To make my family jealous

I got to see my brother today even though he's still on his mission. We have been good his whole mission while he's serving an hour away from where we live and haven't tracked him down once. The mission pres granted us a lunch date before he left and today was the lucky day. He flies home on Wednesday.

I was nervous, and he later said he was nervous, about what the outcome of our little date might be, but it ended up being a great time. Everybody wants to see the newly home elders, but I hated to be the one to remind him the real world is coming. I told him it's good, though. I don't think he believed me.

We met in a bit of a sketchy neighborhood at a cool Mexican food joint. His companion gained five pounds worth of burrito during the meal (he's a bean pole, so he could use it). We talked about his mission and how things might be when he gets back. I think he's in for a bit of a shock based on how he reacted to a couple of Chris' slightly off comments, but he's going to do just fine. Just don't make him watch any movies for awhile. He's not ready for that. And he doesn't want to hear Weezer right away, either.

We love Bubba and can't wait to have him back! He has definitely served with honor and is coming home a different, wiser, more mature man (but still as skinny as before, to his chagrin). Hopefully we'll rise up to his level a little bit as he rubs off on us.

MJ's memorial is tomorrow, so LA is covered with murals like this one down the street from where we ate. Bubba was worried he was breaking the rule of looking like a tourist. I thought it was more of a historical picture. It marks the end of an era in so many ways.

What we did on the 4th

The 4th of July has always been one of my favorite holidays. My friend pointed out today that it has all the fun of the best holidays without the fuss of gifts (like Christmas) or insane amounts of food prep (like Thanksgiving). Ours was nice. We started with a refreshing pancake breakfast. The flier sent out at church said "Come enjoy a refreshing pancake breakfast." I can't eat pancakes, but it looked like everyone else was very refreshed by it.

I told Sam we celebrate the 4th in honor of those who fought for our freedom and who continue to do that. He said "like Uncle Danny?" who is in Iraq fighting right now. I think it meant more for the kids knowing someone they could relate the meaning of the day to.

That afternoon we swam at Nellie's with the cousins. Sam got stung by a bee as he was about to cannon-ball into the pool about 15 minutes into the festivities. A few popsicles later he still wanted to go home, so we did. We barbecued and ate outside. The kids werekind of jumpy about bugs after Sam's incident, but they forgot all about it once I started filling water balloons for our water balloon toss. It's funny how I spent so long filling balloons and never had more than 10 filled at one time. Ben especially loved grabbing them, giggling, then chucking them on the grass. Chris snuck up on the roof with a hose and sprayed us as we worked so diligently filling and tying (all the kids helped, of course). So then the 10 I had filled were launched at him. We got him pretty good. That counted for the water balloon toss, I think.

Later we had a huge communal bath (it's nice having kids and cousins 7 and under--they don't care yet). Then we enjoyed our first batch of homemade ice cream for the year. We were all totally spent even though we really wanted to watch fireworks. Cousins left, hoping to catch some fireworks on the ride home. We got lucky. As we were putting the kids to bed, we heard the booms of the nearby show. I peeked out the window and there it was! We could see half of the show pretty clearly. Sam was exhausted! He lay in bed and watched for a few minutes before I heard him lightly snoring. Lucy kept saying "Oooh, that's a pitty (pretty) one!" and telling me which ones were her favorite colors. She got tired and jumped in bed, too. Chris wandered off, so I watched the end of the show as my kids fell asleep. It was a perfect way to end the day.