New Zealand & Australia: Conferencing in Middle Earth

 Today, we have a guest blogger... Brent! I asked him to write about his trip to New Zealand & Australia, so here we go.

My trip to New Zealand seemed like it took forever to arrive after being accepted along with my colleagues Mason and Chiung Hwang earlier in the year. The International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) conference focuses on various aspects of media. I presented in the Communication Policy group, Mason in Visual Communication, and Chiung Hwang in the Religious Media group. Returning to my first IAMCR conference was great since I attended the Madrid conference before COVID-19. Other than Lyon, France, last year, they've all been online. 

The flight to Christchurch was long, but nothing compared to those from the mainland, whose flights took up to 24 hours. Or those coming from South America or Europe, which took over 30 hours. Chuing Hwang and I were on the same flight, which only took just over 9 hours to Sydney from Honolulu...and another 3 hours to Christchurch. This image shows me crossing the international dateline and into the southern hemisphere, taking me in seconds from summer to winter and a day later.

On the first evening of the conference, Mason (left), Chiung Hwang (middle), and I attended the opening plenary. The theme of the meeting focused heavily on the indigenous Māori people and their traditions. The themes felt quite prescient to BYU-H and many topics discussed at the Oceanian Perspectives on Human Dignity conference I moderated for in April. 

Christchurch definitely has some interesting colonial architecture. It often felt like I was walking through Oxford, for example. One of the private high schools was actually designed with this in mind. This was me on my way back from a New Zealand ward. I got to know some locals who were very excited to hear about BYU-H and discuss my ancestral connections based on the Cowley last name. One couple had two nieces who attended BYU-H, and they asked me to bring some NZ chocolate back for them. To my surprise, they were both COMM majors I will have in upcoming semesters. Their chocolate is definitely different and very good.

The city is surrounded by beautiful little rivers, and like in Eugene, Oregon, you have to find bridges to navigate around the city. New Zealand, including Christchurch, has vastly different landscapes. No wonder they filmed The Lord of the Rings there.

Unlike my colleagues who stayed at a nice hotel (not far from mine), I stayed at a hostel - like I've done in Boston and Denver. Just having a shared bathroom can save you oodles of money.

One of the conference's highlights was connecting with Janet Wasko, who was on my dissertation committee and with whom I worked closely for her What is...conferences, her Disney classes, and other research. She had a book launch for her and Jeremy Swartz's new edited collection, "What is Life," which I helped transcribe, among other things. She is signing a copy of the book she gave me as a thank-you for my work.

One night, after a final session, we went to one of the local theaters in a "mall" that appeared to be in the style of an Oxford building. We saw Struggles without End (Ka Whawhai Tonu), based on the famous novel of the same name. The film perfectly encapsulated the theme of the conference where colonizers upended the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa. It was nice to attend an art-house theater, which I have been unable to do since COVID or really since leaving SLC.

That same night, we ate by a place called "Hell," a Pizza joint with deathly hellish spicy options. All of the names on the menu used variations of things you would expect to see in the land down under (i.e., Hell).

This is an image of downtown Christchurch from the library's top floor. The church shown was damaged during one of the large earthquakes that hit the city in 2010 and 2011. Much of the city has had to be rebuilt. The construction of this church was in limbo starting the exact day we arrived because the workers decided they wanted more money and refused to work. Apparently, this was a typical practice in the city. So, the renovation is sure to take much longer.

As great as the organization was for the conference, one thing that was an epic failure was providing enough seating for lunches. You can see the few tables they offered on the far ends of the large conference auditorium, but pictured here is just one group of people who had to resort to sitting on the floor to eat. My colleagues and I and a couple of other regulars gathered at a table in the foyer for most meals. 

One of the afternoons, Mason and I attended a private tour of the local art galley. It was a newer building since the earthquakes destroyed the original gallery, like many of the original buildings.

The architecture was quite unique. Some of the best exhibits were, in my opinion, those focused on Oceania. One space showed short documentaries made by amateur citizens in Samoa. Tonga, etc. It was great that the conference reflected so heavily on my experience living in Hawaii and teaching at BYU-H. 

For each of the IAMCR conferences I have attended, I have always paid the extra fee to participate in the gala dinner. Considering I do not drink, I certainly never get my "money's worth," but it is a great place to network and visit with past colleagues, friends, and those you meet year after year at communication conferences. Pictured here is my new friend from Germany (left), who usually joined us for lunches at our foyer table, and Joseph, who I met at the Eugene IAMCR and saw again in Madrid. 

