Exploring around Miami, Oklahoma

We've been having fun getting to know Miami and being home together. It's quite a change from being in busy Europe but we love the small, simple life in this small town. Our GPS doesn't work very well so we've had to use a map to make sure we don't get lost.

Lunch time with these cuties!

Home Sweet Home! We're apartment H on the second level, second door from the left. 

The Gateway sign is the beginning of the main street in town. The horses and donkey's in this field are near our apartment. They are so pretty! 

   

Naomi and I walked down main street one night and had a really great time. I've missed spending one-on-one time with her. She's so fun to be around!

Our apartment is smack-dab in the middle of Historic Route 66 so we drove it one day to Kansas and then stopped in Galena to see some of the characters from the movie "Cars".

     

The river near our house is so pretty! It was actually incredibly hot and we only walked down for a few seconds before we were too hot. 

Naomi in Oklahoma

We arrived in Miami, Oklahoma the middle of August and loved the little town. It is on Historic Route 66. It is quite a bit smaller than we thought but there is a WalMart and a Dollar Store so we are fine. Chris really likes working with Dr. Scott at the Indian Health Servies clinic. He comes home and tells me all the funny things they've joked about and it seems they laugh a lot but still get a lot done. It's another adjustment moving to another town. Our ward is very small but so amazing! We got invited to dinner at the Downum's home and we had a lot of fun. The people here are very nice and have a wonderful southern accent. We also make trips to Joplin, Missouri which is a bigger city so we can do more things. It's about 40 minutes away and costs $1.25 on the toll roads.

Anyway, one night after dinner, Naomi and I went out before sunset to get some pictures! We had a really great time together! When I asked her if we should do her hair in a bun she said, "Yeah, a Mia bun!"

I can't believe she's growing up so fast. Where did the time go?

 

   

Home Sweet Home

We left our hotel at 5:15am, turned in our rental and got to the check-in with some time to spare. We checked our bags but didn't think we'd make the flight. As we quickly went to the next terminal we found a huge line to the gates. So we stood in line and thought we're going to miss this one for sure, a gate agent came through the dividers and said, "You all can come with me." and took us to the front of the line. It was a tad embarrassing because others were wondering why we were chosen but we were too! It might have been because we had two kids, or we looked so raggedy and disheveled they felt sorry for us, or we won a contest with the gate agents behind the scenes... I don't know but this kind act made us get to our gate on time!! We talked to the gate agent and he said we probably wouldn't make it or just a couple of us would. So we divided up bags and made plans to who would take who and they started closing the flight. I was so sad, we were so close! Then the gate agent yelled to us that we had made it and to hurry and board. Miracle #2! It was a bit frantic then and we just grabbed bags and kids and ran on the plane like crazy people. Chris and Naomi sat in front of me and Fiona and a nice gentleman.

This flight was perfect as a sunny, summer day. The gentleman guy was so nice and understanding. Fiona was mostly happy and slept easily when she was tired. Naomi played with toys and watched hours of Frozen. Chris and I tag-teamed and we landed with tired-smiles :) We had landed in Michigan and went straight to Chipotle. Ahhh, Mexican food! We didn't make the next flight to Salt Lake so we were preparing to stay a night after trying the next flight. It didn't look great either but then the gate agent called our names and we ran on again! Miracle #3! We all sat together this time and it was a smooth-ish flight. Only because we were so jet-lagged and tired of flying.

 

We got off in Salt Lake and was greeted by Mia and Scott. It was so nice to be able to speak English to everyone and to hear English spoken by everyone. We had been in a little 'language bubble' for so long.

After being home a few days, Chris and I drove to Oregon to interview with a doctor in Washington. It was a great interview and we'll see what happens with it. We stopped off and stayed with the Goodfellows and saw their house and saw some sights near them. We had a really fun time! The next day there were huge fires in Oregon and Washington and it took a few hours longer to get to Cour De-Alene, Idaho to see our friends the Chariton's. It was so nice to visit them and chat like old times! Cour de Alene was beautiful!

When we got back to Utah we visited family and friends and had a blast! Family time is the best time!

We left the next day, bright and early at 5 am to head to Miami, Oklahoma to start 2nd rotations.

Amsterdam: We Came Full Circle

We arrived at our hotel in Amsterdam, got food and ate lunch under the shade of a windmill! Then we went to a flea market and enjoyed all the knick-knacks of the Netherlanders. We wanted to go see Anne Frank's house but there were so many tourists we couldn't really get close. We didn't get tickets ahead of time so we couldn't go on a tour and I truly wished we could have. Amsterdam was very different in August than it was in May. There were a million tourists everywhere. We ducked into a cheese museum to get some relief from the tourists and it was really great! They had samples of every type of Gouda imaginable and we happily tasted them all with little toothpicks.

We found an awesome drawing of a windmill. It is a sketch that says, "Molen, Amstel" on the bottom. It was so neat to find it because Amstel is where we stayed when we first came to the Netherlands.

Glorious cheese!

A delicious calzone biger than Naomi's head! Chris and the gang in front of the Anne Frank house, also being blinded by the sun's reflection off a trash can. 

Chris and Naomi playing a game in the grocery store. Also, notice the eggs on the shelf to the right. They aren't in the refrigerated section. No eggs were put in a fridge, that we saw. And these eggs are soooo good! They are so creamy and cheesy that it took a minute to get used to them but they are definitely more tasty than the ones in America.

After touring the city for a bit we wanted to go to Haarlem and see Corrie Tin Boom's house. I put the address in the GPS and it took us 45 min in the opposite direction. By the time we got to wherever it was we were, it was too late to drive back to Haarlem and get in a tour. We were pretty upset but it couldn't be helped. So we grabbed dinner near our hotel. After dinner we headed back to the hotel to try and pack our bags smaller and get rid of unneccesary weight. One funny story: when we arrived at our hotel the room had trash on the desk and the beds weren't made like a maid had done it and towels were on the floor in the bathroom. When we were heading out to get food we mentioned this to the front desk and they said, "Oh, ok." When we got back the room was all clean and perfect. It was funny because, in America they would have been very apologetic and may have given us a free stay or something. Europeans aren't too big on customer service we noticed. Just differences in culture :)