Vacations and Measuring Sticks (by Thom)

During our time in the US Amanda, the kids, and I have been privileged to travel a little bit. While most of our families live in Ohio and Michigan my parents moved out to Utah a few years ago and we had the opportunity to fly out there and spend 3 weeks. Actually, Miriam and Hannah spent three weeks in Utah but Amanda and I only spent two. The middle week we left the twins with Grandma and Grandpa and drove down to Arizona and Nevada for a little vacation. It was the first extended time away from the girls since they came into our lives but aside from the natural reflex to miss them we had a great time (by the way, technology can be wonderful. We took my laptop and connected from the hotels each night and were able to video chat with the girls back in Utah!).
Amanda and I started by driving to Sedona, Arizona where we rode in a hot air balloon and did a lot of hiking in the Red Rock Park. Then, we went down to Phoenix for 3 days where we attended three spring training baseball games. That was a lot of fun. Lastly, we drove back to Utah via Las Vegas, where we stayed a night. Don't worry - we didn't damage our Christian witness! :)
Of course, we took a lot of pictures and many of them have been added to our picture page here on the website, along with some other pictures of Miriam and Hannah.
One of the odd consequences of being a missionary is that we don't live anywhere long enough to set up a wall or doorway where we can measure the girls' growth each year. In lieu of that, we take a family picture each time we go to Utah in the same place. It's a bend in the road near a river in a park called the Mount Nebo Loop. Below are three pictures from this area:

Thom's mom, Thom & Amanda in August 2005

Amanda, Miriam, Thom, & Hannah in April 2007

Thom, Miriam, Amanda, & Hannah in March 2009