Western New York. Happily, same as it ever was.

Well, our trip to New York was a great success. Here are a few highlights:

• The boys' amazingly good moods and behavior while traveling, for about 13 hours each way. Joseph loved, loved, loved watching all the airplanes taxiing around during our layovers in Atlanta and the animal cracker airplane snacks.
• Seeing my cousin Jessica during our 3 1/2 hour layover in Atlanta.
• Seeing my Uncle Ron's awesome new pottery shop, workroom, and teaching areas.
• Joseph playing for hours on end on the beach at Lake Erie - filling buckets and dump trucks with sand and water with cousin Maya, splashing in the lake, and rolling around in the scummy creek water.
• Nephi's daily futile attempts to see something interesting while snorkeling in Lake Erie, with visibility to about his wrist.
• Trying to light sparklers we found in the basement that were made in the GDR (Yes, that is East Germany, which means they were at least about 15 years old, and no, aging sparklers isn't a good idea)
• My Grandma's delight at spending time with her two Great-grandsons.
• My Grandma's insistence that Caleb puts everything in his mouth because he is hungry. Also, her trying to feed him some cereal and bananas while I was out, only to finally admit defeat as he politely but firmly refused to swallow any.
• My Grandma amazingly having a stash of toy tractors, one of Joseph's current Favorite Things, which he spent a good deal of each day driving around her living room.
• Nephi's AWESOME 50 point Scrabble play that ultimately led to his victory over the Greenhalgh family. Yes, this was one to remember - "pixie," with the "x" on a double letter square, and used in two words - "pixie" and "axe," with the "p" also part of "pa" (and also on a double letter square).
• A family memorial for my Grandpa Ambrose and Cousin Billy, who both passed away this year.
• The annual illegal but terrific fireworks display at the Fenton's 4th of July party. (Joseph was completely terrified by the fireworks at the time. However, he still talks about them a lot, and in quite a positive way, and he does a very endearing reenactment of the noises they make.)
• Joseph jumping into Nephi's arms in Uncle Pete and Aunt Pauline's pool like 100 times. He would back up all the way to the fence and get a good running start so it would be a really big jump. And he talked me and Laura into joining him for the last bunch. It was fun.
• The really great Fast and Testimony meeting we attended at the Fredonia branch of the church, full of new, sincere, and inspiring converts.
• Looking through old pictures with my Grandma.
• Getting hooked on Sudoku puzzles, courtesy of Uncle Ron.
• The hundreds of small, annual traditions that are part of 4th of July festivities - the flying (and controversial) frog that hangs from the A-frame chandelier, the honey glazed ham for the Smith reunion, Aunt Ceta's stromboli, Uncle Ron's pottery raffle at the Zaccari reunion, the fishy lakey algae smell of the Lake, the annual check-ins with cousins and family at the many reunions, rinsing feet off with the freezing water from the hose in the grass after being on the beach... It all combines to become a reassuring ritual that echoes through so many years of my life.

It is true that sometimes, Southern California Wants to be Western New York.