Moving

One major downside to being in the Foreign Service is moving.  A lot. After two tremendous years in El Salvador, we weren't even moving to a different continent.  Staying in North America, but shifting up from tropical to near-tundra.  Ok, yes, Vancouver is the warmest city in Canada.  So we're wimps!  Here is the timeline on this beauty of a move:

May 20-22: Pack-up of our belongings in El Salvador.  Beginning of living-out-of-our-suitcases lifestyle.

On the BYU Cougar in Provo

May 31: Flight from San Salvador to DC.  Mercifully, a direct flight had started a few months before the flight!  Bless you United!

June 2: Day trip to New York.  Never, ever drive to New York City if you can help it.  The tolls will alone will set you back a paycheck, and the traffic is killer.  We rolled back to Virginia at 4 am the next morning.

On our way to my birthday dinner (it closed before we got there!)

June 12: Flight from DC to Utah.  Another direct flight!  2 for 2 United!  Long day.  Especially when I realized that the rental car place closed and I hadn't told them I was coming late.  Whoops.  All kids are jet lagged and dropping like flies.  The rental place helped us out though, and even though they gave away our Grand Caravan, they hooked us up with a Durango.  We barely squeezed in!

June 13-15: Provo, UT, with the indefatigable Uncle J and Aunt Rhonda!  Great hosts.  Love Provo!

June 15: Drive down to St. George.

July 8-10: Road trip to Las Vegas.  St. George is sure a beautiful city.  And warm.  Almost every day was over 100, and a couple of 110 days.

July 16: Pack up the car to go back up to Provo.  Going on 60 days living out of the old suitcases!  Stay with Aunt Ruth and Uncle Ed and drop by to see the Hansens.  Love the Broadbent fam!

Fireworks with the Monroes on the 4th.

July 17: Fly to Vancouver.  Okay, United, 2 for 3.  Major strikeout.  Apparently the puddle jumper to San Fran always gets delayed by fog, so we showed up several hours late and of course missed our connecting flight to Vancouver.  Many hours in SFO later, we finally get on another one.  Note: Never change currencies in an airport! Luggage does not come with us, so we make it to our extended stay hotel at almost midnight and drop into bed.

July 18: Luggage arrives half-way through my first day at work.  Fortunately, my hotel is close, so I can go home and change.  The hotel does miraculously have three bedrooms but it is super tiny.  Also, no A/C.  Houston friends, yes some places do not have A/C!  Wouldn't be so bad, but it is a very sunny July, and our windows face the west.  Some very warm, sunny evenings!

July 31: Retrieve car from shipping company.  It is missing a stereo/DVD system.  Boo.  Our (unwilling) parting gift to El Salvador.  I spend all day trying to get the car up to Canadian specs (daytime running lights?  What is the point of having lights run during the day???) so they will let me drive it.  I then spend more on car insurance than I have in the last 5 years combined for a single year's coverage.  At least we finally have a car and are done with 2 months of rental cars.

August 1: Move into our house and get millions of boxes, but no furniture.  Furniture shipments somehow got a late start out of DC, and won't show up until later.  At least we are no longer living out of suitcases!

Hiking in St. George

August 15: Baby is born.

August 20: Furniture arrives.  We find out the morning of.  We'll take it!

That was our summer adventure of transition.  Whew.

Levi William Broadbent

After less than a month in Canada and only two weeks in our house, we trekked over to Lion's Gate Hospital on late Wednesday night.  Early on Thursday, August 15, Levi William was born.

Welcome to Canada!

Such a sweet boy.

Monroe Party Time

If there is one thing the Monroes excel at, it is packing a lot of activity into a short amount of time.  For the 4th of July weekend in St. George, they were there for a tour de force:

Baseball in the morning

Music

Fireworks

Boating

More boating

Still on the boat

Hiking

River walking

Living it up with the Monroes!

Past and Present

We greatly enjoyed having the McKays live nearby us in El Salvador.  We had great compatibility between families.  Here is a picture from Christmas Eve of 2011:

And 18 months later, meeting the McKays in Washington state in July of 2013:

Summer of (St) George - The City

Many people thought St. George was an unusual place to choose to spend the summer, especially as we had no family there.  After all, the temperatures were regularly above 100 (a few days around 110) in the summer, and it was miles from the beach.  But St. George has a lot of things going for it:

1. Not too far from San Diego and Salt Lake.  San Diego had the Monroes, and Provo-Salt Lake had plenty of friends, family, and the BYU.

Go Cougars

2. St. George is very close to Zion's National Park, and we had been wanting to go there for a while.

St. George Temple

3. For a summer vacation rental, St. George has great prices!  Peak season is winter/spring, and people actively avoid St. George in the summer. 

It's a great place, and if you have a few weeks to spend in a random place, think of St. George.

We spent a lot of time in the pool.

Jacob Hamlin Home

Hitting the batting cages

Some family fun

On the way to my birthday dinner.  Wound up closing before we got there.  Settled for McDonald's.

The Many Faces of James

Perhaps no child is quite as photogenic as this boy:

Turning 3

Yoga with a new haircut

Chilling by the pool

Batting Practice Boy

Driving the Boat

Cruising the Town

Been a long day

Beach serious

Proud Brother

The Swimmer

The Knight

That's all folks!

Summer of (St.) George - Hiking

I started to write about our month in St. George this summer but realized our hiking pictures would take a whole posting.

Watchtower

Kolob Canyon

Angel's Landing

Pack Mule is tired

Narrows

Kolob Canyon

Red Rocks