How can you arrive in California three hours before you leave Australia?

Just ask Elder L. That is exactly what he did last Tuesday. He left Sidney, Australia at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, and arrived at LAX at 8:30 a.m. that same Tuesday. Well…..not exactly the same Tuesday. He had two Tuesday’s in a row. Pretty amazing, right?

Anyway, the wonderful news is that S5 is home, after serving a wonderful mission in Adelaide, Australia. Mom, Dad and M4 drove down to LAX in the early, wee hours of the morning to have our first sight of him in over 2 years. And he looks great. He got a huge grin on his face as soon as he spotted us. Of course that grin could have just been relief that he was finally out of the plane after thirteen and a half hours, but we prefer to believe that he was happy to see us.

After leaving the airport, S5 wanted to walk around a bit to stretch his legs. So we thought, “What better place for a returning missionary to stretch his legs than the temple grounds?” (and what other place is open at that time of the morning?)

When we arrived home he showed us some things he brought home with him. Can you believe that they let him go tracting looking like this?

Cool, huh? Oh, yes, when he was in Katherine he wore this hat and sunglasses tracting every day.

So…it is great to have him home. He has been struggling with jet lag, and trying to adjust to driving on the right side of the road, but otherwise doing just great.

What makes a great summer?

The first thing to do to have a great summer is to go somewhere where they have great weather. Oh, how about Ventura? Almost every day, K1 says, "It is such a nice day." And I kind of shake myself out of my daze and realize that, yes we are having another beautiful, sunny day. It is not too hot and not too cold, but just right. I never fully appreciated Ventura weather until spending a few days in Washington, D.C. in the middle of a hot, humid summer.

The next thing to do to have a great summer is to have two adorable and somewhat messy grandchildren and their mother come for an extended visit.

W21 has developed a great love for his grandpa, and follows him around every evening after work. They have developed a routine where they walk out to the barn picking apples on the way. They feed the apples to the horses (who have come to recognize W21 and get all excited when they see him coming). Then they go to the barn and get some tools and do some weeding. After that they climb on one of the 4-wheelers and pretend to go for a ride. (Once in a while they go for an actual ride, but that is kind of terrifying, but fun). Then Grandpa spends the next half hour trying to convince W21 that it is time to go back to the house.

The last requirement for a great summer is to have two fun birthday's in a row. K2's birthday was last thursday, and we had fun at the Santa Barbara Zoo. But I think that the highlight of the day was having a scrumptious fondue dinner followed by a very superior ice cream cake. This ice cream cake was like none we have ever had before. There was vanilla and cake combination at the bottom, then a layer of fudge, and then at the top, chocolate cherry overload. And that is not all. When we took the cake out we poured chocolate magic shell on top. It was so delicious it was almost sinful. (And I have to tell you that there were so many candles on the cake that it took K2 three trys to blow them out.)

Then on Sunday we had a big blowout party for W21's second birthday. We had party hats and blowers, pizza and breadsticks, balloons and banners, cookie cake and ice cream, and presents, presents, presents.

But the best part was when W21, after eating his own piece of cookie cake, stuck his finger all the visible chocolate in the remaining cookie. (M4 vowed that he wasn't about to eat any of the remaining cake, but I noticed today that he is not very good at keeping his vows.) Anyway it was a great time, and I think everyone had a fantastic time at his party.

The County Fair is going on now and guess what band they had in concert the other night???

The Beach Boys!! Yea!!

So we packed up the kids and went to the concert. Aunt Je met us at the bus stop. We took the bus from the High School. M4 was also there with some friends. L22 was so good during the concert. He actually slept through most of it. W21 was better than expected, too. Although K2 had to hold him for most of the concert, and that was pretty tiring. Anyway, they put on a good show. People were dancing and singing along to the music, and having a good time. Tomorrow is dollar day at the fair, and so we are all going to go spend a few hours. Even D has taken the day off to go with us.