Get Your Hair Did

Tricia had her hair colored by her fantastic hair dressing sister, Paige. I will show the results later.

A Visit with the Turnbow Family

I was able to get in contact with my first mission companion and trainer, Joshua Turnbow, who is living just a short drive away from the Brown family home where we are staying. We made arrangements for a visit, and what a good time we had. I arrived at 8:30 in the evening and planned on staying just a short time, but it was nearly 11:00 when I finally left. I met his lovely wife and we spent the evening talking about scrap booking, photography, the recession, my army experiences, and Josh’s job as tax accountant.

Out for Thai

With an evening to ourselves before we left Germany we decided to take advantage of the Thai restaurant around the corner from our home one last time. Before entering the restaurant we had already worked out that we wanted the . . . In our own corner of the restaurant we talked with each other for a nice long time over our food and stayed for a while after we had finished eating. That is one aspect of Germany that we enjoy; no rush to leave a restaurant after eating. I found myself doing most of the talking and at the end Tricia said that she had learned more about me than at any other one sitting.

Game Night

Our friends, the Morris family, had us over for a game night at their home a few days before we left Germany. We met and got to know some of their other friends while playing several different games. We finished the evening with a game of Cranium, one of our favorites, and bid everyone a late good night. Good friends like these have made our stay in Germany wonderful.

Playing in the Closet

Just before we moved Jeffrey had taken a liking to hiding in Mom's closet with my flash light.

Early Morning Photographs

I woke up early in the morning to get a panorama shot of the Salt Lake valley. This shot is looking down on the valley from the foot hills of Draper.

While taking the panorama of the valley I realized that I was very close to the new Draper temple and decided to get a shot of it next. The building is so large that I was not able to get it in my view finder because of the houses around it. I found myself up on the hill above the homes in the area able to look down on it just before a snow storm rolled in and covered this all up. The photos turned out so well that I had a few 5x7 and 8x10 printed in hopes of selling them.

The Gwirls (or gullows)

I do not know how Paige can handle two gwirls all day long every day. It is a lot of fun to see how Addy and Lizzy interact with each other. I am amazed at how much they can say. They always take turns, so after doing something for a whole second the other will say, "Sisy, my turn." After a second of play or exploration the first will then say, "Sisy, my turn."

Both of the gullows play well with Jeffrey and have taken to calling him baby Jeffrey, even though he is the same height.

I admire how involved Sam is with his kids. He has a very busy schedule with school and works very hard to keep three to four days ahead on his assignments and study, yet he finds the time to read to them, play, and get some extensive hug time.

The Garage

Dad has talked about building a garage for so long that I thought that it would really never happen, but here it is in its final stages. I was able to take a look at it in person when we stopped in to visit and on another evening when family came over for a dinner.

I was able to visit with both Grandma Hansen and MacNeil that evening, both of whom I have not seen in three years that we were in Germany. It has been wonderful to visit with family in person.

Caitlin looks so grown up and different that I did not recognize who she was until I saw Hilary come in the house too.

Growing Fast

Peggy bought Jeffrey a pair of new Sunday shoes as a gift for our arrival, but we found out on Sunday morning that his feet had grown since we had last let her know his shoe size. We ended up taking him to church in flip flops. Oops. Fortunately we were able to exchange the shoes for the right size.

Visiting the Whittakers

Tricia and I have calendared out time out to ensure that we spend a few days with each part of our family. This is Jeffrey playing with a neighbor girl while Tricia put on a Stamp'n Up demonstration at the Whittaker home. Jeffrey spent a good amount of time putting pennies in this tin school bus.



The Whittaker home is always a classy place, but even more so now that they have put up some of the lamps that they inherited from Grandma Whittaker.



Mom is always telling me how many comments she recieves on the scarf we sent her from Italy.

John and Dianne came down for dinner one evening and we had a good time talking about our travel adventures together.

Disney Land Adventure

Cory: Our days at Disney Land and Sea World started early and ended late, so looking back on our trip is hard to determine what happened on which day. Since all of our memories run together this is really a record of what was most fun and memorable rather than a chronology of what happened. I took about 1,000 photos while on our Disney Land adventure, so it has taken a while to sort through to get out the very best, and I have yet many photos touch up. Rather than waiting until all of the photos are selected and finished I will post a few at a time as we look back on our wonderfully fun vacation.






