Utah summer 2017

After arriving in the United States, our summer can be separated into two parts...
Utah and Florida.

This post is about Utah. We arrived on June 14th from Korea. Aaron was still working in Malaysia and I would not see him until I arrived in Florida on June 24th. This gave me 9 days to do the near impossible...alone! 9 days that felt like an eternity in many ways!

But lets start with the fun stuff first...

Because we were flying back with the company, we flew business class. Melynn wanted to sit by her friend Grace instead so she scouted out the people sitting next to Grace and then offered a young Korean man her seat for his. Let's just say he was very excited to have Melynn's business class seat :) 

We all flew to San Francisco but Grace's flight was different after that. She was flying to LAX and then to SLC. The rest of us were flying straight to SLC. So we re-routed Melynn so that she could stay with Grace. This was Grace's first ever visit to the United States and I wanted to make sure that she was taken care of. But here is the fun part of their flight experience...Melynn and Grace happened to be on the same flight as the Championship trophy from the NBA; The Golden State Warriors trophy. There were lots of people taking pictures of it before they boarded the trophy on the plane. 

After they arrived in LAX, the girls went into the bathroom and there they met Anna Sophia Robb. She was in the movie Soul Surfer and many others.  They actually talked to her for a little while and she was very nice to them.

The not so fun stuff...

My to do list!
Though I am sure I have forgotten at least 10 other things that I did.

Take Darby to get a TB shot

Renew our passports
Get a new iPhone
Sign up with Verizon on several phones 

Renew registration on the Ford Focus

Talk to bank about Darby and Melynn's checking accounts

Take Darby to the eye doctorTtake Darby to the chiropractor

Take Darby shopping for school clothes, dorm essentials, college essentials etc...

Take Darby to the doctor
Make sure Darby drives as much as possible!
Get Jaxon ready for Adventure for Youth.
Take Jaxon to SLC to get on bus...pick him up 5 days later.

Make sure to visit a few family members
Visit Lana and Aisa, expat friends from Japan and Oman!

Take Melynn and Grace to tour the University of Utah

Sign papers at Bank of America

Get a notary for B of A

Re-sign papers after B of A screwed up!
Take Grace to the airport
Pick up rental car
Take Melynn to Aunt Kristi's
Move Darby into her dorm
Make sure Aaron orders a new fridge and beds to sleep on

But we were able to squeeze in a few fun things as you will see in some photos below.

After we landed and finally made it to Dad and Terry's house, this big note was waiting 

for us in the guest room. It was very thoughtful of Terry to give us this warm welcome. 

They were not home yet because they had gone camping and would return the next day.

We went with Kristi and the kids to this pond out in the middle of nowhere! 

Not all of us got in the water since it was so cold. But at least Melynn and 

the boys had fun :) It seemed to be a popular place among the local people.

Ok the photo above is nothing too exciting right? But actually, it was the only photo I took of this day that actually was pretty incredible... We had found out the night before that David Archuleta would be performing at the Layton Outdoor Amphitheater which was just a few miles away from Dad and Terry's. We decided, that even though we did not have tickets, we would pack some snacks and sitoutside the amphitheater so that we could at least hear him perform. The girls were very excited to be close to him and listen even though they would not be able to see him. After we arrived at the park, the girls (Darby, Melynn and Grace) kept trying to sneak around in the bushes to see if they could get a glimpse of David over the amphitheater walls. Nothing was really working out for them. 

But then we found out that they had just a few concert tickets left so I went ahead and bought the girls a seat so they could go inside. This was completely unplanned but the girls were so happy!

On Sunday we all drove in to watch the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform 

for the longest running radio program called "The Spoken Word".

Jay and Karen took us up to Pineview Lake to go boating. Grace had never been on a 

ski boat before let alone go tubing. I was thrilled just watching her 

experience so many "firsts" in her life.

Taylor, Rachel and Evan joined in on the fun.

The time finally came to move Darby into her dorm for the summer. Darby would be taking two classes at BYU...ASL and Missionary Prep. I was so happy that Darby would have this chance to experience dorm life and the wonderful BYU atmosphere. She did not seem too sad to say her goodbyes to us! I think Darby was ready to be on her own:)

A big shout out to my amazing sister in-law Kristi for taking Darby shopping and helping her pick out her dorm bedding and other essentials. This week was a huge mixture of emotions for me and I just could not find the time to get everything done. Kristi came to my rescue! I handed her my shopping list and her and Darby went off while I took Melynn and Grace on a campus tour at U of U. I did not get any photos of us on the tour but it was very informative. Especially for Grace since they had an extension campus near her home town in Korea!

 The day after moving in Darby, Jaxon and I got on an early flight to Jacksonville. Melynn stayed back with Aunt Kristi, Uncle Dave and kids for the weekend where they would then put her on a plane to Seattle so she could visit some friends.