Returning from our "home leave"

As much as I love visiting family and enjoying traveling for the past three weeks, nothing feels better than taking a long hot shower and sleeping in our very own bed.  Traveling to and from Manila is tedious and so hard because it takes two days but so worth it!

I miss my grandkids so much and feel blessed I got a chance to see them. The highlight of this trip was to meet two new grand-babies, Nico and Amelia. This trip was a little crazy because we did so much including attending Nico's wedding in Uruguay, celebrating father's day one more time while we were there, visiting several cities and holding mini family reunions in Salt Lake, Miami, Uruguay, and Denver. We even took a morning to visit Matias in Idaho. Amazing to think that each Sunday we went to a different Church in a different city: Miami, Rocha and Denver.

We stayed in Andres and Jami's home, with Alejandro and Lexi in Miami, at la Paloma in Uruguay, The Belmont Hotel in Montevideo and the home in Mill circle with Bianca. Joseph and Bianca are there while they decide where to move next. Mandy and Spencer have already moved out and left room for us to move in the basement while we were there visiting.

We had plenty of going out to eat almost daily so we both came back a lot heavier. We went to see a nice play at Hale Theater and to the movies, the zoo, This is the Place, and Discovery Children's museum at the Gateway Mall in Utah and the Frost Children Museum in Miami.  Even though the three week vacation took a deep hole in our pockets, in exchange, we are left with so many wonderful memories. And life is about making memories!

This year we got to see 8 out of ten children. and 16 out of 17 grandchildren. In December we will get to see Hernan and family for Christmas   Next year we hope to visit Gabriel in Ireland. Daniel also got to see his mom and his brothers and sister and I got to see my mom and two sisters and nephews. We were able to visit with a couple of friends and attended an Ice Cream Social with people from the old ward including Kevin Cameron who is going to help us sell our home.

When we come to Utah we also visit doctors, this time it was our Dentist and Dermatologist. We needed to buy things we don't find in the Philippines and run errands related to our homes. I also met with the people who are doing our taxes. We went to see Karen and Paul Rose to check on the plumbing issues and buying wood chips of our home in Lehi,  today, I should call him back.

 We also drove by the Bountiful home which it is kept very nice and I even took photos and we went to take care of some issues the Mill Circle home is having. The biggest issue with that house is the front yard. The last day we went to see Consuelo Fierro to help my mom with her visa papers and to submit the petition for Gabriel. People are always saying that we do too much when we are on our home leave but that is why it's call a home leave and not a vacation.

The home leave is the time expats use to take care of business besides visiting family and we took care of a lot of business. Now, it's time again to plan our next get away in October. Yay!!