Saturday, July 21, 2012

Fei ji

I cannot even half believe that we came home from China one year ago! So much happened the last year it's nuts, but... it also flew by. I don't even understand where the last two years went, seriously.

I was just thinking about trying to explain to my young class of students (they were all ages 6-7) that I was leaving the next day and wouldn't be coming back. It went down something like this:

In my broken version of Chinese

Wo (I) fei ji (flying) mei guo (America) tomorrow. And i twitted my arms int he air like a little bird.
They all stared back at me. So I said it again, much slower. Then I said it in English, with the same movement. Then I said it slowly again in my version of Chinese. Finally, Phil (one of my most favorites, he was sooo cute and chubby and smart) got it. His eyes got really big and he shouted something in Chinese, and my whole class gasped and kept saying noooo and we were sad together.

Living in China was one of the happiest times of my life. Which boggles my mind, because I had almost zero access to the sun (thank you pollution), zero access to food i was used to (pig intestines just weren't doing it for me) and zero access to what i affectionately call a western toilet. But, I did have the cutest little Chinese kids in the world, the sweetest coworkers, and most importantly, Danny. Life was just so simple. No bills, no real expenses, no distractions.

It was so fun working all week and planning all week where we would travel on the weekend. It was fun taking long train rides through the chinese countryside to visit various destinations. It was fun making new friends everywhere we went. It was just dang fun. Chinese people are the kindest people in the world.

My plot for my return has begun.

My boy Phil (described above)

New Mexico-UT

Such a fun leg of our trip. I hadn't seen my Gma in like 10 years, and Danny had never met her. Let me just tell you, Gma Boyd is a hoot and a holler. I finally understand where I get my goofiness, and my need to be outside and always be doing things. 
Her property sits on several acres. It kind of feels like a mini Zion National park-- so many cliffs and rocks to jump around and climb upon. 
We also had tons of fun hanging with Uncle Tom who is living with my gma. This was actually my first time to meet him. He's a Vietnam vet, and totally awesome in every way. 






We found this horse dead still tied to a tree. Breaks my dang heart and also creeps me out that this was on my gmas property. What kind of weirdo does something like this??

Skull.. our little cousin was convinced it belonged to a ravenous wolf.


Love her so so so much


Uncle Tom rules

We hung around Farmington for a few extra hours to hang with these guys for a few minutes at church


Twas worth it to see this face

Onward to Utah!
Not pictured: Colorado



Spent the night in Green River where we attempted a bike ride


packing up the car for the very last leg of our trek!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Bama-Okla

We loved driving through the tunnel crossing into Bama, as pictured in previous post. Also the mile long bridge is always a fav. Alabama intrigues me-- just such a different world in the south. I have secret plans of living in the south again someday. Help me convince Danny. 


We made a quick stop in Clinton to drive around where I lived growing up. I was pleasantly surprised that not much had changed. Except for the color of my house which went from a nice light blue to a shade of peach. Please also note that I am still in my beach attire, because we literally jumped into our car to continue our trek straight off the beach in Destin. 


MS River bridge

My secret to surviving a 44 hour road trip? -- Stuff your face with candy at any every moment possible.

Louisiana was surprisingly creepy. We passed through a town that was literally called "Transylvania" right at sunset-- and was quite possibly the scariest town in America. There was an old school elementary school with creaking signs, no sign of human life, and old abandoned houses. I thought a vampire was going to pop out at any given moment and eat my face. 


Not pictured: Arkansas. Because we drove through it from about 1-4am and also because there is nothing to take pictures of there. 

Oklahoma at last! I was glad to catch up with these two girls. We've been besties since our 8th grade English class. Sara actually gave birth not long after this photo to 2 cute twin boys!

I have never seen an animal love a human more than Matilda loves Danny. She was fronting on my turf. 

Tulsa town

Essential eats when in Okla.

the center of the universe in tulsa-- when you stand in the middle it's all echoey. 

Onward to Texas! aka the armpit of America. To be continued. 

Friday, July 13, 2012

Florida

We left Florida on an early dreary Thursday morning (3 weeks ago yesterday to be exact, crazy). I was sad sad sad that morning but Dan the man was happy happy happy! I am pretty sure he had been looking forward to that moment since the second we arrived in Florida.
Things we will miss most about FL:
- our new buddies
- the beach
- having so many fun things right outside our door (beach, snorkeling, fun restaurants, crazy european tourists, russian mafia, etc)
- the 500000 cultures that somehow coexist there
- year round warmth
Our first stop was Destin, FL (about 9 hrs north of Miami). My family used to vacation here when we lived in MS. It was tons of fun seeing all the old sights i used to see and playing in that delicious brown sugar sand.

Photogs of our last moments in the sunshine state













Tuesday, July 10, 2012

We're Baaaaack!

Three weeks ago on Thursday we left our sunny little Sunny Isles Beach and made the trek across the nation back to Utah. We had tons of little adventures along the way and are trying to make up for 3 weeks of lack of sleep. I have a series of posts coming your way, but suffice it to say that we are still alive and happy despite our neglect of social networking.