Utah in June

Well here's a bit about our summer vacation in "The United States of America" as my children say. (They're really confused. They asked if grandma and grandpa have a pool on their island. And Isaac keeps talking about when he went hiking Mt. Timpanogos on the "Big Island".) We loved seeing family again. (And I loved going shopping again.)

It had been two years since I'd been back to the "Mainland", and I must admit it took me a little while to adjust. At first I smiled at strangers, but I got over that quick. We showed Isaac what a stop light is. And we drove really, really fast on "Threeways" (Isaac's word for "freeway"). Straight smooth roads, yay! Congested slow traffic, boo.

Shopping, big yay! I was like a kid in a candy store. I wanted to buy everything I saw. But I limited myself to what would fit in our luggage…and wouldn’t grow mold in Samoa.

At my parent's house I had so many moments when I thought, “This is so idyllic.” I mean, feeding grandma’s cat, picking strawberries and sugar snap peas in the garden, swinging on the tree swing, walking down the street to the park, going to the zoo, reading bedtime stories with grandpa. It was a grandchild’s dream come true!

It was my dream come true as well. We made strawberry-rhubarb pie from scratch. We saw the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in concert. We had tournaments of raquetball and ping pong. We had Uncle Barry's pulled pork and Aunt Jane's potato salad. We had Cousin Richard clean our wedding rings. We had clothing throwdowns and shopped at DI. We ate Gandolfos. We bought fresh spinach and blueberries. We left sweetrolls on the counter overnight with no fear of ants or cockroaches. We wore long pants and sweaters. We downloaded shows. We went to an Orem city parade with more white people than I had seen in years!

It all felt so familiar and refreshing for me. I felt very grateful—that my culture is one of opportunity, family, health, and faith. But I was also grateful that I have the chance to live away from home and experience life so differently for awhile.

So on with the pics...

Steph and her cute kids came all the way from Kentucky to see us.

My sisters look stunning in puletasi's.
Above is Jan from Idaho, Steph from KY.
Below is Katie from Las Vegas.

We got in the Samoan spirit at Samoan Family Home Evening. Here's with Jill's family.

Grandma's funky monkey plates.

Day at the zoo.

Ephraim and Isaac entertained themselves in the Uintas.
Hey, look, a caterpillar!

Kids these days...

We attended the lovely Oquirrh Mountain Temple Openhouse.

That's all for now.