50 Days in China...

...and lots of catching up to do! Since I haven't been on this thing for three months, I wanted to give an update. We had the awesome opportunity to travel through China and Taiwan for seven weeks, and it was one of the best decisions we've made. No kids + 3 free months without work or school + saved money + still young = why not travel? That's my philosophy, anyway. If I had all the money in the world, I would give to charity, travel, and buy shoes.

We got back to the Home of the Brave on Tuesday night and, because of the long flight and time difference, were able to relive three hours of our lives. What did we do? Ate a large Hawaiian pizza at Pizza Hut in the Beijing airport and ate a Double-Double at In-N-Out in LA...at the exact same time...on the exact same day. Trippy, eh? Besides buying an American hamburger and chocolate shake, here's what we did during our first few hours home:

- Drank water from the tap.
- I put my wedding ring back on...I missed it!
- Gave each other a kiss on U.S. soil.
- Watched an episode of Psych with Adam's parents.

Getting ready to leave the country for two months kept us plenty busy, on top of everything else that was going on in April. Here's an update:

Adam and a few of his mission buddies organized a race for Half the Sky Foundation, an organization that raises money and provides housing and education for orphans in China. More than twice as many people than planned showed up for the race and a ton of money was raised, which was really exciting! Adam and his friends worked so hard. I was part of the Supportive Wife Club, offering help when needed.

I made my first apple pie. Call me domestic.

I turned 26. Adam spoiled me: he surprised me at work with Blue Bell ice cream to spoil supplement my lunch, took me to get brisket for dinner, and surprised me with a pair of shoes that I had seen and loved a couple of months before. I have the best husband!

Adam graduated! Lots of family came into town, which made the graduation celebrations even more fun. I married a genius of a man, and it was so fun to see him walk across the stage. Now, we're both BYU alumni. Go Cougs!

We said goodbye to a lot of friends and family. :(

My last lunch with Autumn, and we show up wearing matching outfits. Sisters...

We had one last date and visited a lot of the places we loved to go while we dated and after we were married. We even went to the exact spot where we met, and we of course made parfaits.

We packed up and "moved." We are still in transit two months later, hence the quotation marks. We loaded up our stuff in a U-Haul box and sent it to Dallas for my lovely parents to unload into their garage until we get there, find a house, and load and unload it again. Jeff, Brie, Autumn, Jed, and Jordan were so nice to help us clean, pack, and load. We were sad to leave but are excited for the next step in life.

We went to Nauvoo and Winter Quarters with my family for the Jones Family Reunion 2012. It was so fun to be with everyone and especially fun that Adam could come to his first family reunion on my side. It was great learning more about our family history and humbling to be where the prophet Joseph Smith and the rest of the early Saints once lived, worked, and dedicated themselves to the gospel.

And for now, we are loving being in Irvine with Adam's parents and are looking forward to more family coming!

We feel very grateful that we were able to spend almost two full months together 24/7 (literally) and create so many memories. The Chinese and Taiwanese people are very loving, good people, and we were blessed to experience the culture, meet people from all around the world, do a little missionary work, strengthen our relationship, and have our many prayers answered along the way.

Update blog. Check.