Family Pictures, Summer Fun, Catching Up, Big Changes!

Our summer went down a little differently than planned. A one-month visit to Utah turned into almost two, which allowed a lot of family and friend visiting and some wonderful memories made. D spent 5 weeks there instead of 5 days as originally planned. He studied for the DAT (dental school admissions test), took it, and got a great score! He is currently in the applications process for entry next summer/fall. We don't know where yet. We're hoping we get in the first try!

He is currently finishing up some dental school pre-requisite courses at UTEP, which has necessitated a move for us. We are no longer living in Mexico, we are back in the States a bit earlier than planned. We have mixed feelings about this. We miss our friends and family terribly. We miss our ward, our (newly remodelled, almost-doubled-in-size) home, our normalcy there. I am feeling a little better being able to visit every couple of weeks. I am offering pedicures there whenever we visit and the last visit was fun and busy that way! Lots of cute toes. I am offering the same thing here for those of you in this area :-)

We are very excited for the services we are getting J back into, the schools, therapy, bus transportation, everything we left before when we left the states. It is bittersweet.

I feel like something has been torn out of me and the hole will remain. In many ways, our little town in Mexico will always be home.

On a brighter note, our wonderful friend in Utah took our family pictures (again!). She lived in California and we were good friends there, both being from Utah. Her husband worked with D at the same office in Irvine. We all, including one other dear family, had year passes to Disneyland and spent a lot of time there, and she took our pictures during Christmastime there. Thank you M! Here are some samples. They're not all edited yet, but I love them!!!!