Cory: I enjoyed all of the exotic plant life around the park. The gardens and walk ways are meticulously kept up with interesting trees, colorful flowers, and bushes of all sorts.


Tricia: It's been nice to see how different things in America are. If we passed an interesting plant I knew Cory would be taking a picture of it.







Cory: Before ending the day at Sea World we stopped at the clydesdale horses. I was not able to get a good shot of the horses themselves, but I did see this wall full of equipment in decent lighting.



Tricia: Jeffrey says "Sey-Ho" rather than "Horsey" so we were hoping that he would be awake and happy enough to see them, but by the time we got there he was asleep. He had his days and nights a little confused then.

Cory: We took turns watching the kids during the rides that they could not go on, though Peggy and Phil did most of the watching. It was nice to take a break once in a while and take some time to enjoy the carefully prepared atmosphere and do some people watching. There are some real characters that go to Disney Land.

Tricia: I've people watched for years, but a good crowd is priceless! We were worried about people looking at us funny with our kids in their "buddy" backpacks, but I saw a bunch and it wasn't bad at all.

Cory: The exit to all of the big attraction rides are conveniently located next to a souvenier store of a similar theme. We did have some fun browsing and making a purchase here and there. I came away with a new hat to protect me from the sun.

Tricia: The souvineers we got for Jeffrey had meaning with the few rides that he rode, he went on and hated Pirates of the Caribbean but my mom and dad gave him the dog with the keys so he'll be able to remember that for a long time.

Cory: Our hotel was only a few mintes drive from the Disney Land park and served a decent continental breakfast. This made it possible to eat on our way out the door and start out the day right. Of course lunch was an expensive purchase each day in the park, but it prevented having to pack up all three kids and work our way out to the car, leave, eat and return. It does not sound like much, but that would have actually ammounted to a lot of missed time on the rides.

Tricia: Lunch at the park was crazy, the hard part was trying to find a seat for 8 people. More than once two of us would stalk a dining area and wait for a table to clear out.

Cory: This did turn out to be a nice time to get to know Peggy and Phil better for me. We had plenty of time to talk and we got to see each other work with and around the kidos.

Tricia: It was good for Jeffrey to get to know his cousins too. They were a little wary at first around each other but at the end of the week he was excited to see them in the morning.

Cory: I stood up with Phil at the back of the theater seating to take photos of the whale show with Shamu. I was able to see over heads and take photos without getting in anyone else's way.

Tricia: Once again I'm drawn to my often pondered thought, "Are the whales really happy?" I just don't know. I'm hoping that they

Cory: Our umbrella stroller that we packed all the way from Germany was worth bringing with. Although Jeffrey did not always want to ride in it, we were able to quickly move from one place to another without having to herd cats in a crowd of people. This also gave us a place to hang hats and bags.

Cory: After the drive to San Diego we entered the Sea World park in time to make it to our appointment to have breakfast with Shamu. Our table was set as close to whales private tank as you can get. We ate a continental breakfast while watching a few trainers send the whales around the tank. Jeffrey stood up on his chair to look over the short fence next to us to get a better view. He was hardly interested in his breakfast.

New Phones

One of the first things that Tricia and I did when we made it to the great USA was purchase cellular phones for ourselves. Adding up all of the offers and rebates together we paid a $25 for each phone along with a monthly plan that will allow us to call family and friends as often as we desire and use many of the features of the phones. I am amazed at what such small devices are able to do. We have internet, GPS, texting with photo and video, and many other features that add up to make the tiny device and abundance of use.

The First Day of Our Disney Land Adventure

We all went to bed early last night in preparation for getting up at midnight to set out on our journey toward Disney Land in California. We arrived safely, but it was quite a trek to get here. Tricia and I switched out driving often to give each other a chance to rest and make the journey as safe as possible. No macho here; I turn the wheel over to here at the first sign of drowsiness.

We ate breakfast at IHOP; a goal of Tricia to complete. We stopped at the outlet stores in Barstow where I purchased a great new leather satchel bag and Tricia a beautiful and stylish wool coat from the leather factory.

We arrived at our hotel with just enough time to clean up, get settled and ready for our dinner with pirates. Jeffrey was scared of the loud noises and bright lights of the show going on before us while we ate dinner, but he soon fell asleep and astounded me with what tumult he is able to sleep through. We all enjoyed the show of acrobat pirates on a small stage in front of us built to represent a sailing ship and an evening of sword fighting adventure.

