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This past weekend, Adam’s parents returned home from their 18-month public affairs mission in Nairobi, Kenya. Before going to their homecoming in Green River, Utah, I went up to visit my family in Boise, Idaho. It was great to be home for a few days and see everyone, especially my adorable niece Alexis. I ate lots of delicious food, got to relax, enjoy cooler weather, and catch up with everyone. I didn’t take many pictures, but here are a few from Boise.
Kim likes bacon.
I was able to finally finish making this elephant blanket for Alexis while I was there.
On Saturday, I flew down to SLC and met my Dad and Sandy who were gracious enough to give me a ride to Green River. Everyone from Adam’s family was already there when I arrived, including the missionaries. They got home on Friday evening, and it’s a pretty long flight from Africa, hopefully they’ll get over their jet lag soon. They gave their homecoming addresses in church on Sunday, and both were excellent. I was impressed with their testimonies and their love for the people in Africa. Adam and I hope we’ll be able to go on a mission together in a few years (decades) too. After church, there was a picnic in the backyard and the missionaries were released. Unfortunately, we didn’t take many pictures with our camera, but it was awesome. The food was delicious and the company was excellent.
Future missionaries.
On Monday, we did some things in Green River, and then headed up to Stansbury Park for the night before our flight left early Tuesday morning. We got there just in time for Hunter and Joseph’s baseball games, which lasted for about 10 minutes before it started raining. Luckily we got to see both boys hit. Here are some pictures of Joseph.
It was great to see all our family again, and we’re very grateful to all those who fed us, housed us, and drove us around. We’ll do the same for you if you ever come visit us in Texas, hint, hint!
This past weekend, Adam took me on a surprise trip to California as a graduation present. In truth, I should have been the one taking him on a trip, since he’s the reason I was able to survive graduate school. He faithfully attended numerous recitals and concerts, endured many of my practice sessions at home, and he even packed me lunches almost every day for school. He is the best.
Anyway, for our trip, Adam came home early from work on Friday and told me to pack a suitcase. We jumped in the car and headed to Joshua Tree National Park in California. We spent the night there camping and looking at the prickly trees, bushes, and really bright stars.
 Yucca, relative of the Joshua Tree  Blooming Cactus  Cholla Cactus  Joshua Tree  Overlook in Joshua Tree National Park The next morning, we took our time driving out of the park before heading to Los Angeles, where we were staying downtown at a hotel! I was so excited. On our way, we stopped in Hollywood and walked along the Walk of Fame. This is the only star I saw that I wanted a picture of:
 Igor Stravinsky Star After Hollywood, we checked into our hotel and walked to the nearby Walt Disney Concert Hall to get rush tickets to see the LA Philharmonic perform. The building is pretty new and very modern, and has a really cool garden on the second story. We walked around a bit, then got in line to get tickets. The concert that night was really awesome, and our seats were great. The orchestra played Tchaikovsky’s Francesca da Ramini and Prokofiev Symphony No. 5. The LA Phil is a great orchestra, and I really enjoyed the concert. My husband knows me well.
 Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall  The view from our room  Exterior of Disney Concert Hall  Flower fountain made from broken porcelain 
