Oki to Idaho and back again

We've had a fun and exciting couple of weeks, all because of these two people.

This is Ed's brother Drew, and his new wife Terese. They decided to get married, so we decided to fly to Idaho for a visit.

Since $6000 is a little more than we wanted to spend on plane tickets, we decided to fly space-available (space-a=free, perks of the military, baby). The first leg of our journey took us on a KC-135 (Ed's plane) from Okinawa to Grand Forks, ND. The girls seemed to enjoy running around on the plane and being able to spread out in their sleeping bags. However, none of us really enjoyed landing in Grand Forks. Keira started to cry as we stepped off the plane into the -35 degree temperatures. I think I could be quite content to go through the rest of my life without going back to ND. But to their credit, the people there were very friendly (one girl said it was because they are stuck inside all day and have to learn how to get along with each other), and the base had the nicest TLF (hotel of sorts, for those who don't speak military) we've ever stayed in. We stayed one night and then rented a car for our drive to Boise.

I won't bore you with the details of the drive, let's just say 24 hours later we pulled into Ed's parent's driveway and I finally crashed on their couch.

We stayed with my parents for a couple days. There was lots of playing, babysitting, eating out, and relaxing. Our last day with them we met my dad in Caldwell and he took his granddaughters to McDonald's. Oh how they love Grandpa and Grandma Law!

After our stay with my parents, it was time to get reaquainted with the Andersons, including Ed's sister Nancy and son Jaron who flew in from Italy!

Krista especially fell in love with her Uncle Drewbaby.


Pretty soon it was time for the wedding. It was so nice to be back in the Boise Temple and to be able to reminisce about my own wedding there...7 1/2 years have gone by so fast! Drew and Terese looked nervous, but Drew couldn't stop grinning and Terese was beautiful.

After the wedding we had a yummy luncheon. Ed and Kimmee rang little bells to get the couple to kiss. Drew came over to give Ed a smooch instead.

After a quick nap back at home it was reception time!

Drew "puttin' out the vibe" (from Dumb and Dumber).

Terese's family owns a candy store, so there were lots of yummy chocolates to keep everyone happy. The girls danced and played in their pretty dresses and got to know some of Terese's nieces. It was a good time.


Of course, there was a little of this:

But for the most part everyone stayed happy.

After all the wedding festivities, the bride and groom went on their honeymoon to Cancun and we spent our last few days playing in Boise with the Andersons. One big day we did these fun things (thanks to Nancy for letting me copy her videos):







All too soon our time at home came to an end. We rented another car and drove to Seattle to catch another space-a flight out, this time on a commercial airline. While in Seattle we got to spend the evening with one of my roomies from college, Eleanor, and her husband Paul and baby Alan. It was so good to see them and dinner was fabulous. We spent the night in the USO at the airport (which is a whole 'nother post), and got on our plane around 9:00 in the morning. That 9 1/2 hour flight to Tokyo isn't nearly as scary as I remember it being. One more 2 1/2 hour flight and we were finally home in Okinawa. It's so good to be back. We had a good time and loved being back in the states, but there really is no place like "home" (which is the term we use for "where our stuff is.") Good old Okinawa.

(A BIG, BIG thank you to Nancy for letting me copy so many of her pictures and videos. She has a special talent for taking lots of great pictures, making cute videos, and updating her blog often. That's why we love her!)