Staying at the Brown Home

The Brown family has been good enough to set us up a room in their basement for Tricia, Jeffrey and me to sleep in. There is not much space in the room than to do just that, but who wants to hang out in a bedroom while on vacation. Not us. It has been fun to watch Jeffrey interact with his cousins each day. This is the first time he has been around the same children day after day as though they were sisters to him. He is doing very well with it and we hope that he will pick up some good social skills from it.

I stepped out into the front yard to take these photos of the yard which typify the atmosphere of the Brown home.

Friends

I paid a short visit to Robert and Becky Marsh, friends which I have not seen in three years. Since we do not get to see each other very often I brought my camera along to get a few snaps.

Best Time for the Worst Things

I took my car to the car wash to get the grime off of it that had collected from Texas to Utah. When I turned on the car nothing happened. I was stuck at the wash. I called Phil Brown to get some help since he has the day off and we identified the problem at the battery. Just across the street from us was an auto parts store where we bought what we needed and the car started right up.

When this first happened I thought of it as a real inconvenience, but after giving it some thought it really is a great blessing. The battery was about six years old, the normal life span of a battery and it did not go out on me during my journey from Texas to Utah, nor did it wait to die in a few two days when we would be on our way to Disney Land. It died just a few blocks from our temporary home, at a time when someone was able to help, and only a short walk away from the replacement we needed.

Crossing the Ocean

Looking back it is amazing how far we have traveled in seven days.

Monday – Movers came to pack up all of our possessions and box them away. We were impressed with how well everything was packed and inventoried so we have no worries that all of our items will arrive to Colorado with no trouble. With no furniture in the house at all we spent the night in the on post hotel, the Tower Inn.

Tuesday – I met the housing inspector in the afternoon. She was obviously impressed with how we had cleaned and did not make me pay for a missing room key. As the movers were packing up and emptying out rooms we had not much to do except clean as items were moved out. While driving down the street the Gage’s car died on me and I had to push it into a parking stall close by. ADAC came out to tow the car back to the Gage home and we followed behind in a car that SSG Berry from the Academy was kind enough to lend us.

Wednesday – Final out process procedures completed for the Army and we had plane tickets in hand.

Thursday – I picked up my leave form and saw the academy for the last time. We moved out of the Tower Inn and over to the Morris’s who had us for dinner, allowed us to spend the night. I returned SSG Berry’s car and took the walk to the Morris home with my camera in hand to take a last opportunity to shoot Grafenwohr, Germany.

Friday – Cori Morris drove us to the Nuremburg airport. Our flights took us from there to Amsterdam, and then on to Dallas. Jeffrey was amazingly great on all of the flight. He slept, watched the TV in front of him, played with cars, and held our hands. Just before landing in Dallas one of the stewardesses commented to us on how surprised she was on Jeffrey’s calm behavior during all 10 hours of the flight. We touched down in time to pick up the Pontiac shipped ahead of us, but the luggage was still back in Germany and would have to catch up the next day. We looked out onto the American country side and stores the way that I did the first days that I was in Korea. It is a change to come back.

Saturday – We used the car to go to the Sprint store to buy cell phones, which we used to call family to let them know that we did not have the car yet and we would not be home until the planned day of Tuesday evening. Hehe. Our luggage arrived in the evening and we got it ready to go for the next day’s travel.

Sunday – The first day of journey by car took us from Lake Dallas, Texas all the way to somewhere just beyond Denver, Colorado where we stopped for the night. We only let Phil know of our true plans so that someone had an idea of where we really were. During the car journey Tricia and I listened to the audio recording of Eragon. Jeffrey was again very good during the journey.

Monday – Awaking early we took the final leg of the Journey to Utah where at about 1300 we pulled into the Brown’s driveway and gave everyone a big surprise. Later in the evening we went over to the MacNeil’s where we baffled them as to how we could have arrived so soon.

In the Mail

During our last days in Germany after our household goods had been picked up we were quickly running short on clothing for Jeffrey because a package we were depending on had not yet arrived. Tricia had me checking the mail every day for this parcel that had been long overdue. On the last day of our time in Germany she insisted that we check the mail one last time, and to my surprise she walked out of the mail office with a box. After waiting over a month for this, that could not have come any later and made it with us.