Welcome Home, Melissa!!!

Melissa came home from her mission in Italy last week and we decided that we just couldn't NOT be there for the big homecoming! Esp since we live so close now! So we cruised on south to Cali, braved the fires and stormed the house, taking everyone by surprise. We had a good time surprising each family member as they arrived home from school, work, etc. :)

My mom had the brilliant idea of having us all wear chef hats to the airport to welcome Melissa - no way she could miss us with those on, eh? :) So we put on our best Italian chef faces, took plenty of posters and waited anxiously at the bottom of the escalator till Melissa arrived! It was a very happy reunion - SOOO great to see her again!! Welcome home, Meliss!!

Waiting at the airport for Melissa to arrive...!! ps - how AWESOME is my poster?? I was SO proud of this masterpiece. :)

Melissa comes off the escalator and sees us - what's a girl to do when your family is all wearing chef hats??

Mom and Dad rush the return missionary - they got to her before the rest of us did. :)
Mom, Dad and Mel

Sibs - minus Nath -- where was he when we took this??

Melissa and B-to-the-ryce, as she calls him :)

Happy Family! We missed you, Marse!

And, of course, the painting wall! We have one wall in our house that gets painted for big occasions - or for no occasion at all, whenever someone feels like painting. Jake and Linds, I believe, were mostly responsible for this work of art:


We're so glad to have Melissa back and that we were able to see her get off the plane - Welcome Home, Mel! See you tomorrow!!

ps - I can't not mention the fires in this post since they were such a part of our trip. It was absolutely CRAZY driving home and seeing so much smoke and burnt land - much of it still smoking. Thankfully, things got better while we were there and my fam is in a safe spot, but we could still see blazes over the hills at night and lots of ash falling pretty much all day long. You held your breath and ran for it when going from car to house - good times. I was feeling very sorry for the toll road employees who had to sit right there in the middle of it all, with just a little dust mask for protection! The good part of the fires is that school was canceled two of the days we were there, so it was family party all day long! My mom sent me this pic - it was taken last Tuesday at a lake a few miles from our house. Yikes!!