Summer Summary

I will not put you through the agony of a supremely detailed account of of the past three months. I promise to make this as concise and short as possible. Our summer saw lots of change, lots of travel, and lots of fun. Well...here goes......

The boys were very excited for their last day of school. They had to make the most of this day because the next day we were off for the States.

Here is Andrew's teacher, Ms. Poland. 

And Jacob's teacher, Mr. Yowell.

Here I am with my work out friends (hence us flexing our ginormous muscles for the shoot). In the middle is my dear friend, Mirjam who moved to the U.S. this summer. I am amazed we look remotely normal in the picture since we had spent the afternoon crying like crazy. 

The next day we let for California. The best part about the flight was that we had a layover in Tokyo...and guess who just happens to be serving his mission in Tokyo? My nephew, David!!! We were so lucky to be able to meet up with him at the airport. It had been almost two years since we had last seen him. 

The boys were thrilled to get to California to take full advantage of Grandma Jan and Opa's backyard and to play with their cousins.  Our first week and a half was so much fun that time flew by.....

...and we quickly found ourselves in Miami. We landed at 11pm, got to bed at 2:30am, and left for Disney at 5am. Thank heavens my sister-in-law is a machine and did all the driving. The kids had an absolute blast with their Mommy Baba and cousins. 

The day we got back from Disney we celebrated Andrew's birthday. Mommy Baba was so sweet to have a cake ready for him when we got home. (Andrew looks shell shocked).

Once again, Andrew wanted a happy face theme so we thought this would be a funny picture. Look how funny Andrew does NOT think this is....he just wanted to dive into his cake!

Once again, we had such a great time in Miami that time went too quickly. We had daily adventures that kept the boys busy and worn out! Another big high-light of the trip (for me) was that I was able to see my best friend, Eva! We were so excited that we forgot to bring a camera. Maybe Eva has a picture...I will have to check.

It was then back to California. Scott flew out to surprise the boys and spend the Fourth of July with us and his family. The night before the big 4th celebration, we informed the boys that there was going to be a new addition to the family. Andrew=thrilled. Jacob=tears (not the good ones). Luckily, we humans are pregnant for nine months, so Jacob has had ample time to become excited about his future sibling. 

Scott's parents took us to Gilroy Gardens during the week Scott was in town. We all had a great time. Grandma Jan was nice enough to let Andrew drive her around.

While Jacob headed off for the roller coasters with his dad.

Here is Andrew participating in one of his favorite past-times...scaling poles. 

Andrew then opted for the water park....

....while Jacob went on the flying swings. 

Scott's brother and his family were able to spend the week with us. The kids all had an absolute blast together. I honestly barely saw the boys between breakfast and sun down. 

After California, the boys and I headed to Arizona to visit my sister and her family. I am so mad at myself because I did not get any pictures! Boo to me!!! Sweet moment....Trisha's youngest, Evan, saved up all his money and did extra chores for the past few months so he could buy Jacob a skateboard. Tell me that is not the cutest thing in the world! I also had to the chance to celebrate my niece's (Lauren) 16th birthday (woo-hooo) and helped my other niece (Xanga) paint her room. I also have to mention that we went to see the new Harry Potter movie opening night at midnight. All my nieces dressed up for the event. Really wish I had a picture because they all looked super cute.

After a week in Arizona we headed north to visit my brothers in Utah. We did so many things while we were there (literally, at least one activity a day) that I will just have to skip around. Here we are at the Alpine Slides. No visits to the ER this time. 

Here we are with the missionary who baptized my parents. I had never had the chance to meet him and I thought it was so amazing to be able to get together with him and his wife. Truly an awesome moment! (Yuck...I look so fat in the picture).

We had just a couple of nights where almost everyone (Scott was the only one missing) was in town. We decided to celebrate by going to Tepanyaki. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. What a lovely family photo. Christmas card, Mom and Dad?....we could photo shop in Scott's head.

We were able to go through the new temple in Utah. It has a funky name but I am too lazy to look it up at the moment. It sounds like "ogre" but it is spelled with a "q". It is named after the mountain range which surrounds it. The boys were excited to see the inside of a temple.

Super fun afternoon....I was able to see two of my closest friends from high school and some of my old YW leaders. The two girls on either side of me are Sonia and Myriam. Just so you know, I spent probably 80 percent of my high school life with these two and Eva. Great memories!

Jacob is quite the soccer fanatic, so when Scott saw that Everton was playing the MLS All-Stars, he immediately bought tickets. To say Jacob was thrilled would be an understatement. From what I heard, Scott and Jacob were the only two routing for Everton. 

We made a second trip to Alpine slides since Scott was not with us the first time. 

Please note Andrew is not wearing any shoes in this picture. The day we arrived in Utah, Andrew lost his flip-flops to the creek near Mike's house. The day before we went back to Alpine slides I finally found time to get to Target and buy him a new pair of Transformers flip-flops. He was so worried about losing them, that he took them off and handed them to me while we were on the ski lift. About two-thirds up the side of the mountain, a huge gust of wind came and blew his little flip-flops right off the seat. Good-bye shoes. He had to spend the rest of the day bare foot. 

While we were staying at Greg's house, these four decided to get in a pie fight. I think this was taken right before the crust started to fly.

We took the boys on a pilgrimage to our alma mater, BYU. We are trying to plant the seeds. 

Scott's dad is a huge U of U fan, so we bought this to grace to front of his home. We had to take it down before we went back to Singapore.

Here are the boys saying good-bye to Opa and Grandma Jan at SFO. We had a great last week and a half with them before we came back to Singapore. 

There is much that has happened since returning to our little island...but I will have to save that for the next post. I promised to keep this short and a promise is a promise!