This summer was packed full of homecoming visits — we feel so blessed to have spent time in many of the places we’ve previously lived, and also in both our hometowns.

This week marked yet another homecoming. We arrived into Guatemala City, Guatemala on Thursday and after spending the night there, arrived back in Panajachel (Pana-ha-shell or Pana for short) on Friday. It was a beautiful day and packed full of sights, sounds, smells and people that we love.

This was the first time the kids had flown in over four years and they were thrilled by everything about flying which was a joy to experience with them. And a huge, huge praise that everything went just about as smoothly as it could for our travels. Now that we are on the ground here, it feels like pretty much everything is new for the kids and for us, it feels very new to have children in tow as we try to navigate the exciting and busy streets together on foot.

We are thrilled to be here and we feel so fortunate to get this opportunity to do this with our kids. It definitely feels surreal that we have finally arrived after so many months of preparing and and then being in transition.

We continue to ask for your prayers as we settle into our life here, that our eyes would be open to who or what God places in our path. We also do not yet have long-term housing and we especially pray for our kiddos as they transition to life here – we are all going to experience some big adjustments in the weeks ahead.

Things are feeling very real now! We have our tickets and depart for Guatemala very, very early on November 4th.

It’s hard to believe that in about two weeks we’ll be having views like these again —

We’d appreciate prayer as we continue to look for long-term housing. Right now, we have a space for about 10 days reserved and plan to continue looking during that time. Also, prayer is needed for the many, many details that need to be worked out in order for us to move smoothly — that we will accomplish what really needs to be done and feel at peace letting go of the unimportant.

We completed our 35-day, 3,000 mile road trip on Friday. Whew!

We had SO SO much fun (more posts about that to follow), but we are also pretty happy to be staying put for a bit. We ended our trip at my parents house and get to spend most of this month tucked into their cozy and delightful barn apartment.

We drove about 3,000 miles to get here —

And stayed in seven types of lodging —

We are incredibly grateful to the wonderful friends and family who hosted us and made this beautiful journey possible for our family. Thank you dear hearts!

We started school for Luke and Mabel on September 13. Starting on the road meant that Luke and Mabel got to have school with their grandparents! So fun!

Luke started third grade and Mabel first. We did our first day of school tradition of a little tablework, a few photos and then a hike with fall bouquet collecting. It was a beautiful day in Spokane and we decided to explore Riverside State Park (where Jason proposed to me over 15 years ago!).

This is the first time that Jason was able to be present for a first day of school which was really great!

Last Friday was our final day in Rapid City. We’d hoped to be completely packed and to just enjoy a day of fun. That wasn’t entirely the case, but we still crammed in about as many of our last favorite things as possible.

Earlier in the week, we visited Dinosaur Park with our pastor and his wife. Dinosaur Park is one of the places we visited the most during our four years in Rapid City. Located on a hilltop in the center of town and a free destination, the enormous dinosaur structures with great views of the city quickly became a favorite for the kids and us.

Tally’s Silver Spoon in the historic downdown for a delicious breakfast — my parents treated us to breakfast at Tally’s during their visit shortly after we arrived in Rapid and it has been a special place ever since.

One last trip creek walking at Rushmore Lions Nature Park — we are so thankful to have had such lovely places to play, right in town!

Squeezing in our final packing up! And, we even parked our truck overnight at one of our favorite places — our friends, the Haan’s house! Our very first neighbors and friends in Rapid City.

And the last, last favorite place – Armadillos Ice Cream Shoppe! Our kind neighbor gave us a generous gift card as a going away present and we definitely needed to use it ALL. So we each got our own sundae! Wow, they were delicious end to our Rapid City experience.