New Years Day in Utah

Reyna and I spent New Years Eve 30,000 feet in the air.

We flew home to Utah so I could attend my brother Jon's wedding (wedding photos in another post). It broke my heart that I couldn't bring Hunter and the boys to celebrate with us, but it was just too expensive. Hunter said he would find a way for me to go. He didn't want me to regret that I missed it for the rest of my life. So, I was very grateful I got to go.

The flight to Utah went from Mombasa to Nairobi to Paris to Salt Lake City. Not bad, right? But I had so many obstacles along the way that it almost became comical.

1. There was no record of Reyna's infant ticket beyond Paris
2. They had cancelled the last flight of the day to Nairobi (my flight) and had to rush me onto the earlier flight.
3. I discovered some issues with my visa in Nairobi (we'll leave it at that...let's just say I'm so grateful that Kenyans are nice to people with cute babies, including the customs officer. It could have been bad).
4. Reyna got motion sick on the shuttle in Paris and vomited all over us. I cleaned it as best I could, but unfortunately we stunk a bit.
5. Reyna had caught some bug and was having diarrhea the whole time. I wisely had packed enough extra outfits for her to change into, but stupidly had only packed six diapers for the entire journey, so with 5 hours to go on my flight from Paris, I was praying that her sixth diaper would last. Thankfully, it did.

So when I landed in SLC, I was not at all surprised that

     6.  My baggage didn't make it.

In fact, I think I laughed.

It wasn't all bad though. People were nice on the plane. I got a bassinet seat and Reyna slept the whole way from Nairobi to Paris. Then I got a blank seat next to me so I could put her down.

Here Reyna and I are in the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris. It was freeeeezing, so we kept our hoods up.

When I landed in SLC, Jon was there to pick us up. It was so good to be home. I took one breath of the crisp, cold air and thought, yup, I'm home. This is the air I'm used to.

It's kind of funny because in Mombasa, I feel like I'm breathing dirty air all the time. There's dust, burning trash, exhaust from all the matatus that use diesel fuel, bad smells all over, but I've stayed relatively healthy. In Utah, I feel like I'm breathing clean mountain air, but with the inversion and everything, I immediately developed a congested airway and ended up with a cold. Weird, eh?

Anyway, I wish I had snapped more photos. I guess I was too busy having a fabulous time.

It was so nice to see Lola and Opa again.

Hunter asked me to eat a cookie and chug down a huge glass of cold milk straight out of the fridge for him. So I did.

Also, look at the size of this sour cream! I've missed sour cream.

We had a nice family get together at Diona's to celebrate January birthdays and so I could give Kami and Azar their belated Christmas gifts. We drew their names.

Some of the funnest times were watching Reyna and Dez play together. They played in the bath together...

...they ate together, and we went on a winter walk together.

It was nice to enjoy my nice van again. Boo hoo.

It was pretty cold, but we were able to stay toasty warm indoors.