FINALLY!! We have a child living close enough to 'drop' in on occassionally...(Although most people think I'm nuts when I tell them a 5 1/2 hour drive is close). Courtney, Tom and I drove up to Mentor to see Heather and Hyrum this weekend. Tom pulled a trailor up with all of Heather's things (and Jenna's piano) and all Courtney and I had to do was drive up later in the Versa. (We stopped at Gap Outlet on the way....hey, it was just off of the road). Heather and Hyrum live close to a lot of fun things. We went to see the Kirtland sites on Sat. morning. They have sure changed the Whitney store and area since Dad and I were there last (About 25 years ago). Back then the road went right by the store and we just drove up and parked by the side. Now the church has bought up that whole block and restored the Whitney house and several other buildings, including the sawmill and an Ashery that the Whitney family owned. I didn't know that Bro. Whitney was so well off. And that he donated all of the proceeds from his Ashery to the building of the temple. (About $6,000 a year or was that $60,000?) WE also toured the Kirtland temple and I learned that the Temple's original color was greyish blue and it had lines drawn on the outside so that it looked like the temple was made with big cut stones. I think the white color is an improvement! After the church sites Heather had wanted to go to the Beach. Lake Erie is only about 20 min. from their house. Too bad it was raining. But that didn't stop the women...we figured if we were going to get wet in the lake a little water coming from the sky wasn't a deterrent. So off we went. It reminded me a lot of being on Sebago Lake.....you looked out over the water and felt like you were on the ocean. Except the Beach here was about 5 times as big as Sebago with about 1/4 mile of sand before you get to the water. Heather and Hyrum should have a great time there when the weather is warmer. That night we played Phase Ten for about a million hours and I got stuck on phase 7 for about 1/2 a million hours. Hyrum and Heather were making a heated run to be the winner...(Un)Fortunately we stopped on phase 9 so we will never know who is the WINNER in the Suarez family!
Time for a Suarez Family update. It's been a busy few months. We've taken WAY too many photos. I'll share some.
We had a fabulous time in Puerto Rico relaxing inbetween the stress of a wedding and the stress of moving/starting a new job.
Then we drove East, taking advantage of the Nauvoo area. We stopped in Kentucky where Hyrum discovered Mom's collection of halloween costumes under the stairs. He was thrilled to find that his muscles could get so big so fast.
Since we live so close to Kirtland, we've done that tour twice now.
While we were in Chicopee, MA for work training we took advantage of our weekends to go see different places. Our first weekend we walked the freedom trail in Boston and went to the beach. This is the USS Constitution.
Our second weekend we drove up to Maine to see Portland Headlights and relax on the beach and get burned. (See the "Swings" story for more details of our maine trip.)
The third weekend we drove to New York City to visit my friend from Maine. Her apartment was just a few blocks east of Central Park, so we had a free stay in the heart of the city. We saw Central Park (WAY bigger than I expected), the Statue of Liberty, and Time Square (among other things.)
Central Park
tiny Statue of Liberty
Time SquareWe passed through Niagara Falls on our drive home from MA, and its not as exciting as we'd hoped. I guess from the Canada side you can see more, but we didn't have our passports with us. When we got back to Ohio, we found a big green envelope waiting at our door. Hyrum finally got accepted to Cleveland State University! It was postponed because of official colombian transcripts and other crazy details. But he'll start ROTC classes this week at 6:30 in the morning, and classes the following week.
(notice the loooong beard. he shaved the next day.)
For the first week we were back, we got very creative with our apartment. We had no furniture, except for a mattress, so we put some boxes together witha blanket to make a table. Our two camping chairs worked out perfectly. (Notice how conveniently the glass of orange juice sits in the arm rest.) Luckily, Mom and Dad came this weekend and brought an awesome table someone was giving away. It makes our house look like real people are actually living in it. We have bedroom furniture now, too, so room by room, things are getting settled.
(Please ignore my very fashionable hairstyle.)
Once the rest of our house looks presentable, we'll post more pictures! Hopefully for the next few months we'll fly low on the radar and stop our life as tourists. :)
I have much to tell, but first, a question.
We're deciding which picture to print as an 11 x 14 and decided we like this setting. But is it weird to hang up a picture of yourself kissing? I like the one where we're not kissing on the right, but does it look too crooked?
Now for a funny story:
Last weekend when we were in Maine we visited Fort Williams Park on the ocean. As we walked across the grass towards the playground Hyrum asked me, "What do you call those?" "Swings."
The next thing I know, Hyrum is running towards a huge flock of seagulls yelling, "Swings! Swings!"
Twenty minutes later--when I'd stopped laughing--I told him they were called Seagulls.
Later on in the day, when we were at the beach, Hyrum decided that the seagulls were our enemy. We brought Italian Sandwiches, and the seagulls swooped down and ATE 2 inches of my sandwich out of my hand, on the way to my mouth. I didn't care so much that it took my sandwich. I was more worried that birds were going to poke my eye out. While we were at the beach, we saw 5 other people lose their food. By the end of the day the guy next to us had out a net to catch the birds, and Hyrum tied the end of the towel into a knot and was swinging at anything that came near. It was quite a sight.
Our weekends have been very fun. The weekdays aren't nearly as much fun. I've already had two cold sores since I've been married, and today, just after stepping through the doors at work, I started getting a third. I'll be happy when this training is over and I can start living a more normal life. And as for the learning part of work, I've learned that people are stubborn, I like working with rational people (many of the factory workers are the opposite of rational), and there are too many problems to fix in a one week event. However, hopefully we're at least making a dent in problem solving, and maybe something we do will stick once we're gone.
For now, I'm just hoping this cold sore medicine works!
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