My flight went from London Heathrow to LAX. Hence the joy for a magical nap on an 11-hour stretch of my journey to Utah. 

I left London at noon-ish. 11 hours later, I watched the sunset in California. How cool is that? 

A slight drizzle made for a lovely rainbow at sunset. It was a stunning takeoff!

M. O. U. N. T. A. I. N. S. 

I've had mountains near me my whole life. Even 5 summers in Alaska meant living at the base of a mountain range. It takes me a long time to get my bearings without mountains. If I'm away from them, my heart hurts. So getting to Utah and getting to see the snow-capped Wasatch Mountain range made me smile. 

Gorgeous desert sunsets...

I had the opportunity to visit with my Mission President and his wife for over an hour! I basically had them all to myself which is something like what I imagine being an only child feels like. One instead of more than 500 (I'm just guessing, I don't actually know the number) of their missionaries vying for their attention.

The cutest newlyweds. And I got the photographer in the pic on purpose because I love her dearly. She photographed our wedding as well and she's a gem.

After the initial pictures, no one was very close to hug and congratulate them. Don't worry, I took full advantage to run into her arms and be the first to crinkle her dress a little :)

President and Sister Gulbrandsen, plus the one and only Steffannie Peña who incidentally trained both Valerie and me. Wonderful mission companions to be blessed to know and call my friends!
It's a spectacular sight every time. Even having grown up in this state, I always feel how special it is to just stand near a Holy Temple.

I hung out with my in-laws for a day. Peter and I went to the Fashion Place Mall just for fun but there was a massive display of Lego American Heritage sites. There was a contest for people to guess how many blocks were used to make the White House. Or maybe it was the Capital. Either way, I don't know if our guess even came close!

Pretty amazing. I know I could never pull this off so I am in awe of people whose minds work like this.


Missionary homecomings always tug at my heart strings so when it's my own family, I was a nervous mess! Elder Gonzalez didn't even know I was coming. At least not for sure. I told him that London was much too far and too expensive to be coming back and forth all the junk. I was pretty sure he didn't believe me but at least he greatly doubted that I would actually show.
So every was hugging him and enjoying the moment PLUS keeping his attention away from where I was standing.

I have a tiny video of me walking up to him to see his shocked face and his hilarious accusation "I KNEW YOU WOULD LIE TO ME" (when I learn to add video, I will haha *tech fail*) We laughed, we hugged, we cried. It was worth the jet lag as family always is.
My amazing family! A friend once told me that where you see one of us, the rest of us are not too far away. I think of that every time we get together now because it's so true! If we're getting together, it's never a small turnout.

My sister did my hairs! She's doing the apprenticeship (and really close to being done now) and I was sooo excited for her to just be my personal hairdresser forever and for always AND THEN WE MOVED TO ANOTHER COUNTRY. So when I'm in the same state as she is, you better believe I'll be knocking on her door, begging her to make me pretty. She did an amazing job and I love it! Except I can't ever curl my hair at this length like she can. So I haven't really done it since haha
Ruth got the colour I have always imagined. We've only been talking about it since I first started into the ombre/melt phase. And now she accomplished my dream hair. It would only be more perfect if she could do my hair every day.....
Part of the family at the Mount Timpanogos Temple in American Fork, Utah.
I love that my parents' legacy is summed up in a scripture in the Bible "...as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." -Joshua 24:15
We hung out at the University Mall in Orem for a while. If Orem looks like this next time we go back to Utah, I don't even know what I'll do. I'm sure it won't be done for several years but I can't believe how much Utah is changing.
COOKIE DOUGH! THIS DOES NOT EXIST IN LONDON! So I was the crazy person taking pictures of stuff I miss/wish I could bring back with me.
Oh I was also floored at how CHEAP food was at Winco! haha I was dying and people kept looking at me funny. Can't blame them. Who looks at food prices and laughs like they just heard the funniest joke of the day? oh yeah, maybe just me
Going bananas! 52 cents?! That's something I may learn to budget for when we live in a non-big city. For now, I'll take my expensive bananas to live in London for a little while.
One whole day dedicated to visiting some of the 17 temples in Utah (including the ones under construction) We are blessed to have so many temple nearby. We started as far north as Brigham City Utah and worked our way a little east and then back down south.
Logan Utah Temple
Ogden Utah Temple

Bountiful Utah Temple
Mount Timpanogos Temple (again) so that we could meet my siblings near their places of work.
Mount Timpanogos Temple at night
My sweet friends organised a last minute dinner so that we could all hang out! A perfect excuse for Peruvian food (my favourite thing ever) and to FINALLY meet these babies!
The Brown's. We go waaaaay back. A decade, at least. I love these guys!
Remember what I said above about when my family gets together?.... and this is only a fraction of them.
My big brother. Not everyone is lucky enough to have a big brother and only three other people in the world can claim this guy like I can. What a guy.
It was a great week in the good old U. S. of A. But being there without Taylor was a strange feeling. I felt like I was an awkward visitor and couldn't wait to be home. Home to London.