I'm a CopyCat

Or maybe I'm just motivated by other people's goals! Courtney and her friend have committed to blogging again and I am jumping on the bandwagon! To my credit, my dad died, we moved, we travelled, I'm a RS teacher, it's summer, Courtney moved, more trips, I had to finish British Lit and that left NO time.

But is it possible that I can have my normal life back again? Back to blogging! And catching up. Because things have been good and there's lots to remember.

Fun fact: I've been working on remodeling/building a house for FIVE years! We bought this lot 3 years ago and immediately started planning, even though we didn't start building right away. The year before that we remodeled Wander Lane. And the year before that was planning for adding-on to Wander Lane which we ended up not doing and just remodeling instead. But at the time got so far as to have complete architect plans drawn up. So house planning and design has been my side-job/hobby/free-time-fun whatever-you-want-to-call-it for five years. And now I'm practically done!! YAY!! It's kind of like my house-baby grew up and went to Kindergarten and now I'm going to have more time on my hands.

I've deleted all the designers I've followed on Instagram just to commemorate.

Another fun fact: Between July 28 - August 28 I only slept at home 7 nights and was home only 5 full days. Newport Beach family reunion, straight to NYC with Courtney for apt hunting. Home one night and off to Argentina the next day with the fam and Wickhams. Recouped and Regrouped at home for 5 days and Nick and Chris started back to school, then back to NYC to help Courtney move in. Came home Saturday. Feels so good to be home.

1st Day of 7th grade and going to school with his neighborhood friends!! 

Walking to school with Luke & Luke. Possibly the happiest day of his life.

Junior year!

Final fun fact: Even after all that traveling and looking forward to being home, it was so hard to actually leave New York because once there it was so fun. And it was "living there" fun and not "touring there" fun, which made it feel more home-like. But Courtney, Dan and I were so productive and so busy every second getting stuff done to set-up HOME for Courtney, that we didn't get much time to just ENJOY. But after we left, Courtney had down-time and got out to check things out in her new 'hood and then she told me all about it on the phone. And that was just as good for me. (And she started with, "...after you left at 2:00 I finished..." and gave me the details of every. single. day. That's how I love hearing what happened! Don't leave out a single detail.)

Three carts of goods at our 1st trip to IKEA. Dan dealing with major work issues at the same time.

Got it all in the rented truck! Dad's a genius at figuring out the "how we're going to get from here to there."
I'm good at packing it all in! 

Life in the pickup truck from Brooklyn to Manhattan.

Dan building armoire in front room, I'm building table in entry.

Courtney building bookshelf in bedroom. Unfortunately the walls were 2" off from bottom to top
so bookshelf got moved to living room. And it looks really great in there!

What the delivery guy was writing on the sidewalk.

Complete! Looks so good and welcoming! The a-ha moment was the rug. 

Another great rug tied the bedroom together and a perfect place for an armoire to hang her clothes!

Last Day in Argentina

Visiting the mission conference was a great way to end our trip. It was fun to get to see a chapel full of missionaries and think of Marty doing the same thing in Japan. Dan and Kurt did a great job. The funnest part was when Dan mentioned serving in Moreno and a whole group of Elders cheered. Such fun camaraderie!

Elder Bragg

Facturas (croissants and churros!) and Empanadas for lunch.
We didn't have enough churros con dulce de leech on this trip!

Elder Bragg agreed that we should leave after they spoke. So we hurried home to change and while the Wickhams toured the city we chose to try an introduction to Polo lesson. It was a blast! We're all novice horse riders so that added to the challenge. Fernando, our driver in Buenos Aires, is also a Polo player and teaches clinics. We had a great time!

And after our fabulous day, it was time to board a plane and say goodbye to this beautiful country. We had the most amazing time. We are in love with Argentina and it was so wonderful to have a chance to get back and enjoy it our kids with the Wickhams as well!! Such wonderful experiences and memories!

Bariloche Day 2

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day! The boy and I decided we'd stay home and relax for a day since waiting in line to ski wasn't appealing. But Courtney and Dan were die-hards hoping the top of the mountains would be open. The Wickhams all went as well. I stayed home and laid in bed and finished my book. I considered going for a walk -- we were staying in a neighborhood on a golf course and I'm sure it was perfectly safe. But my imagination got the best of me and I was a little afraid walking by myself when not many people were around. And I don't need much of an excuse to talk myself into staying home for a day and reading in bed!

After a few hours, everyone came home. In spite of the beautiful day, the winds were high and the resort couldn't open. The winds didn't seem especially stronger than what we have at home. Dan thought it was possible because their lifts were older they weren't equipped to handle the winds.

The good part of everyone coming home early is we had time to go to town and tour around!

Such a cute town overlooking a beautiful lake! Pizza, pasta and salad for lunch and everyone was happy. We walked through the plaza and shopped in several souvenir stores. To top it off, Bariloche is known for its delicious chocolate -- we could see 7 different chocolate shops while we stood on one corner! 

We had just enough time to chocolate shop and buy a few souvenirs and then we headed back to the airport to fly back to Buenos Aires.

While we were at the airport, Dan received a text from Mark Bragg (Elder Bragg -- do we need to call him that now?), and asked he and Kurt to speak at the Buenos Aires West Mission Conference he was presiding at the next day. We were all excited to attend the mission conference and hear Dan and Kurt speak the next morning.

Skiing in Bariloche

We are spoiled in Utah with our awesome snow, facilities, high-speed lifts and mountains! 

Dan and kids couldn't wait to ski in the middle of the summer. I was excited to see somewhere new and planned on having a good attitude skiing. 

By the time we got to the resort and rented our gear it was afternoon. And raining. We headed to the lifts and were confused which lift to take. Because the line was so dang long. Surely it wasn't for the regular ski lifts. It was. We waited in line for over an hour. And this is when we started to realize how genuinely awesome skiing in Utah is.

Because of high winds, (and probably because of the age of the chairlifts) the tops of the mountains were closed. And literally hundreds of high school kids were on tour groups having a "ski experience" day. Two lifts were running and with so many people in such a small area, the bottom of the mountain was mud! It was definitely a new ski experience for us!

Marty!

Another sign of Marty!

After two runs, Nick and I were soaking wet and freezing and he was done and I graciously offered to sit with him in a restaurant. Soon Chris joined us. Courtney and Dan braved another run. And then we were done.

It was fun practicing our Spanish. And we had amazing hot chocolate at a shop in the village. But I don't think I love skiing so much to trade a summer day.

That evening we had another wonderful dinner with Daniel Dominguez and his beautiful family--another of Dan and Kurt's missionaries who was an AP during their mission. As we made introductions between our three families, he got tears in his eyes and hugged Kurt and Dan, so happy to see they were still active in the Gospel and in their service in the church. It was a sweet reunion once again. This was another "Argentine timeframe" dinner that began at 8:30 p.m. and lasted well past 11:00.  Another delicious meal with families that felt like longtime friends. What a wonderful evening!