The last leg of our time in the US in 2018 was a trip to Utah. We flew into Salt Lake then left right away to drive down to St. George to pick up Harrison from Boy Scout Camp. We had a lovely visit and I took not enough pictures. Especially photos of friends. We had multiple get togethers and spent some one on one time with different people. It was so nice to see them after 18 months. We enjoyed the desert weather.

 

Oh the open skies of the West how I love you. So much I pulled oven to take a quick picture while driving.

Fry sauce you were missed. I had a complete melt down when we walked into Dairy Queen. They had one of those new digital ordering menus that kept changing screens. Between that and the ABUNDANCE of choices and combinations it took me like 30 minutes to order and the cashier kept asking me if I was ok.

The view from right down the street from our old house. Mesas of Zion National Park. Love you!

We got to visit Great Grandma in her new digs. Odd to not see her in the house I have visited her at for the last 37 years. As you can see my height doesn’t come from the Williams side of the family. My grandma always called me her Amazonian Girl. Her new place has a ice cream bar that family members can enjoy. The kids loved it.

The kids in front of our old house. Lots of feelings!! We peeked through the window too and friends you wouldn’t believe how they have the living room set up. Weird!

The kids petting our old dog in front of our out house. Oliver was born in this home. I grew up on this piece of property. We loved our house, custom designed and built it ourselves. It was the right decision to sell though who knows when, if ever, we would move back. Sometimes this Foreign Service life is hard though.

I was served breakfast by one of my besties and neighbor/surrogate mom. It was so great to see Brenda and family. They take such good care of Mallie(our old dog) and keep me updated on the neighborhood.  I lived in a beautiful place. She said it isn’t the same with us gone and is looking at moving soon as well.

 

So many emotions with going home. Home to where I was born and grew up and home to where my kids spent 11 years of their lives. Family and friends are always good for the heart but as I left I knew it was no longer home for us. Home is anywhere we are together. Home is where we laugh and build memories together in new places and with new people. We traveled onward to Salt Lake City to see friends and family there.

My sister and brother in law are pretty awesome. There is a reason they always rank high, sometimes higher than me, in my kids favorite people. Moving away from my sister has been one of the hardest parts of the last two years. When we arrived they had a pinata for the kids. Dance parties. Video games. Kickball at the park. Hiking. Laser tag. Water park and tons more were all things we got to do with Vivian and Jeff(aka Uncle Party).

They even decorated our hotel room with little eye masks and gift bags. She knows how to make a person feel loved. The “A” in the best day ever sign rotated so from both sides it looked like BEST DY EVER. We agreed I am probably the Best Dy in the world so we left it.

I attended my first year of college at the University of Utah. We went hiking in my old stomping ground overlooking Salt Lake Valley. It was hot but amazing.

Pretty much most of my favorite people in the world.

 

We got to go river walking with one of my dear friends and midwifery soul sisters. Here she is harvesting wild plums which were delicious.

 

Much ice cream was eaten.It is fun to see years go by but friendships endure.

We attended a Pow Wow at Liberty Park. It was crazy hot.

We watched fireworks for the 24th of July.

We went to a family friendly drag show put on to help build trust and communication between the LGBTQA+ community and conservative Utah.

We got to see old friends. Maddie and Dannica have been friends for 11 years. They made a special trip up to Salt Lake from St. George to see us.

Oliver and Camden have been friends since birth. His mother and I were each others midwives and they attended antenatal and postpartum appointments with us until they were both around 8 months old.

Our hotel was packed and we realized many of the people were doing rubix cubing. Turned out there was a national competition in Salt Lake City that week. This nice teen helped show the boys the ropes. Roger was already obsessing with cubing and not it has just taken off even more.

Roger practicing.

Excitedly waiting for a final to start. We were glad we were able to fit in a quick visit.

My sister lives across the street from a park which was great to use up energy and get some exercise. She also offered to take some pictures of us all. Love these kids

 

The kids are expert travelers at this point and handle the long flights wonderfully. Welcome back to Nigeria!