The final morning, we enjoyed the Marriott’s delicious buffet breakfast for free! Adam was given a gift certificate from work, so we stuffed ourselves with their delicious selection of foods. I wasn’t sure Adam was going to be able to eat the 3 plates of food he got, but he made me proud. After checking out, we walked to the MOCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and saw some interesting artwork. Some of it we really liked, some of it was just weird, and the rest left us baffled. We enjoyed the Rothko and Pollock paintings, as well as some of the sculptures and other displays. There was also an entire exhibit by a more recent artist, which neither of us understood at all. After the museum, we hit the Santa Monica beach, which was super crowded, and then braved our way back towards Phoenix through the crazy LA traffic. I don’t know how people can handle that traffic everyday!
 Jackson Pollock Painting
 Stones on Blocks inside the Museum of Contemporary Art  Standing in front of a Rothko I couldn’t have asked for a better trip, we had a great time spending the weekend away from the heat. I love you Boots!
Nadine graduated this weekend. She has insisted I call her master even since we married, now it’s official. Dishes? Yes, master. Blog about graduation? Yes, master.
Seriously, it’s official, Nadine has a graduate degree in music—Master of Music in flute performance, to be exact. I’m very excited for her accomplishment. Nadine performed in the university’s orchestra, several bands, numerous chamber groups, within recitals, in her own recitals, and as a soloist. She also taught undergraduates, taught privately, taught the LSAT (not applicable to the degree), and was taught by professionals. All of her work paid off, as she is now has a graduate degree. She also finished with a 4.0 (99% sure, not all grades have been reported). Smarty pants. She had a great professor in Dr. Buck who taught her well.
Graduate festivities included sitting out in the Arizona sun for several hours as we waited for commencement to begin. I picked up Nadine’s mother from the airport, then we rode the light rail to the stadium. Apparently they had someone important speaking, so we had to arrive early to get through security. We spent our time waiting by spotting secret service and other law enforcement around the stadium. Fun game.
 Is that a sniper? Nadine snapped a well-timed picture of Alice Cooper.
 School's Out Forever While we were in our seats, Nadine was on the field. See if you can spot her in this picture, like Where’s Waldo. Let’s call it Nose out Nadine (best synonym I could find):
 Nose Out Nadine President Obama gave a good speech. He spoke about about increasing your body of work and giving back to society.
 The president on the big screen  President Obama
The next day, Nadine was hooded at her convocation. Maybe you can see in this picture.
 Nadine being hooded by Dr. Buck  Flute Graduates and Dr. Buck
 How sweet
 Mother and Graduate
We had a good time with Nadine’s mom checking out the sites in Tempe.
We’re (or at least Adam) are going to be Longhorns next year. Stay tuned for more details . . .
On Thursday, we went to the Mesa Temple Easter Pageant, called Jesus the Christ. It was awesome. The pageant is a reenactment of the life of Jesus Christ, and it occurs on the back lawn of the LDS Temple in Mesa, Arizona. There were at least a hundred different cast members who acted out scenes of the Savior’s life, set to music and spoken dialogue. The pageant runs for about a week, with two days that are in Spanish. Because it is so popular, we had to arrive about 90 minutes early to get a seat on the lawn. It was packed by the time it started. We didn’t take pictures during the show, but here’s what it looked like. Adam is enjoying the cheap Chinese food we picked up on the way.
 