I presented on the second to last day of the conference, which is later than I usually present. Each of my colleagues presented earlier and had more time to relax.

The venue for my presentation was located in an excellent library called Tūranga located across the street from the Christchurch Convention Center. Several of the surrounding hotels also held different panels and workshops.

My presentation was on censorship technologies developed in Utah County and the global ramifications of how AI might impact these technologies in the future. My panelists and I had a great conversation with some really lovely questions from the audience. 

Mason thankfully sent me some pictures of me presenting at my panel. 

Right after I presented, we took a tour of Christchurch on the vintage trams that circle the city. 

We saw several areas I knew, including the botanical gardens and Riverside Mall, where we had lunch one day and were close to our hotels. It also took us to various other regions we would not have been able to see without a car. 

At the end of our stop, we went to the Quake City museum, which teaches attendees about the devastation caused by the several quakes that have hit the city. There were so many thrilling stories, artifacts, and demonstrations about why it was so devastating for the region that had not earthquake-proofed many structures. The vast majority of the larger buildings, even hotels designed to withstand quakes, have been rebuilt, condemned, or renovated. 

In some ways, the quakes were a blessing as the city now has a new vibrancy with all the modern buildings that encourage so much tourism. IAMCR would never have been able to meet in Christchurch without the newly revitalized downtown area, which now has room for a large and beautiful convention center. This has also allowed them to create murals throughout the city painted by locals. 

One of the museum's highlights for me was the video testimonials of some of the survivors of the quakes. Some with tragic circumstances of a man trying to find his wife in a burning building, a woman whose fingers were lost when a piece of the wall fell on her hand, or a woman in a swimming pool that turned into a massive sinkhole. It is unimaginable how many lives were taken or altered by the quakes. It is often easy to overlook such devastation. It isn't until you hear it from their perspectives that you realize how fragile life is and how mother nature can quickly change everything.

This shows what can happen to the land with just a little shifting of the earth's crust.

On the last evening of our conference, we said goodbye to Mason. The conference center and the library are in the background. As you may be able to tell, it was not the warmest of places, especially when it rained, but it could have been worse had Jen not insisted on ordering me a bunch of winter items like a coat, gloves, and earmuffs from Amazon.

Later on my last night, The University of Oregon's SOJC (where I received my degree) hosted a dinner for all faculty and alumni. It was great seeing them all again, and I hope to continue to see them once a year at this or other conferences. I can't imagine how much the bill cost for our party...yikes. 

The following day, Chiung Hwang and I got up bright and early at 4:30 am to catch a shuttle to the airport. The time difference was never hard for me because although we were a whole day ahead, we were only 2 hours different from Hawaiian time. This shot is of us taking off from Christchurch and moving towards Sydney. I watched The Piano and The Convert, both set in Aotearoa and, like Struggles Without End, highlight some of the troubled history of colonizers spoiling their culture and native lands.

The flight was not too bad except for the girl next to me, who was clearly ill with something and coughed and wiped her nose constantly. 

Mason flew to Auckland to meet up with his family, who planned a two-week trip. Chuing Hwang and I headed to Sydney, Australia, for an extended layover. Although we were only in Sydney for a few days, we packed so much into our time!

Luckily, we realized we still needed to get a visa to Australia when they would not let me retrieve my bag when landing in Sydney on the way to New Zealand. You can't apply within the country, so thankfully, we could do so when we were in NZ. 

Although we took the train to many places, Chiung Hwang and I spent much time walking around Downtown Sydney. We had initially rented a car for about $25 a day, but parking in the city is like $80-$100 a night, so we scratched that idea and used public transportation, which is fantastic in the city. 

This is a map of the transit system from the airport circling downtown. The train goes directly past the Sydney Opera House.

Our hotels were close to each other and near most of the attractions we hoped to see anyway. I would have loved to have gone to the Sydney Temple, where my grandparents served a temple mission in the late 1980s and early 1990s. As mentioned, we had to rely on public transportation, but it was great to see so much, as seen in the above video. The temple will have to wait for a future trip. 

It was great to see so many iconic sights and locals that you usually only see in the movies. The Sydney Opera House and Bay Bridge were spectacular. 

And, of course, we saw sooooo many seagulls fighting over food and saying, "Mine....mine....mine."

We also took some random ferries that took us to other areas around the bay, like the zoo, but we had no intention of getting off from them. It was a cheap tour of the beautiful bay.

