Back to Real Life

Title to be explained later. Our R&R back to Utah over Christmas and New Years was epic, fun, interesting, and needed—pictures to follow (sorry, I really don't feel like splitting all the pictures up into separate posts, so I will be posting a whole slew of them). I got to spend time with Andrew, my family, Andrew's family, and a couple of friends, and Max got to know his grandparents and aunts and uncles much better. I got to eat at my favorite restaurants in the world, Zupas and Chuck-A-Rama. You heard me, Chuck-A-Rama. And since we don't have access to some technological things in the Marshall Islands and we probably won't be back in the US until our tour is over, I went all out on shopping and errands. It was intense.

The first time we walked into a grocery store—Harmons, not even the mightiest of them all—I nearly cried as I sampled their free bits of Gouda cheese with green olives. Then the cheesecake samples, then the salsa with guacamole samples . . . it was amazing. What luxury! We walked around the whole store rather in shock. I went to get a brand of lotion I like that's not available on the island and found that there were six different varieties of said lotion. You have a lot to be grateful for, America!

Here's the slew:

Max with Andrew's parents at the Bean Museum in Provo, Utah.

Amanita! Amanita!

Catherine, you are great.

O, the Y.

Mary + Parfait = Perfect Morning

Fresh blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries! What a treat!

Max pointing out the Y on the mountain and saying it over and over and over. It was fun to visit BYU campus.

Went with both families to the new Museum of Natural History up by the U of U. Excellent museum. Always a little more challenging with a child.

My wonderful sister-in-law.

Scratching for bones near the dinosaurs.

Drawing faces. Max says "happy," "sad," and "angry."

My sister giving us a break from baby-watching. She and I also went to play racquetball, something that I dearly missed.

Max & Nana—the dog was incredibly jealous that my mom was paying attention to somebody else and went for Max's legs a few times. Bad Charlie!

Jason hates pictures. Didn't even get one of my other sister and my other brother and his girlfriend. But I enjoyed their company heartily.

This needs some explaining. Will do in another post at another time. For now, just know that my brother Jason is awesome and we have a new game called "Settlers of Monopoly." It lasts HOURS and HOURS and HOURS.

My techno-savvy brother-in-law teaching me how to use my new camera and what aperture means. Thanks, Eric!

Visited the LDS temple where Andrew and I were married, the Jordan River Temple (click here to see the front of it).

No downhill skiing this year, but Andrew and I went on a beautiful hike!
 It smelled so good up there.

A sad contrast to the beauty—and smell—of the mountains. Utah, get your act together! Your air quality is one of the worst in the entire country! You gave us all respiratory infections when we came! In its defense, Utah is expanding its Trax system, which I think is a brilliant idea that should have been done a long time ago.

Blech. Inversion over Salt Lake City.

A supremely weird billboard encouraging obsessive parenting.

O, Zupas! O ye berry-filled salads that I consumed on multiple occasions!

Turkey avocado somethin' sandwich. This stuff I truly miss. Unfortunately, there are only a few restaurants that I like in Majuro, and fewer that I trust.

The flights, simply put, were awful. Max would scream for the last half hour of the flight (despite our EXTENSIVE knowledge of why babies cry when planes start descending), then fall asleep as soon as we were out the gate. We broke up the flight home by stopping in Hawaii for a few days "to adjust to the temperature change." Ho ho ho. It was so nice.

Went to the Honolulu Zoo again, this time with Andrew.

Played in this area for a long time. Great place.

We drove up into the mountains on Oahu and enjoyed the nice temperature and the beautiful views.

Later that Saturday we went to the Dole Plantation and learned all about pineapples. The issue of forced labor on the plantation was never really addressed, but other than that they did a good job. This picture is of a group of Japanese young adults gushing over our baby. I just think it's kind of weird and mildly funny. Yep, our child is a large Caucasian. Get your cameras out.

Pineapple Express (or something like that). Max was mostly enthralled with the screws on the benches.

The next day, Sunday, after attending the local Honolulu ward (and seeing a returned missionary we knew from Majuro . . . the world is very small!), we went a different way through the mountains (incredible! I want to go on a hike there!) and visited the Laie Temple. It was a paradise within a paradise.

Bird of Paradise

Then we went to the North Shore and watched the surfers and the sunset.

And then we went home to Majuro! I was excited to see if I could sense or smell a difference, and after an initial bad whiff of jet engine smoke, I smelled it. Majuro smells thick and peaceful. What a great feeling to come home (and it wasn't like our trip was bad or anything)!. It was great to see our family and friends, although I also noticed that the constant bombardment of marketing messages made for a very frenetic lifestyle. Without constant attention to media (think Fahrenheit 451) I think I think more, observe more, and worry less because I expect less. I also feel like I engage in real experiences more—talk with more people rather than watching other people talk on the telly. Maybe we just need to unplug to realize how wonderful our lives actually are. Something good to remember for other posts.