after spending so much time travelng around, living out of suitcases. So, after our 5 1/2 weeks in the US, we packed our 15 pieces of luggage/boxes and headed back 23 hours to our home in Singapore. We're grateful for all the family and friends we were able to visit with, and are sad for those we missed this year (including my parents who are on a mission). Until next year (maybe?) USA!
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