We also walked around the gardens surrounding the opera house, went to art museums, and so many other attractions along the way.

The architecture was quite different than in Christchurch, but just as stunning at times. 

Our hotels, which were surprisingly lovely for how much we paid per night, were close to the Queen Victoria Building, which is also close to the governmental buildings. The QV is now a huge mall full of exciting shops and restaurants. It was hard to not buy a bunch of stuff, but I only had my carry-on and a backpack.

Our first night we decided to venture out into Chinatown. It was not too far from where we were staying and gave us some idea of what the nightlife is like in Sydney - which is something else I can tell you that. 

We found an authentic Taiwanese restaurant, which made Chiung Hwang very happy. The only water they would bring us was hot water, which I can't say made me too happy. The food was good, though. Hers was a lot more spicy than mine, which I think I would have liked. 

This shot does not do justice to just how packed and crazy Chinatown was. Wow...just wow...

Being in such a big city was incredible. I really miss city life since moving to Laie. I love the traffic, loud noises, many people, and art and culture. 

One of the last things we did in Sydney was visit the Australia History Museum. What a great experience! I learned so much, and it was great to connect so much of the history of BYU-H students to their heritage. 

I was also excited to see so many types of boomerangs. Grandma and Grandpa Dahn brought us back some from their time there, but ours broke or were lost.

It was great to give the kids an idea of what the trip was like and what I remember about my grandparent's time there.

Including seeing so many exotic animals ...

My favorite animal is the duck-billed platypus. Minus Phineas or Ferb.

Unfortunately, the only emu or koala I saw on the trip was stuffed.

Seeing a crocodile or two was great. One croc I saw was made out of a woven basket and was used in olden times to scare off other crocs from entering a particular territory. Seeing all of these inspired me to watch all of the Australian-based and set movies I could think of, including the Crocodile Dundee trilogy, The Man From Snow River, Australia, Gallipoli, and several others.

This is a shot of the large dome at the center of the Queen Victoria Building. We found a bakery with some A-maz-ing sweets and other breads, which we stocked up on for our flight home since Qantas charges you for EVERYTHING on their flights. 

One of the shops called "The Queen's Basement" was like Allied, a store with a little of everything that you do...or in most cases do not need, but they are there. I was surprised to see so many Willow Tree figurines on clearance there. 

It was soooo nice to be back in Hawaii, if for no other reason than to unthaw a little bit. Sydney was not so bad, but Christchurch could chill you to the bone when wet. Unfortunately, a few gifts for the kids were not the only thing I brought back. The second we landed in Honolulu, I started feeling feverish and could feel a sore throat coming on. 

Initially, I planned to fly directly to SLC from the conference, but #1 - Chiung Hwang requested that I accompany her so she didn't go alone. #2 - The flight through the travel office (who we needed to book everything through) did not get the deal I found that would have saved them money. 

At one point, it looked like I also would have needed to move our items from our Iosepa house to the garage of our new Moana house, but after arranging for the youth from the Laie 3rd Ward to move it 8 days before my return, there was not much I needed to do in Hawaii.

These were some of the goods that I gathered for the kids on my trip, including a boomerang, for old time's sake, authentic NZ weaved bags, Bluey-eque biscuits from my hotel, book marks from a tourism agent at the airport, and a small Lego set of the Sydney Opera House. 

This gave me the time I needed to recover from my fever, aches, and chills that rocked me for the 3 days I had in Laie. Because I ended up being homeless during this time, I was supposed to stay at a colleague's home. With feeling so awful I decided to just sleep in...don't tell anyone..my office where I could be sick in peace. 

The office was so full of items that would be in storage until the end of summer, but I made it work. I slept, shivered with chills, tried to catch up on some work and everything I'd put off for over 10 days, and watched the rest of the Australian movies I had on my list, including The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Quigley Down Under, Babe, and many more.

After a day or so, when I felt better, I organized the garage of our new house to make room for our car so it wouldn't have to sit outside for the next month. What a whirlwind of a time. I loved almost every second of it and can't wait to go back. 

Back to Jen now.  It was a fantastic opportunity for Brent to travel to these places, and it just made him want to go back and explore more! We want to take our family back to New Zealand someday, but we plan to wait for their summer instead of their winter.

July- Family Reunions in Oregon & St. George

 

This month is jam-packed since we went on two family reunions back-to-back, so get ready for a long post. 

