May 2010- Visiting Family in the States... Part I:

I feel a little overwhelmed to update all the photos I have taken over the past 3 months, and I'm trying to convince myself that if I do it little by little, it won't be so bad...however, that is not my style..I like to do EVERYTHING all at once. So I will try to do this in Parts to break it up a bit.

We'll start with the Month of May, when we decided to take a chance with Space-available military flights that are not that reliable and very unpredictable, but if you have the patience and flexibility, it can save you money...at least on airline tickets that is.

Our Flights to and from Japan:
The cool thing about flying with the military, is you never know what your gunna get, but our flights off the island turned out to be pretty stinkin' awesome. We flew on a C-17 which was Ginormous inside (it can hold tanks and cars and stuff) and we had the whole plan almost to ourselves and for 9 hours on this flight, the kids just ran around and slept. Our second flight was a refueling plane that actually refueled other planes mid-air...sweet!


Another cool thing was that they are very relaxed about meeting the pilots and Ben got personal cock-pit tours on 3 different planes and is convinced that after he becomes an engineer, an astronaut and a train conductor, he will then become a pilot...in that order.


One our way home from our trip, we were waiting on the flight-line for our plaen to be ready, and we saw Air Force One on the runway at the military base what was refueling while Pres. Obama was in SF on some tour. They told us we could only take pictures from inside the car for security purposes, so this is the best I got of Air Force One.

Visiting the Petrini's for Mother's Day:
When we first arrived in the states, we stopped in San Francisco to see the Petrini side of the family and spend Mother's Day with Grammi and Papa.

We went for a nice "Mother's Day" walk in the woods and came across almost too many Salamander for my liking....but the kids loved them.


We were also able to relax for a few days before we continued to Utah to help my parents clean and move out of the home I grew up in for more than 23 years. It was a very daunting task as 23 years worth of stuff began to surface as we cleaned out the plethora of closets and bedrooms, but after 2 weeks, my family and I were able to get the house in order and ready for the market.



Some of my favorite things about this house is the newer and fabulous kitchen:


And of course, the in-door, swim-year-round, party-at-my-house, pool:

My room that I spent most of my life in:

And some other rooms that we seemed to spend lots of time in, either watching a good movie together, or staying up late until the wee hours talking about life:




I will miss this house, as it brings with it so many memories that I love to share with my kids when they come visit Grandma and Grandpa Coleby, but with my parents being "empty nesters" now, they needed a smaller space they could use and keep up.

So here are a few pictures of their new digs, which has a fabulous view of Utah Lake and still has plenty of space for all the family to come visit (a little more crampt, but still doable). :)





BTW, if you know someone looking for home in an awesome neighborhood...the house is on the market now and needing a good family to fill it's halls for another 23 years. :) It's got 8 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, movie theatre and game room in the basement and more nooks and crannies to play endless games of hide-and seek in. I will truely miss this place!

I have much more to post, but will continue in my next segment: Part II: Places we visited in Utah. To be continued...