Because our daughter Alissa Crandall and family live in South Dakota we don’t get to see them as often as we would like.  So we decided to take a short trip to visit over Mother’s Day week-end.  Alissa’s birthday was the next day (May 14), so there were two special days together.  We enjoyed our visit, but the travels were a little crazy.

We flew on May 11th from Orange County’s John Wayne Airport to Denver, but couldn’t land because of strong winds.  So we backtracked to Colorado Springs, refueled the jet, and returned to Denver – missing our connecting flight to Sioux Falls as a result of the delay.  So we spent a night in Denver, then cancelled our rescheduled flight on May 12th for a slightly earlier one on another airline – arriving in Sioux Falls late in the afternoon.

Our rental car was a brand new Hyundai Elantra (nice car) with just over 500 miles on the odometer.  But around 20 miles out of Sioux Falls the left front tire exploded – really!

Towed back to Sioux Falls, we started over in a new Toyota Corolla – arriving in Huron just in time to say good night to our four grandsons and eat a delicious warmed-up salmon dinner Alissa had prepared to welcome us to Huron.

Three of Andrew and Alissa’s four boys (L to R – Silas, Elijah, and Levi) were on kitchen duty on Mother’s Day – emptying the dishwasher to make room for another load after Sunday morning breakfast.

During morning worship at Huron’s First Presbyterian Church Pastor Andrew delivered his weekly children’s sermon – along with an excellent message on Christ’s ascension.

Grandma Jan enjoyed the opportunity to do some reading with the three older boys.

She also had fun playing with some light-weight flying disks in the Crandalls’ front yard.

The older boys (Levi and Elijah) spend many happy hours creating things, often with careful discussion and deliberation, with their many Legos.

A park just a block away from the Crandalls’ house is a fun place to get some exercise.

And bikes (Levi and Elijah), trikes (Silas) and a one-man car (Ephraim) are good for exercise on the sidewalks and driveways in the Crandalls’ nice neighborhood.

An unexpected surprise of the trip involved the opportunity to attend Elijah’s pre-kindergarten graduation at the James Valley Christian School he and Levi attend.

Tuesday’s return trip to Southern California came quickly – but the adventure was not over.  Our flight from Sioux Falls to Phoenix went smoothly, but our connecting flight to Orange County was delayed an hour and a half.  When we finally got there, our son Stephen picked us up and took us to our car (11:30 p.m.) and we headed for home on the 55 Freeway – coming to a stand-still on the freeway in just a few minutes because of an accident in the left lanes.  So we arrived home in the early hours of Wednesday, May 16th – happy to have had a nice visit with family, even if the travel was a little crazy.

It has been quite a while since our last blog, but not because there has been nothing to say or no pictures to share.  A lady in the Life Group we host in our home each Tuesday evening said this of retirement:  “Retirement is when you get up in the morning with absolutely nothing you have to do, and come to the end of the day only half done.”

We enjoyed an extended family gathering at our house in April to celebrate the birthdays of both Ryan and Erin – Stephen and Meagan’s two children.  Ryan has turned four years old, and Erin is now one.  Stephen and Meagan decided it might work to celebrate both birthdays together this year because the kids are both too young to care about separate birthday parties.  That is likely to change before very long!

Our celebration included Stephen’s family, Meagan’s parents (Dr. Bruce and Connie Seymour), and the family of Meagan’s sister (Chip and Heidi Clampitt, Zerlinda, Amos and Benjamin).

Erin clearly enjoyed the catered Mexican meal which Stephen and Meagan provided.

Ryan probably took a greater interest in breaking the pinata which was part of the party.

Moving inside as darkness closed in, it was time to open birthday gifts – and there were plenty of birthday gifts to be opened!

With two birthdays to celebrate, there were two birthday “cakes” to enjoy – a chocolate brownie cake for Ryan and a pretty pink cake for Erin.

Erin clearly enjoyed “digging in” as she sampled her first birthday cake!

We are enjoying the opportunity to be close enough to Stephen and Meagan’s family to be able to take in the celebrations of the grandchildren’s birthdays – and to have other extended family members close enough to join in on the celebrations.