On Good Friday afternoon, Adam only had to work until noon, so after I finished classes, we headed to San Diego to visit our friends Jenn & Mark and their new daughter Ellie. It was great to meet the adorable Ellie, and fun to hang out in such a beautiful place for the weekend. We are so jealous that they live so close to the ocean. Saturday morning Mark and Adam went surfing (with wetsuits) in the ocean. In the afternoon, Mark had a birthday party with some friends from the ward, and there was a giant food fight. Adam and I managed to stay clean since we were holding Ellie, which worked out nicely for us. In the afternoon after everyone had cleaned up, we went back to the ocean and saw a bunch of seals and then visited downtown San Diego.
   
Sunday morning we went on an Easter egg hunt. Jenn hid 17 eggs that we had dyed around their apartment. She made it the hardest Easter egg hunt ever! All the eggs were completely hidden. I only found 3! Adam and Mark were much more successful, and found the remaining 14 . We had a great time in San Diego, and we’re so glad the Moyles had us.
Not much has happened over the past three months. Not much compares to Africa. It’s probably time for a real blog post anyway. I hope I can avoid making this post a travelogue (doubt it).
We had a great time visiting Elder & Sister Luke in Kenya. They sure seem to be enjoying themselves, and they weren’t alone with all the couple missionaries there. They also seemed very happy to be where they were. I was pleased with their work and the growth they have experienced.
On the way home from Africa, we spent an evening in London. We hurried into the National Gallery and the British Library, rode the Tube and a double-decker bus, saw Big Ben and London Bridge, and visited Platform 9 3/4. We were happy to return home after spending the night in the London airport.
One of the more important events to take place was Nadine’s recital back in February. As her last Master’s recital, She had great variety. She played pieces by Bach, Debussy, Milhaud, Colquhoun, and Jolivet. I don’t really know several of those composers either, but Nadine played each one well. Ask her to show you the “Chip” song.
For a quick overnight trip, we traveled to Yuma to visit Grandma and Grandpa Luke. They seem to be enjoying themselves there. We showed them our Africa pictures and got a tour of the area, including the abundant agriculture and border patrol, The weather has been nice, so we went to a spring training game with the drunken Chicago Cubs fans. We’ve also done a little hiking.
Because of the economic crisis that has taken over the world, we decided to buy a farm where we can sustain all our needs. We plan to live independent from services provided by government just in case the government fails and the rest of the world falls into chaos. We found a nice 7,000 acres in central Arizona that was priced just right. We’ve been commuting up there to take care of stuff until we officially move in next month. We can’t wait.
It already has a well, and we found out today that the water is still good, lucky us. We found several solar panels and wind mills to generate electricity when we need it. The house needs some work, but we’ll manage.
The farm also comes with a small green house, so we should be able to grow anything we want. We also went out and purchased a few animals to live on the farm. A few pigs, a couple cows, and about a dozen chickens are now officially living there. We’re learning how to milk the cows this weekend. I can’t wait for the fresh bacon (assuming we don’t get too attached to the pigs)!
Here’s a picture:
Back in Nairobi, we were able to go to two orphanages for animals. The first one was the animal orphanage, which is right near Nairobi National Park. Here they keep orphaned animals that can’t be released into the wild because they would die. They have all kinds of animals - lions, leopards, ostriches, jackals, monkeys - basically anything you can think of. While I’m glad someone takes care of these animals, it was really sad to see them locked up in cages after we had seen their counterparts out in the wild. This lion did look rather comfortable though.
At the orphanage, we got to pet a cheetah. It’s fur was not as soft as I expected, in fact it was pretty coarse. We also got to hold a baby cheetah! I was scared and so was the cheetah. It calmed down if you let it lick your fingers, and its tongue was just as coarse as its fur.
  
At the elephant orphanage, we got to see baby elephants. At this orphanage, they only keep the elephants for about three years, and they prepare them to be re-released into the wild. Most of the elephants here were hurt or had their mothers die. Baby elephants are like human infants, and they can’t take care of themselves when they are young, so they are brought to the orphanage. At the elephant orphanage, people can only come to see them for one hour of the day, so they don’t get too accustomed to human contact. The workers act like the elephants’ mothers by feeding them, shading them, and taking care of them. After two years in Nairobi, they are taken to Tsavo, where they prepare for one more year before being released.
The first group of baby elephants were all about one year old or less. They were so cute and playful! They come running out to get fed and then they all played around while we watched.
 
The second group of baby elephants were a little older, from one to two years old. They were also very cute.
Yay for baby elephants!
On our final two drives in the Mara, we didn’t see anything too eventful, but we still saw quite a few animals. We saw the crossing, where the animals cross the Mara River every year to go to the Serengeti.
In the water, there were hippos, and on the other side we saw massive crocodiles.
 
We also saw this hippo on land, which was unusual. I think hippos are not the most beautiful animals.
We found another pride of lions, three of which were resting under a tree. Reuben told us that this one had been bitten by a snake near the eye. It reminded me of Scar, from the Lion King.
We saw another pride of lions that had recently killed an elan. Not much was left, and when we went back the next morning, there was absolutely nothing left.
We saw this lion the morning before we left. It was yawning, and we got a pretty good glimpse at his teeth!
We also found the three brother cheetahs again in the afternoon. I think they are beautiful animals. Saturday morning, before we left the Mara, we looked for the mother cheetah that had some baby cubs, but it was too hot, and they couldn’t be found. It is very hard for baby cheetahs to survive, so the mothers keep them well hidden.
We also saw quite a few cape buffalo, one of the big five African animals (the others are elephants, leopards, lions, and rhinos).
These animals are huge, and not very nice, so we stayed out of their way. We saw all of the big five except rhinos while we were at the Mara.
We saw baboons, Blaine’s favorite animal, right across from our tents and out on the plains.
We saw lots of giraffes,
and we saw a lot of birds.
 
 
We also got to see the sun rise over the Mara both mornings we were there.
Back at camp, there was a Masai version of a Christmas tree. I thought it was very festive.
 
We were both so sad to leave the Mara. We really loved it there, and loved meeting the Masai people. We even saw a traditional Masai dance at dinner one evening. They can really jump high! We also really enjoyed having two extra guides on two of our drives: Titus and Koinet, who are Reuben’s adorable sons. They were so cute and loved the elephants, just like me. We’re so glad we got the opportunity to go and see such amazing creatures.
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