A Tale of Two Cities

We’ve been back in America for nearly a week now and I think only in the last day or so have we started to feel somewhat normal. At least “with it” enough to be able to document the adventures of the last few days in Adelaide, the trip over the Pacific and our first few days back home.

Reflecting on the events of our last few days in Adelaide, I figured Charles Dickens’ book A Tale of Two Cities is the most appropriate – especially the first line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times …” It was frantic getting everything in place: selling the cars, transferring money, cleaning the house, packing the suitcases, preparing for the house inspection from our tyrant house agent, saying goodbye to friends and all the while trying to keep a positive attitude that everything would work out in the end :) We had many people from the ward come and help with cleaning the home on the Saturday prior. It was a breath of fresh air to have so many people willing to sacrifice of their time – even though Kelli and I are stubborn enough to think we could accomplish everything on our own. As it turned out we could have spent weeks on end getting the house ready and it would not have been good enough … but more on that in a moment. Our last Sunday was melancholy. I didn’t really think it would be as hard as it turned out to be – I guess a testament to the close friendships that we’ve been able to foster while in Australia.

So, that was the best of times … the worst of times was the day before we had to leave. I don’t want to dwell on this part of the move since it was so horrible, but nonetheless warrants at least a mention. Suffice it to say that the house agent was in the house for 7 ½ hours! She went through everything with a fine-toothed comb. My inspections at the Academy were nothing compared to what this lady did. It was so ridiculous it was comical. We had a lot of things left to do that final day in Australia but spent all 7 hours following her around cleaning this and that. In the end she said our cleaning of the blinds and windows wasn’t good enough and she was going to have to do it ‘professionally’. Kelli in the end had a huge shouting/yelling match with her and we just signed the paperwork, handed over the keys and left. We have no idea what kind of bond we’ll be left with, we were just glad to finally say ‘see ya’.

Ok, so now on to the adventure of actually traveling. We arrived at a motel down by the Adelaide airport around 8 that evening … utterly exhausted. A good friend of ours dropped us off and took our minivan back to a family in the ward which had bought it from us. We put the kids in the shower and Hunter was in there for literally 45 minutes (sorry Adelaide … after the day’s events we weren’t in much of a mood for making sure we conserved water.) We all went to bed fairly quickly but then Savannah woke up at 1 in the morning and I couldn’t go back to sleep so we watched Pocahontas together and then around 4:30 had to get everyone up to get ready. We had good friends meet us at the airport – Scott Hann, John and Brianna Chambers (Brianna was in Collin’s primary class) and Leanne, Keely and Savannah Fleet (Savannah’s friend from school.) Keely and Savannah gave our kids bags of things to do on the airplane. They’ve all been such wonderful friends … and the fact they got up at 5 in the morning to come see us at the airport is just a small indication of the kind of things they did to make us feel welcome in Australia. They will be missed dearly.

Our first leg of 5 was a short hop over to Canberra. We made a quick stop in at the US Embassy to do my final outprocessing. There is a funny story with Collin that MUST be mentioned. So I was in the Embassy doing my thing and Kelli and the kids were out in the rental car. They were parked on a side street which led to the Israeli Embassy and right in front of the Myanmar Embassy. Collin decides that really has to use the toilet, so Kelli takes him directly over to the Myanmar Embassy fence (a black, wrought iron fence covered in ivy) and tries to get him to go. He gets stage fright and just can’t go so they go back to the car. Yet, the urge becomes too great and he runs back to the fence, bares it down to his ankles and relieves himself all over the Myanmar fence. I guess he showed what he thought of them, eh! (Don’t tell anyone by the way …)

We were able to catch up with some good friends that moved to Canberra from Adelaide – the Atkinsons (Chad, Holly, Hinckley, Belle and baby-yet-to-be-named.) We enjoyed a lovely meal of Kentucky Fried Chicken and had a few good laughs for old times’ sake. It was good to be able to see them before heading out. The next morning we were off to Sydney. Thank goodness the lady in Canberra checked our bags all the way to Salt Lake, so we didn’t see them again until LA and the customs checkpoint … and only then to pick them up and drop them off on the other side of the checkpoint. Sydney was amazingly blue and pristine as we flew in and flew out. It was good to have a final snapshot of the eastern Australian coast to pack into the memory banks. Our plan of having a whole middle row to ourselves on the 747 fell through as the plane filled up pretty fast. It was also a very old 747 (it still had ash trays in the bathroom!) that had only one movie projection screen at the front of the cabin and it was a poor picture to begin with. So, we were left to our own devices to keep the kids entertained. We’d managed to keep Hunter from taking a nap during the day, so by the time our 2 pm flight left from Sydney, he was ready for a nap. But, with all of the big trucks, tractors and airplanes at the airport the excitement was greater than nature’s call to sleep. That said, the gentle roar of the jet engines was no match for his will power. As we took off I looked over at him in the window seat and he was falling asleep kneeling up and fell against the wall of the airplane. Thank goodness he slept for a couple hours, was up for a couple more, and then pretty much slept for most of the rest of the flight. We managed some meager sleeping accommodation by putting Hunter on the floor and Collin and I shared the side seats while Kelli and Savannah managed in the middle. It was a very long 13 hours, but the kids did very well. Landing in LA was a welcomed sight to see the good ole US of A. It was a very nice, blue day as it was in Sydney with very little LA smog to speak of. After a snafu of collecting our bags (United put 3 international flights on the same carousel … even though there were 3 total carousels that they could have used!) we took our 2 full carts of luggage through customs (Kelli had tried to smuggle 3 bananas in her backpack so we had to go through the hassle of a customs line instead of bypassing it …I didn’t smuggle them, and there was no customs line, we just had to put a few bags through another x-ray machine). We then boarded our plane to Denver … of which we all remember next to nothing because we slept the entire 2 ½ hours (except Kelli, who woke up just as we were getting settled when the refreshment cart banged into the back of her seat). We were hurting pretty bad, but at least our bodies let us sleep on the plane to Denver. With a small layover in Denver we boarded a small regional jet headed for SLC. That flight was long with anticipation, but as we descended over the snow-covered mountains and Mt Timpanogas into SLC, it was a feeling of relief and gratitude to know that we’d finally made it back home … for me personally it has been 14 years of doing the military/mission thing and not living in Utah so it was even a little more, gulp, emotional.

