August 2012

Dear Friend,
We miss you! What a whirlwind this month has been!  But with all the travel, it has been fun to see a few of you!  I was able to meet up with my high school friend Meghan in Albuquerque and we couldn't have made our journey to New Zealand without the help of many friends & family!  Huge thanks to Mom, Chelsea, Corie, Nettie & Whitney!!!

 

The month began with a grateful goodbye to Summer’s harness.  It feels a little strange - this thing (or a similar version) has been with us since birth.  24/7 for the first three months, and then at bedtime thereafter.  We are so grateful that the doctors caught it early and no surgery was necessary.  Here’s to Summer’s perfect hips! Hurray!

The first few weeks of August were spent checking off every last thing on our bucket list for Santa Fe.  I had made an adventure board in our apartment and we filled it up and checked it off to the very end. 

 Summer and I made it to most of the top sites of Santa Fe. We went on weekly adventures with our friend Britney. This is us at the Oldest House in America.  Yes...it's located in Santa Fe. 

One weekend we were able to have my parents visit.  It was so fun to spend time with them and show them a slice of our Santa Fe lifestyle! 

 

Our absolute favorite part of Santa Fe has to be the proximity to the mountains (well...actually the proximity to Tober - my parents' cabin), but we have loved the local mountains.  On various occasions Summer & I would pick up E from work and drive the 15 minutes into the canyon for a picnic.  Love it!

Our trips down do the temple have also been fun!

 

Our last weekend in Santa Fe was actually spent in Telluride, CO.  It is an absolutely beautiful mountain town that is so remote that many Coloradans have never even been there.  It was a 6 1/2 hour drive, but we figure it would never be more convenient than that, so we made the journey.  It was absolutely worth it!  The views were gorgeous - these pictures really don't do it justice!

 

 

We arrived home Sunday night & Summer & I left Monday morning to go pick up my Mom from the airport and start the trip back to San Francisco.  Ten hours later we arrived in Las Vegas to spend a few days with family at Corie's beautiful new home!  She had made a delicious birthday cake for me and it was so fun to spend time with family! We missed you Dad & Hannah!

 

 

 

From there, Chelsea helped Summer & I make the drive to San Francisco.  That night we said a sad goodbye to Chelsea as she headed back to BYU, and gave a big welcome to E after he completed the last day of his internship and met us in SF.  The next day was busy taking care of business, but then we hopped on a plane to New Zealand and we are now settled into our new home for the next 5 weeks.  Summer has proven herself to be quite the expert traveler.  She was miraculous as we traveled halfway around the world and we are now adjusting to the 18 hour time change.  We're all taking it in stride, but I think we'll be set by the end of the week.  

Anyway, we have fallen in love with Wellington and look forward to sharing our adventures with you next month.  Summer is crawling now & gets more fun by the day.  Elias is working a standard 40 hour-work week and we are able to meet up for lunch. He's never worked this little, and considering he just came from an internship with 70 hour weeks we are loving the extra time in this beautiful city!

 

 

Love you all, 

B,E & S