Max comes home!

Friday night, Aug. 15, almost 10 p.m., Elder Richards came through the doors of the Salt Lake International Airport after flying for almost two days home from Cochabamba, Bolivia!

In between all the hugs, Ben and Max stood back to back to see who became taller after two years. Both of them have grown but Ben really shot up.

Thank you to Nona and Papa and Bart and Collette's family for staying up late with us after all the flight delays to greet Max!

Here we are with the signs we made for him.

His former companion Isaac Evans was there.

And his longtime friend Andy Loosle, who got home only a week or so before him.

We went right to In-N-Out Burger, for the best first meal home for our burger fan.

Sunday, Aug. 24, was Max's homecoming talk and we invited people over to lunch afterward. Here's baby Sarah with Andrew.

And then Peter and Mindy's family.

Bart and Collette's family (missing Emily on a mission!)

Joe and Sarah's family from Idaho.

Suzanne's family.

Sunday morning, I was at the stake center for Max's report to the high council and didn't have time to do Millie's hair. I showed up to our ward and Jane was doing these fantastic braids.

 

Our dear neighbors the Bells.

Our great friends the Peters.

Tables in the garage.

Tables outside under our neighbors' canvas tents.

Cousins!

Former companions and friends from his mission.

Ben's homies.

Museums, birthdays and other fun

Besides our reunion in Idaho, we stayed busy with fun things in July and into August. I won the parks pass from the library for the month of July and also found other fun and/or free activities to stay busy with the kids, in between my work hours and JB's work hours we tried to do lots of things with them, even if it was just the free summer school lunches at the park and bringing a friend along.

We also had our July and August birthdays and holidays to celebrate.

On the fourth of July, we had our annual neighborhood bike parade.

I took the kids to a spot to watch fireworks on a hill. Normally I don't like staying up but this was worth it.

Cousins got together at Suzanne's house for Nona's birthday on July 5.

The county had a free golf clinic for kids on July 17 and JB took these two to try it out. 

 

Millie and her best friend Sylvie got a treat to celebrate their joint birthdays.

Here's our birthday cake kissing picture with our new 9 year old.

She was very happy to get a new Chelsea doll.

James and Andrew gave Millie their stuffies and she was thrilled to add them to her collection.

Then they wanted to carry her like so (Ben was in Brazil).

I made her this new nightgown from a pillowcase.

I got tickets again for the Days of 47 Rodeo from my work because I helped volunteer for the Deseret News Marathon. We went to the rodeo on July 22. Look how small our family looks with the two oldest boys away!

They had pioneer games.

And animals

They gave out these Sinclair dino soaps.

One of the best parts is the guys who jump from a plane and come soaring down with the American Flag on their backs.

JB's Aunt Harriet works at the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Museum downtown and we went to see her for the special activities on Pioneer Day and brought Andrew's friend Jack, who took this picture of us.

There was a scavenger hunt and you had to take a picture by things to prove you found them, like the two-headed lamb.

Then we went over to the Clark Planetarium downtown.

James and Millie got those shirts (I have one too) for helping at the marathon packet pick up station.

Then it was my birthday on July 25.

I took James and Millie to Red Butte Garden on July 26 with the museums pass.

These three spent a lot of time together playing games.

We got this picture of Max's birthday celebration on July 27!

We met the Robertson cousins at Tracy Aviary on July 28.

There are owls behind James.

Then we went over to the Liberty Park pond to feed the ducks.

JB took the boys to the temple on Aug. 1.

Playing at a park.

I made a cheesecake for JB's birthday on Aug. 10 (and Ben was back from Brazil by then!)

Papa came for the cheesecake, I can't remember where Nona was.

And the young men had a shooting activity on Aug. 13 and had a great time.