Sydney ... L.A. ... Rocky Mtns = Home!

The kids came running out of the security area to give Grandma Whetstone a huge hug … Hunter was once again taking his own sweet time (he was our little slow poke since he had to look at every light in every airport, stop at every window to look at every truck and airplane …) but when he came out of security as well he came running up and laid a big hug on Grandma W as well. We were all happy to be off the airplanes and somewhere which felt like home. We spent a relaxing evening with Kelli’s family eating Papa Murphy’s pizza and cream-filled strawberries … only then to watch my first and last live Jazz game of the year as they lost to the Lakers in the playoffs. And then I got up at 4 the next morning because I couldn’t sleep … and ended up going down to American Fork to watch Jenny (my sister) do her first triathlon. So, no rest for the weary!

Over the past week we have been burning up I-15 to Logan and Ogden spending time with my side of the family (first time our entire family has been together since my brother Oliver’s wedding over 2 years ago!), and looking for a home. All the cousins are getting so big and Savannah has loved playing the big, big cousin role. Hunter loves to hold the ‘babies’ … one on each side of the family (Rya with Jacob/Robyn … big shout out to those two for letting us invade their home with only a 4-week old baby! --- and Colton with Robert/Angie.) We’ve gone through over 30 homes, and we finally found one that we like. We’ll see how the rest of the process goes. It is a beautiful area and I’m sure it will be good to get settled in to a new ward and everything.

The jet lag has been killer for us. We’ve taken a lot of afternoon naps and spent many a night hour looking for a way to kill time until the morning. The kids have thoroughly enjoyed their time with cousins, taking walks with Grandmas/Grandpas, playing the Wii and getting teased about their Aussie accents. Some of the things that have been ‘impressionable’ since coming back are high gas/grocery prices (looks like Walmart and Sam’s Club will be the shopping areas of choice!), hearing people talk about priesthood quorums and church callings while at the gym, listening to the radio and having a heavy LDS opinion being voiced, seeing billboards with LDS advertisements, the large size of trucks and vehicles in general, being able to talk without fear of people not recognizing what you are saying or giving that quizzical look of ‘where are you from’, and generally just being able to relax. The other big thing is the scenery – there is one thing that I’ve missed wherever I’ve lived since leaving Utah and that’s the amazing scenery and view of the mountains on both sides of the Salt Lake valley. Dad just bought a little aluminum (or aluminium :)) fishing boat and so we he took Jacob and I out on the Hyrum reservoir to teach us how to use it. Just being out on the lake and enjoying the sounds of the water and the birds was a heavy nostalgia for me. Just amazing the scenery and beauty that Utah has to offer.

Triathlon training on top of jet lag and the nearly mile of altitude gain has been interesting to say the least … only yesterday did I finally feel like I wasn’t starting from scratch all over again! Nathan and I are getting ready to do an Olympic distance in June (Nathan has to defend his sprint title) and then I’m doing a half-ironman in August … hopefully :) Yeah for Utah and being able to do this stuff on Saturdays (not Sundays)!

To finish there are some funny stories from our trip …

Hunter, upon getting into one of the first airplanes, turned to Kelli and told her he wanted her to open the window.

Hunter also thought he was pretty hot stuff being able to sit in his own seat on the airplane and buckle his own seat belt. Of course we couldn’t keep him buckled for more than 2 minutes … but at least he never took his diaper off and ran down the aisles!

In the hotel, before we left Adelaide, Collin all of the sudden got melancholy and told Kelli, “I’m really going to miss my friend Jack.” The kid has too many big emotions going on inside of him!

In Canberra when we were having dinner with our friends the Atkinsons, we gave Collin 2 chicken nuggets to which he replied, “Only 2? That doesn’t make sense.” Ok kid, whatever.

We traveled on a good number of vehicles, planes, etc getting back to America. One vehicle of choice was a shuttle from the plane to the terminal. The only problem is that Collin couldn’t get it in his head how to pronounce it correctly and kept calling it a ‘shittle’. What can you do … laugh?

And Collin again … in one of the airports they had a bathroom stall that was just for little kids, complete with miniature toilet … Collin was so excited as he sat down he exclaimed, “It’s just right for my bum!”

And lastly it was funny for me to be the caboose of our little train as we traversed the airport crowds. Each of the kids had their own little suitcase and Kelli and I looked like a father and mother chicken trying to keep all the little chicks in line and moving in the right direction. The grandparents usually stopped and commented on how cute it was, and people our age stared as if we were nuts and we could see the question in their eyes of whether we knew what birth control was or not (at least that was the impression in Australia since I would say 95% of people our age do not have 3 kids – the other 5% are members of the church … in Utah the ratio is probably reversed somewhat so it’s the norm and not the exception!)

So that’s about it! We are looking for to getting settled and know there is a ton (or heaps!) to do between now and then, but for now and forever, we’ll enjoy the journey and all the adventures that come with it. Cheers, ya’ll!