Playing Pretty Pretty Princess with Audrey:

Jewelry time with Natalie:

Back home in Hawaii our ward helped move our stuff from our old house to our new house's garage. Brent had packed and prepped all of our stuff and left it in the living room, but he was in New Zealand on July 1, so our ward was super nice to move it for us!

Bob made us dutch oven dinner one night:

We went to visit Laura and see her new house (although she's been in it for a year or so now.)

The kids had lots of fun doing plays while Laura and I chatted.

The 4th of July- we started out watching the parade on my parent's street.

Brent was on the other side of the world where it was now July 5, and they don't celebrate July 4th anyway. We went to Nana's and had brunch there, and the kids played in a splash pad Kari brought.

We then went to visit my Grandpa for his birthday. Being at my grandparent's house on the 4th of July are some of my very best memories from when I was a kid. 

I love them!

That evening the kids and I watched the fireworks from my parent's house and also did some fireworks and sparklers with the neighbor's daughter. The next day Ava got to go to lunch (I think this was a late birthday lunch) at Tucanos. She looooves steak and my parents said she ate more than they did.

I took the younger two shopping at Target and we bought some school clothes. Audrey picked out this Elsa nightgown for her birthday.

Silly Audrey joking around:

Andrew's kids came into town and my mom took them to play at our neighbor's house and do crafts.

July 9- the day finally arrived, Brent flew in from Hawaii! It felt like Christmas morning to all of us to be together again after 5 weeks.

That evening we planned a dinner for everyone to see Brent, and also for it to be a gender reveal. Brent's siblings didn't know I was even pregnant, so I think a lot of them were shocked and confused when we said "Surprise! We're going to do a gender reveal before we eat!"

Laura had seen my report and filled the balloon for us. She did the spare one too in case one popped in the car coming down. Since both were still in tact, we let Ava and Coen each pop one. 

I had told Laura that it felt a bit silly doing a gender reveal when I was 90% sure that it was a girl but I guess that 10% is what makes it exciting. If you zoom in on mine and Brent's faces, you can see our shock when we see BLUE confetti!

Coen was SO excited to hear it's a boy!

Marcie happened to have blue balloons in her car from a conference she had just been at, so they worked out perfectly for our picture!

The next morning after Brent had arrived, we drove to Idaho, on our way to Oregon for a family reunion and also to pack up our house and send our stuff on a pod to Hawaii. The timing worked out so perfectly. I should also note that I suddenly started feeling MUCH better from the morning sickness on the morning that I turned 13 weeks and 1 day, when I woke up in Idaho. It was so nice to feel like eating again!

It was a bit of a nightmare getting our car rental (we had to find a new company last minute when we found out the first rental company wouldn't allow us to take the car more than 500 miles from SLC). The new car rental place didn't have our car ready so offered Brent a van, which turned out to be a blessing because we ended up taking a lot of stuff to be put on our Hawaii shipment. Brent was sick with a cough, so he wore a mask in the car to not spread it to us all. 

Brent convinced his mom to let Ava stay those couple extra days (we were driving up early to Oregon to pack our house) and Ava drove to Oregon with Brent's parents and Daniel. This worked out very nicely for us to have less fighting in the car, and less fighting at our house while Brent and I were trying to organize and pack. My parents took Ava to 7-11 day:

We drove in the Portland way and stopped at the waterfalls that we've always wanted to see just off the highway.

This is called Multnomah Falls, and you can walk across the bridge in front of the falls.

We stopped at the Portland temple:

It was so weird arriving in Eugene and seeing all of the familiar streets. When we drove up to our house it felt like we had just gone on a long vacation to Hawaii and were coming home. It was kind of hard, mentally, to go in and see my beautiful home, and leave it again. Another blessing was that all of our renters (law students) had internships this summer, so none of them were home! We were able to even sleep in our own bed (that we had lent one of the renters) and spread out our stuff throughout the house while we sorted and organized it, prepping it to go on the pod.

It was very convenient that we had just found out we are having a boy, so that we could give away all the girl clothes we had stored in our garage. 

Audrey was able to see her bestie and play with her.

The kids were so excited to see their toys!! They played really well while we worked.

Meanwhile, Ava and Grandma and Grandpa stopped at Twin Falls.

We sorted and worked at our house for two days and then drove to Depoe Bay for the Cowley family reunion. This was the view from our balcony- although we didn't see nearly as many whales this year as a couple years ago which was kind of sad!

