M.I.A.

I've been m.i.a. for a long time on this blog. My apologies to those who were left wondering where I was. I got overwhelmed by a bunch of things all at once, or at least in quick succession. The first and by far largest was Macayla got invited to tag along to Thailand with Nate's dad and his family as they went for a visit. Nate's dad married a lady from Thailand and her daughter Chulee is friends with Macayla. So to prepare for this unique opportunity, we had visits to her doctor for immunization updates, a visit to the Health Department International Travel Center for a typhoid shot and other information, packing and spraying all her clothes with mosquito repellent, a trip to Las Vegas with the family to drop her off at Grampa Shelby's, having to leave her there while me, Nate and Jo go back to Utah, leave Jo at Gram Gram's (Nate's mom) house in St. George to go camping in Moab and then coming home to just Nate and me for the better part of three weeks. No kids. Quiet and kind of creepy. You'd think with all the "extra time" I would be able to get all kinds of things done, but I didn't. I had all the right intentions and none of the drive or ambition. We did learn how to dutch oven a bit and as activity chair-people for our ward, we helped plan a multi-ward dutch oven cook off. Other than that, it was pretty boring. Then over the weekend of the 4th we went back to Las Vegas and picked up Jo on our way down and got Macayla back. She has safely returned from half way around the world with many great experiences, lots of new clothes, and a slightly expanded vision of the world. There are adjustments to be made as the girls are figuring out how to get along after being apart for three weeks, but it's wonderful to have them home and safe...I think.