To All the Places I've Loved Before...

In preparation for our trip to Canada later in the summer, Brandon had to renew his passport. Meaning he had to (temporarily) surrender his old passport. His first passport. The passport he applied for at the tender age of 19 to serve his mission in Brazil. Yes, it was emotional for all of us.
This may not come as a surprise to you, but I wear the pants in the travel documents aspect of our marriage - and I daresay some of you can relate to being the only one trustworthy enough to be in charge of passports and plane tickets. So from now on when I hand his passport to the gate agent, I will no longer find a skinny, freckle-faced, wide-eyed young buck staring back at me. (Although not his passport photo, it's was the closest I could find.)

Just an old man that resembles the young boy from yesteryear, but whose eyes tell tales of wisdom & worldly experience and his chins tell tales of a wife who's getting better at cooking.

This passport had taken him to the far reaches of...

BRAZIL to spread the Gospel and eat beans & rice for two years, consequently losing a beyond-unhealthy amount of weight.

(I couldn't resist throwing this picture Buddy sent home to his Mom with a caption that went something like: The chicks are all over me now that I'm an Elder.)

Exotic CANADA multiple times. He tried to have me mail-ordered, but I made him come and get me.

Sunny MEXICO where he got a little too friendly with the locals.

 Less-than-sunny ENGLAND. Where the magic began. And by "magic", I mean me. The plaque is in the works.

 

Bonny SCOTLAND. Where, regrettably, he did not purchase a kilt. Or learn to play the bagpipes.

FRANCE. C'etait incroyable! Who says kids don't learn anything when they're forced to learn French for 9 years?

 ITALY. (Learning some Italian would have helped me with a witty line here. It also would have helped me order food there. Still scarred from having my change thrown at me for not understanding a cashier's question.)

Yes, his passport has seen a bit of action in 10 years - with most of those trips concentrated in the last two. Let's see if we can't put some stamps in the new one soon, old man.

We'll start with Canada, for the biggest wedding since that one in April that we're still hearing about. Another beautiful couple, no?