Welcome home to me.

After driving 2220 miles, we are finally home. I kind of wish we had gone two more miles so it could be an even 2222. But that's just my grandpa coming out in me. My grandpa really loved number patterns. I am too tired to write much about our AMAZINGLY FUN vacation, but I will share a couple of my favorite moments. These moments have nothing to do with the vacation, really, but for some reason, they make me smile.

First, a little background: When we go to California, we have a few friends we look forward to visiting. This time, our trip didn't include hanging out in the hometown. We were camping and going to Disneyland. We had time to be in Lodi for only one day: Father's Day. So, even then, we shouldn't be in Lodi, but visiting Chris' dad in Galt. Anyway, we finally decided to go to sacrament meeting and then skip out on the rest of our meetings (I know, it's terrible) so that we could visit the Kuehnes. The Kuehnes are the parents of Chris' high school girlfriend. I know, it seems weird, but I could write pages about why the Kuehnes are so important to Chris. And they've accepted me as one of the family. So, that was the plan. And amazingly, the Kuehnes were available.

As we started to get ready for church, Nathan (NATHAN!!) said, "I can't wait to go to my new primary class and see new people and see what I can learn." NATHAN!! Nathan's not really a church-lover. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I told him we weren't staying for primary and he was so disappointed, he begged to go. NATHAN DID THIS!! How can a parent argue with that? Well, even if we could argue, we shouldn't. So, we left the kids at church and visited the Kuehnes without them. :-) Nathan had a great time and learned about patience.

My new favorite sign was found on a little shop in Capitola--a little beach town. The store caught my eye because they sell taffy--Taffy Town taffy! The owner of Taffy Town lives here in my neighborhood in Utah. He doesn't sell much taffy in Utah, but he sells a ton along the coast. A lot of people believe you can only get such good taffy in the Bay Area. Those people are crazy. I can get it down the street. Usually for free, because they have a lot of it. Anyway, these crazy taffy-sellers had a sign on the door announcing that their credit card machine was down. It concluded: "Thank you for your patient's." (I know that many of my more loyal readers will appreciate this example of ignorance.)

I was sitting on the beach with my brother-in-law and two sisters-in-law. My brother-in-law's friend was also there. He glanced over and said to us, "This is just like being in Hawaii, isn't it?" The four of us looked at him and then stared out at the ocean. There was complete silence for a moment. Then my brother-in-law said, "I guess so, except that the water is freezing, the beach is filthy, the ocean is muddy..." My sister-in-law said, "Yeah, this is definitely a California beach."

California is beautiful and has its place in the world, but let's not try to compare.

I know I had more favorite moments I wanted to write about, but my brain is very tired and I'm surprised I came up with this much.