9000 Miles, 15 states, and 11 GB of pictures later...

Our last few days hanging out with Susan and Paul were fun, despite both of them (and Adam) coming down with some kind of stomach bug. Adam and I were also able to drive down to Provo to meet with Paul Schramm and his wife at a Brazilian steakhouse.

For Memorial Weekend, we went back to Syracuse to spend the rest of our time in Utah with Amy and the family again. It was a lot of fun hanging out with the family (I scrapbooked with Amy, we went on a picnic, I played a loooong game of Monopoly with Arianna, and we watched the girls for a day when Amy went in for her eye surgery and took them to their singing recital). We are really glad we got a chance to spend time with them before we head out., though Adam and I also ran a lot of errands while we were in Utah. I hope that Kevin (who served his mission in Ecuador) and Amy are able to come visit.

My niece Arianna kicking my butt at Disney Monopoly

Amy & I finding time to scrapbook!

Chalysse and Serenna on our picnic...aren't they cute!

Chalysse and Arianna with the hammock that Mark put up on the swingset

The girls after their singing recital

Then it was off to California! We made a pitstop in Salt Lake to see Jared one last time. Then it was a loooong drive back to Ridgecrest. We were there for a few days where I had the chance to spent time with my parents- we even had time to make some zong (see video below). It was so nice to be back home again!

Our road trip was a lot of fun and was definitely worth going on. We were able to meet and talk with a lot of interesting people on our trip, see a lot of amazing things, and really have a nice introduction to more regions of the US. We put a lot of miles on our lovely Matrix and took a ton of photos, but it is nice to be in one place...even if it is just for a few weeks!

In the next blog post, I'll write about our time in the OC and what we've been up to this week in the 'crest!

For your enjoyment, some videos from the past few weeks:

My nieces showing me around their room!


Arianna and Chalysse telling me about their chickens



Our nieces' singing recital- they did awesome!

I'm not sure if this video will work, but I'm trying to get it loaded since it is a bit longer and larger. On May 28, it was the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival, and one of the traditions is to make zongzi (click the link to read more about the story behind the festival and the making of zongzi). I was so happy that I was in Ridgecrest with my parents, and we spent that evening wrapping zongzi, which I happily ate for dinner and for lunch the next day. I believe that we have plans for making more "zhong" as I call it, this weekend while Susan and Betty are in town too. Essentially, it is sticky rice with different fillings (like Chinese sausage, peanuts, etc.) and then wrapped in bamboo leaves and boiled. Yum!!