mongolia... bumpy roads, mare's milk, mutton, gers, and wide open spaces

I am in Mongolia right now.  In an internet cafe.

It is big here.  It is unbelievably big and beautiful here.

We left our kids with my parents and I miss them.  Especially Baby Maximus.  I hadn't been away from him for more that a few hours before this trip.

Samuel has called us 9 times.  $4.99 a minute.  I keep answering and checking voice mails thinking there might be an emergency but he just wants us to know he misses us.  Or maybe less sweet things like wanting my nephew to talk to us or wondering where his passport is.  Oh, Samuel.  When I asked to talk to Eva she said she was a little bit busy changing Maximus' diaper.  What?  Wow.  Sounds like Eva is maturing and life goes on without us.

This place is huge.  Huge and beautiful.  We have probably driven over a  thousand miles meeting different governors and seeing different towns.  I am learning how much I love paved roads.  At every town we can be guaranteed to be greeted with vodka or fermented mare's milk or mare's milk cheese or dried mare's milk yogurt stuff or all of the above.  I am learning how naturally ungracious I am.  We mostly sleep in gers (Mongolian for yurt) and I am learning how much I love houses and hotels (and the toilets that go along with them).  We mostly eat mutton, bread, cabbage, cheese, and more mutton.  I am learning how much more I love my mom's cooking.  This has been a chance of a lifetime.  And maybe there have been moments where I am glad that this sort of chance only comes up once in a lifetime. 

My e-mail has been hacked.  Everyone got a link.  Hackers are stupid.  I feel pretty helpless about that.  I am learning just how addicted to the internet I am. 

The summer schedule looked like this:  Kauai, Salt Lake, Delta, Salt Lake, Logan, Salt Lake, Logan, Salt Lake, New York, Salt Lake, Mongolia, Salt Lake, Kauai.  We will get back to Utah on Friday and fly to Kauai early the next morning.  The kids start school in one week and it feels like a whole world away.

This summer has been a whirl wind of travel and family and friends. In the thick of it, I am sure I have aged 10 years and am ready for a boring life.  But I know that this will be a summer that I will always remember.