The first semester ended on December 17th. It was so exciting to finally finish something and to look forward to the break. Tim and I still worked fairly late on December 17th just finishing up grades and cleaning our rooms. We left Togiak Saturday evening, flew to Dillingham where we spent the night, and then flew to Anchorage on Sunday morning. We spent Sunday in Anchorage with the Petersen’s. Brother Petersen is our branch clerk. He and his family are so kind to us. They always let us stay with them when we’re in Anchorage. We left Anchorage Monday morning and finally made it to Yakima on Monday evening: 3 days after we left Togiak.
It was so good to see Tim’s family and spend time with them. We ate lots of good food and of course got spoiled on Christmas day. We did take one day to drive up to Seattle and spend time with Carmen and Jeremy. We had a blast with them and their girls.
Sunday, December 26th, Tim and I drove a moving van to Ogden, Utah for Tim’s parents. It was a long drive, but it was cool to actually be in a vehicle and on a highway again. We got to stay with Lisa and Bob that night in Ogden. They were kind enough to drive us to Rexburg on Monday.
Time in Rexburg went all too fast. We spent time with family (my parents, Lisa and her family, Greg and Dani, Gus, Katherine, and T.J.) and with friends (Warren and Rachel, the jump rope team, Jeremy, and the Ward family). There just wasn’t enough time to see all the people we wanted to see and do all we wanted to do. I did get to take Valerie snowboarding, which was a lot of fun. Tim and I also went on a shopping spree. Everything seems so cheap after living in Togiak. We couldn’t believe how many options we had for things to buy or how many people were at the store.
Tim and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary while we were in Rexburg by seeing Harry Potter. We definitely haven’t been to a movie theater for 5 months. It was fun.
It took us another 3 days to travel back home. We left Rexburg on Jan 1st, flew from Idaho Falls to Salt Lake to Boise to Seattle to Anchorage, spent the night, flew to Dillingham, got weathered in and spent the night, and then to Togiak. We made it back midmorning on Monday. Luckily it was a workday so we didn’t have to worry about finding any substitutes.
Our first week back at school has been good. We still have been really busy. We worked 12 hours a day, but things are looking up. Tim and I both have a much more positive outlook on Togiak since returning from break. This completely shocked me, because I had such a good time being in the lower 48 I thought I would hate being back. I’m not complaining though.
Today after church we went for a Sunday drive. Of course, we don’t have roads and cars like the rest of you, so our Sunday drives include 4-wheelers and trails. I did catch some air a couple of times and got really nervous driving over frozen lakes, but it was really cool.
Thank you to everyone who took time to see us over Christmas and to those who housed and feed us. We loved seeing everyone!