We did lots of swimming:

This year we had everyone at the condos except for Mark. Each family took a night to cook dinner for everyone. Here we are in our condo for our pasta night:

Coming from Hawaii, it felt extra chilly to us. I had bought my kids coats at Kid to Kid for $1!

Walking along our condos:

Brent made Audrey put on her tennis shoes. She had only worn sandals or gone barefoot all year, so she was cracking me up as she was trying to adjust to walking in shoes. I took a video- you can see her fingers spread, like she's uncomfortable and can't even balance.

Sea stars at the beach! 

Brent made a project of shoveling sand in the river and damming it up, and then releasing it at the end. This took a couple hours, and he shoveled away like he had all the energy in the world, while I watched.

It was SO foggy all the time! A local told us that when it gets hot in the valley in July, the coast gets extra foggy. Two years ago when we came, we had been there a couple weeks earlier in July so we didn't have as much fog. Here are the cousins swimming in front of the ocean, which is covered in fog:

The kids had tons of fun with their cousins- swimming, playing games, going to the playground, etc.

We went to hear the time share presentation and in exchange we got tickets for a whale watching boat tour. When we decided to use our tickets that afternoon it was sunny, but by the time we got down to the boats, the fog had rolled in! 

It was a BUMPY ride. Luckily lots of us had dramamine, but some people didn't, and threw up.

We did see a whale up close for a while! The boat tour was one hour, and we were all glad it was only one hour since it was so cold and windy and bumpy.

We made it!! 

The next day Brent drove back to Eugene (about a 2 hour drive) to pack up the pod that was delivered to our house. He did the entire thing himself, except for a neighbor helping him get the king mattress and couches in at the very end. Brent has a packing talent and got SO much in the pod! 

I thought for sure he wouldn't get the couches in, or our bedroom furniture, but he got everything in that we wanted in Hawaii. 

My tummy was starting show (14 weeks):

Fun in the condos:

A few of our group went on a deep sea fishing expedition and caught some cool fish! Some are endangered and had to be released, but lots of what they caught they brought back to prepare to eat and take home to Utah.

This blue fish even had a blue tongue and blue meat!

That evening we ate some of the crab that they had caught!

The condos had activities for the kids every day, and the smores night was a hit.

We went to an outlet mall in Lincoln City and we bought lots of things for the new school year at the Nike store and Old Navy.

One morning we got up early and went to the tide pools at low tide near the Devil's punchbowl.  It was super slippery because of all this green stuff (I assume algae?)

See all the creatures in the tide pool?

We also walked over to the Devil's punchbowl, which you can only enter at low tide. Here's Coen on the outside of the bowl. 

Then we spent a lot of time looking for agates- all of us, Grandpa included!

Brent and I left the kids in our condo and went on a date to the Thai restaurant we loved from a couple years ago. It did not disappoint and was soooo delicious again. 

We were so happy to be on a date after being apart so much this summer!

Cousins sitting in the corner of the condo, with a great view.

We left Depoe Bay on a Sunday and decided we wanted to drive through Eugene so we could attend our old ward. We debated not going that way since it added a couple hours to our trip, but I'm so glad we went and got to talk to so many of our old friends. 

Audrey got the giggles in the car because of a song that talks about fish that brush their teeth and take a bath:

We stayed the night again in Idaho with our friends the Turnbulls, and then drove to SLC the next morning. We unpacked our clothes for chilly weather, did laundry, and re-packed clothes for hot weather. Then the next morning we were off to St. George for my family reunion. One of the highlights of St. George is all the swimming time:

We went to the dino park and splash pad. Even the adults had to get in the splash pad in order to stay cool. 

We took some family pictures at Tuacahn before a show. We're missing Lucy from this picture:

This was Audrey's first time to go to a play at Tuachan. We knew she was going to love Frozen. Her facial expressions alternated between mesmerized and shy, because she thought it was the real Anna and Elsa.

It was so hot outside still, which was making me feel really nauseous. I eventually had to go walk around under the spray fans, eat a snack, and move seats. So here's the other four who stayed in their seats :)

Audrey stayed awake for the whole play, which went until about 11pm! She kept asking questions about what Elsa was doing right now, where her house was, if she could go back and see her tomorrow. We finally had to tell her that they were just girls pretending to be Anna & Elsa.

Treat break during swim time:

The girls went roller skating and the boys did a ninja obstacle course. 

