From Sea to Shining Sea

THESE lovely people are my cute parents.

Every time my parents prepare to receive orders for one of dad's new work assignments, an exciting and anticipatory guessing game ensues.  I've grown up living the military life and I LOVE it!  I love gradually narrowing down the options of where my family will call home for the next several years.  For a while, we even thought we'd end up in Scotland.

photo from tourismonworld.blogspot.com

And another time, we were remarkably close to moving to Australia.  The MIDDLE of Australia.

photo from www.alicestation.com

Neither of those options panned out, but thanks to the Navy, I've had the opportunity to live in amazing places like:

Japan

photo from www.globalresearch.ca

California

photo from www.gogiro.com/sandiego

Maryland

Maine

 photo found at travel.nationalgeographic.com

 Tennessee 

photo from www.pgavplanners.com

and Hawaii

My family has experienced many different cultures, landscapes and climates and we've adopted innumerable hobbies including surfing, clam digging, duck hunting, rowing, hiking, blueberry raking, rock hopping, Tahitian dancing, distance running, exploring the museums and monuments in DC, cooking ethnic foods, and many, many more.

I thank my military upbringing for my enthusiasm to go to a foreign country on my mission, learn a crazy language, eat ridiculously weird yet delicious food (which, thanks to my MSG allergy, tried to kill me), and jump headfirst into the once very unfamiliar Chinese lifestyle.

Best of all, my family has had the opportunity to meet another entirely new group of friends every one to three years.  Although facebook has made things a little easier, I still wish I was better at staying connected with all the amazing people our family has encountered over time.  In fact, I can only pinpoint two real setbacks to a super-transitory childhood: 1) The same awesome friends that you meet?  Yeah.  You have to (physically) leave them behind again in a few years.  2) Every couple years I get a MAJOR hankering to throw away almost everything I own, pack whatever's left into boxes, and move far, far, far away.  Things have been a bit different since I graduated from high school in 2004.  Except for 18 (fantastic) months in Hong Kong, I have been in Provo the whole time.  Yeah.  Since 2004.  Sure, I've lived in 5 different apartments over those 8 years but STILL.  I am beyond antsy. We've been in our current apartment for almost 3 years which is still, to this day, the longest I have ever lived in a single home.  BRING ON SPENCER'S GRAD SCHOOL!

So you can imagine my excitement when my parents told me that dad was awaiting orders for yet another new job assignment.  Sure, I don't live at home anymore, but you can bet I'll visit my family at least once each tour of duty.  My kid (someday plural) needs to see his grandparents!  So after a lot of guessing and waiting, my parents finally let the cat out of the bag and announced where they'll be living for the next few years (AKA, my next vacation destination)....

ALASKA!  

Cool, right?  So cool.  I'm already trying to find an excuse to go visit.  I'm sure it doesn't always look like this, but this is the image I have in my mind:

photo found at www.gladeexplorers.com

Beautiful, isn't it?