part 1: hanoi

okay, so first to dispense with some unpleasantness: i had my phone stolen in hanoi. stolen from my hand.

on sunday afternoon, i was trying to take a picture with my phone of bryan and me in front of the beautiful opera house. while i was angling the camera just so, a motorbike came around the corner, up onto the sidewalk, and the passenger swiped the phone right out of my hand (a point that even now just boggles my mind). leaving me feeling sort of like this.

not one of life's great tragedies, but still, it sucked.

silver lining here: we did get some bonus hanoi experiences courtsey of les voleurs. a ride in the back of a vietnamese police truck! time at the police station filling out a police report! going back to the hotel and eating as much chocolate candy as we wanted!

i will also say, everyone we spoke to about it afterwards was super sad. hanoi has really cracked down on cell phone theft, and in the past year, it's declined dramatically (though still, not altogether uncommon). the vietnamese people were really disappointed that my phone had been stolen and worried i would go home with a dislike for my experience in the country.

we had a great experience! (minus the phone theft :) and loved our time in vietnam. the food. the people. the places. bryan is already scheming to return.

ps - for those who might not know, vietnam has been on our bucket list for awhile because bryan served his church mission in a vietnamese community in sydney, australia. the comment we got most frequently from the viets about bryan's language skills: you speak very clearly.

hanoi was the last city on our journey. here's a look see:

church on sunday:

bryan with tony quach, the son of a viet family who was in the branch he served in on his mission in sydney, and who is now a missionary in hanoi. he was three years old last bryan saw him. 

anh quang, who joined the church in france and went through the temple in japan before returning to vietnam.

delicious bun cha lunch, treated to us by chu duc, after church:

hanoi closes some shopping streets to traffic friday night through sunday night so folks can walk around and enjoy the beautiful weather (and many a street saxophonist!) without quite the same fear for life and limb as usual:

enjoying another refreshing treat (cold coconut milk), courtesy of chu duc and his lovely wife:

hanoi night life:

hoan kiem lake.

the hat district.

the temple of literature, vietnam's first national university, built in 1070:

the night before our plane ride home; the best pho of bryan's life:

**shout out to our amazing hotel, hanoi la siesta diamond. after doing quite a bit of research, we found that their entire hotel chain consistently rated among the best in hanoi. they did not disappoint, and we had a great stay with them!

at last: viet nam

wrapping up an incredible adventure fifteen years in the making. 

a slew of pics to come. 

but first! the twenty-six hour journey home.

rewind: evergreen state fair

back before school started, we had our last hurrah at the evergreen state fair. 

if you ever wondered what a "last hurrah" looks like, it's this:

dallin double fisting fries and shoving them into his mouth before caleb can take any.

more fair fun included meeting baby pigs:

ps - afton super hearts the smell of farm animals.

judging sheep competitions:

participating in sheep competitions: 

caleb is mooing, incidentally.

and did we mention the fries?

or the scones?

or the ice cream, maybe? 

emily's very favorite fair treat is the blackberry 

ice cream from the snohomish county dairy women. 

and after uploading all the photos we took at the fair, i was struck anew by 

just how much i must love taking pictures of people eating corn:

honest to goodness, there was never a boy happier 

on this earth than was caleb with his corn:

the end.

preschool point two

with shoes so bright, even the camera has trouble capturing their majesty.

first day of pre-k for caleb:

current life philosophy: wear yellow, flash dimples, kick butt, take names.

back at it again

school started up today for the wheeler girls!

"clean shoes, big grins, can't lose."

afton in second grade:

summer in third grade:

say hello

to the longest my hair has been in FIFTEEN YEARS.

after more than one person didn't recognize me at back to school night this week, i thought i'd just put this out there: yes, it's me :)  yes, i still know all the words to billy joel's "we didn't start the fire." yes, growing out a pixie cut is like reliving middle school every. single. day. yes, there was this one time i was mistaken for gwen stefani at a grocery store in new mexico. yes, i own way too many flannel button down shirts (90s, baby!) 

and no, i don't know how to use bobby pins (but i stick them around in my hair anyway. for good measure.)

donut mess with us

new mexico: white sands

another highlight of our vacation in new mexico was a little road trip we took down to white sands national park. we arrived sunday evening in time to play in the dunes after the heat of the day had cooled and before dark. (pretty sure that was the best two hour block of caleb's life.) we went back monday morning, but it was quite hot, so we retreated not too long after ten.

white sands is a really, really amazing natural wonder. spectacular to see and feel--nothing quite like we've ever seen or felt before. and the sleds are a definite *must.*

psst...a shout out to our accommodations, white sands motel, which was a great place to stay. so cool, so hip, so retro, they don't even have a website!