A few days after summer started I went on a 3-day 2-night camp with the 1st graders from my school. Imagine about 120 six-year-old Japanese boys (the majority of whom have never left home overnight before) staying in this building with a bunch of frazzled teachers and you've pretty much got the trip nailed. We went up to Karuizawa which was cool because I had never been there before and stayed in this lodge.I didn't realize I could take pictures my first day, so I missed out on that, but I snapped some of the second day. Although I tried to avoid using ones that show their faces as much as possible. They're so adorable though, right?
A normal day had meals prepared for us (this is an example of one of the more American-ish breakfasts), group prayer in the prayer hall, activities, playtime, snack time, more activities, and well, a bunch of other stuff. It definitely put my Japanese to the test trying to be a chaperone when the kids all understand Japanese better than I do. :)
Needless to say, after we made it back from that camp I was ready for my real summer to start. I was also ready to just sit at home and be a total lump (or, as we say in Japanese I was ready to 'goro goro' around the house) but I may have accidentally, totally knowing what I was doing, bought my ticket to fly home for the next night.
That's how I found myself catching an 8 pm flight to Seoul, sleeping at the airport, catching a 7 am flight, having a layover in Hong Kong, and then finally arriving in LAX. My first stop was to see Chad and Bri (friends from college.) As you can see, we know how to party. What we don't know how to do is make decisions, which is why you see us with a chocolate cake broken into three different sections with different flavored icing. No regrets about that though. 
This wasn't my first time to hang out with Cam, who I'm pretty positive is going to go his entire life calling me Ducky (he and his parents are the only ones who still call me my nickname from sophomore year.) But I digress. Anyway, Cam and I had some good times, and I even met his little sister, Kayla this trip. 
We made sure to fit time in for playing board games while we were together as well as some Mario, but all too soon my trip was over and it was time to say goodbye.
Because I love airports, I went back to LAX and then flew to SLC. (Side note: I had a lovely conversation with the lady sitting next to me who started the conversation with "were you watching a scary movie? I could tell because you were curled up in a ball and kept gasping." She was right, I was. And apparently, it was a great ice breaker because we then chatted until we got off the plane.)
I was in Utah a little more than a week because I had the most people to see here from those 8 years living there (man, was it really 8 years?) Not to mention I had some crazy adventures my old roommates and I needed to do. Like watching my roommate dance with a dog. That's normal, right? Or going horseback riding in the mountains together. That was NOT normal but it was awesome. So awesome. 
There were sleepovers to do. Board games to play. Friends' husbands to meet for the first time, and temples to go to. Not to mention lunch and dinner plans pretty much every single day with friends and family.
Utah was seriously a blast, and I'm so glad I got to go there. Not only did I get to catch up with everyone, but my roommates and I had another chance to work on our roommate book What to Expect When You're Not Expecting: How to Be Single and Own It. It's all about (you guessed it) being single, but in a "humorous, our lives are really cool if we want them to be" kind of way instead of a "we're pathetic and bitter" kind of way. Look forward to it. I know I am. :)
It was kind of weird whenever my time was over at a place because my emotions were like "should we be sad?" and I'd be like "IDK man. I'm sad to leave but also looking forward to the next place. So, there's no way to tell really." And that's exactly what it was like leaving Utah. Goodbye to everyone I saw that week but hello airport, family, and a cute little ball of allergens that my brother named Pip.
Those few days I spent in Colorado were some of the laziest IN MY LIFE. It was awesome! David picked me up from the airport with a Benadryl, a bottle of water, and a face mask (and here I thought I had left those behind in Japan. Silly me.)
Let me tell you what an almost perfect vacation looks like:
-most of your free time is spent playing board games with your brother and sister-between board game sessions, your sister insists on making delicious food for everyone because she "likes to cook" (Is that a real thing?)
-you don't look at your phone at all because time is irrelevant to your schedule and you don't have time to talk to anyone who isn't playing said board game with you
-you constantly are slightly drugged with allergy medicine and only remove your mask to eat aforementioned delicious food.
And then it was back to the airport with me because, what can I say, I love airports. I think my relationship with the airport is my longest lasting one so far. (And don't tell my parents but I've even slept over at the airport, so risque.)
My last stop in America was home. Hooray. Now I got to see the rest of my family. Especially the ones who are only half-grown. One of the first things I did was look through old family calendars and I found a ton of gems. Like this little guy. Classic. (By classic I'm mainly referring to our hairstyles. And clothing. And my inability to look at the camera.) Mom picked me up from the airport, and I don't know who was so excited: her to see me or me to finally get home and unload my suitcase. (I brought 50 Japanese books home from Japan, so my bag was kind of freaking heavy.) Home sweet home.
I had some really good, quality parent time, sibling time, and niece/nephew time during my three weeks at home. 
Looking at these two pictures, I've got to say that I think the biggest difference here is...there's no way Dad would have let me eat an entire spoonful of cookie dough when I was eight. I guess there are some perks to being an adult after all.
Am I the only one who goes home to America and craves artichokes? Maybe. I'm not sure if it's the taste or the nostalgia factor, but either way, it was delicious.
By borrowing everyone else's cars and cell phones (completely not an inconvenience) I managed to take all of my nieces and nephews on Aunt Laura dates to celebrate the birthdays that I miss while I'm in Japan. These little boys chose to go to the jump park.
The elder boys (randomly) decided that they wanted to go play mini-golf, so that's what we did. And I have to say, I really appreciate their game faces. I mean they were into it.
And for my two nieces, we did something a bit more girly and went to get our nails done.Shh, nobody tell Grant and Benson that they didn't get a date this year. They're too little to remember so I figured I could get away with it.
This picture actually came a few days after I left for Korea, but I feel like it sums up summer with the kids. Of course, they don't all always look this happy. Only when Aunt Emily says "poophead" before taking the picture, naturally.
Back to the airport at 5 am and I'm on my 2nd to last leg of the trip-off to Korea I went. Zoom zoom. 25 hours of traveling later I arrived at Whitney's house. The good thing about visiting her house after America but before Japan is that going straight back to my house after America would make my Japan apartment feel really small, but by swinging by Korea first and staying in her actually small apartment, I was able to come back to my castle sized place. Of course, I had to get some Korean BBQ with these girls. You can't say you've really gone to Seoul until you've gone out for BBQ. 
And the standard picture of me walking down the street that I had no idea existed until it was sent to me. And another picture I didn't know about until later.
It was almost a relief to go home to Japan just so I could finally stop living out of my suitcase and get back into my own routine, even if that routine meant work. It's nice to be back, and I'm so grateful for all the amazing people I got to spend time with this summer. So thanks to everyone that made the world tour possible. :) Click here for the video to sum it all up.
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