Dinner at Outback for the adults, while the kids at Chick Fil-A. Then the kids split up between condos and Ava and Adalyn were excited to babysit the little girls while we were away.

Audrey got to have her first "sleepover" with her cousins at my parent's condo. She was SO excited. They got matching pajamas even. She fell asleep in the bunk bed but we brought her back to our condo for the night.

We spent a day at Andrew's pool. Coen and Nathan love to play together. Ava made up a game for everyone to play at the pool called "jump grades" where Brent came up with a theme, and then each kid had to do a jump into the pool and he would grade them. Many other kids that we didn't know ended up playing the game too. 

Brent's friend Stephanie from his program in Texas was getting married in Las Vegas. He also wanted to take the kids to an interactive Disney animation virtual experience. I was not up to going into even hotter temperatures and walking a lot so I did not go with them.

Brent & Ava will help tell what they did. 

First we went to Andrew's ward and then we drove to Las Vegas and watched a lot of Disney animation in the car to get ready for the show. Our first stop was the temple. 

Although it was super hot it was amazing to be at the temple grounds.

Then we drove to where Stephanie was going to get married so we'd know where it was going to be. 

I've never seen such a limo close up.

This was our hotel. We stayed at the Excalibur. Everyone was super excited to stay in a "Disney" castle. There was a LOT of gambling inside. Audrey really wanted to play the slot machines (which is similar to me who was always fascinated by gambling when I was growing up). 

We went to the Aria hotel and a super fancy mall, "The Shops at Crystals" where the interactive experience was. Brent went to this experience when he was in San Antonio for a conference and really wanted to take the kids to it. 

Each of us got a lighted wristband that interacts with the music and Disney clips. Before it starts it looked like you were in a Disney museum and the floor had pixie dust that would move when you step on it and react to your movements.

The bubbles had stage smoke inside of them so they were extra fun to pop.

You would sit down on the benches and watch the shows on four different walls. There were different music videos, and each different one had a different floor. In the nature one, from Fantasia 2000 there was a lava scene, and the floor turned into "floor is lava." That was my favorite one because you'd have to jump on the rocks to not get in the lava.

We walked past New York New York that has a super big roller coaster. We got to walk in the hotel and it looked pretty cool. 

Then it was time for the wedding. The wedding itself was like 7 minutes, but we stayed for like an hour and a half. It was Brent's first Las Vegas wedding, and he says he can see the attraction of someone else taking care of everything for you. His favorite part was the candle demonstration where they both had separate candles and lit one together to demonstrate they're now one. We were the only ones there besides family so Stephanie was so thankful. 

After, we got to sit in the limo before Stephanie and her husband went away in it. It was super fancy and big. There was a TV and snacks and drinks. 

After the wedding we went to the dinner at In-n-Out, and then we went to the Coke store and m&m store. 

We got an m&m blanket and playing cards. We took pictures with every m&m.

Back in St. George, I went with my family to the Brigham Young winter home. My parents' friends are missionaries and gave us a tour. Free of charge was their comedic bantering throughout the tour which had us all laughing.

Ava and Coen went to see Seussical with my parents earlier in the summer and became obsessed with it. They decided it would be this year's cousin play, which Ava directed and planned. My mom bought everyone Cat in the Hat shirts, and Ava made Coen the hat. Ava stood behind the couch and acted out the choreography that each of the kids should follow.

 Ava says something funny that happened was during one of the songs, Cat in the Hat (Coen) says "hold on to your hat" and Coen's hat fell down.

Ava had built up this play so much in her mind, that there were a few melt downs and extreme emotions leading up to the play, and it was nearly canceled, but luckily in the end it happened. 

My parents, Laura, and I went to see Anastasia at Tuachan. Our kids are old enough now they can put themselves to bed!

Audrey started to complain that her neck was hurting, and she got a little bit of a fever a couple evenings. She had no other symptoms until we noticed the lymph nodes in her neck starting to swell. It was so weird and scary. During the day she acted fine and played though. Here you can see her swollen neck:

Audrey had tons of fun swimming in the kiddie pool:

The last day we had a sibling dinner at our condo, as my parents had already gone back home. We grilled chicken and we all brought out the food we needed to eat up, which worked out great.

And that concludes July! If you followed Brent's travels this month, he went from New Zealand to Australia to Hawaii to Utah to Oregon to southern Utah, and then back to SLC. Between two family reunions and packing up a house to ship a pod to Hawaii, it was a very full month!