Video Chat, Ancestor Stories, Pepper Jelly, Salsa, Updates, Flu, Naughty Dog, Race, Football, Birthday

These past two weeks haven’t been too busy.  It is nice to finally be in a regular routine since school has started.  We have had the chance to video chat with Josh twice so far.  He is doing really well.  His companion is from Spain, but has lived in the U.S. for the past eight years so he speaks English very well. In fact last week’s call Josh said, “Hi” to us and then gave his companion the phone for about 5 minutes.  We got to chit chat with his companion which was interesting.  Not everyone can be on the call with Josh at the same time.  Aaron goes out to his car in the parking lot at work and can talk for a few minutes.  Then Sarah gets home from school and will talk for a few minutes, then Daniel will pop in from his Cross Country workout for a few minutes, then Noah will get home from school and talk for a few minutes.  Our first call was about an hour long and it was so nice to hear his voice and see that he is happy and doing well.  Here’s a few screen shots from when everyone could join in the call:

He did get to do some service.  However, when they finished the member made them pancakes.  When Josh sat down to eat them, his companion started laughing at him.  At some point during his service he split/ripped his jeans down the crotch--DOH!  Unfortunately, Josh just can’t go into a store and pick up a pair of jeans because he is such a weird size.  That meant I got to send him a pair of jeans from home.  He also asked for a jar of homemade peach jam, as well as the recipe for Beef Stroganoff.  We also sent a few other goodies and a jacket since it is cooling off in Chicago.  Hopefully, he got his package in the mail.  I will find out later this afternoon.  

Two weeks ago for Young Women we had an ‘Ancestor Show and Tell’.  Everyone brought an interesting item or story about an ancestor to share.  In looking in my family history I found two interesting stories.  One was from John Langston.  His journal said, “About the middle of this winter, 1853, I made my mind up to sell out and fix and go to Salt Lake and join the Mormons.  So I went to work, sold out all I could and about the first of May started for Salt Lake.  The day before Christmas, 1853, me and my wife went to a party to one of our friends that evening.  So we took our 2 children, one-girl five years, and the baby, a boy.  On our way we stopped at one of our neighbors by the name of Hathaway who was also going so, it being a bitter cold night, the two women put our girl and the three Hathaway children to bed and put out all the fire, fastened the door, and when after we had been to the party a while, about 12 o’clock, Thomas Tidwell he saw the fire coming from the house, he not knowing that there were any children in the house, went to work to save all the property there was around the house then came to the school house where we was and told about the house being on fire.  I forgot all about the women and teams and ran for the house, but too late to do any good, and the house being a log one it had burned down to the last 2 logs and them all on fire, so we could do nothing but wait till the fire went out.  It was a heart rending scene, after the fire went out we scraped up all the ashes and bones we could and buried them...”

I can’t even imagine how awful that would have been!!  Here’s a picture from the journal entry:

Another story I found was from Isaac Hunt.  His information said, “Isaac Hunt, son of Wm. and Mary Ann Holmes Hunt, was born in Leeds, Cambridge shire, England, January 9, 1829.  When they first heard the gospel they accepted it and began preparation for coming to Zion.  His parents were not rich and all had to work hard to make a living.  He was a mason by trade and made fairly good wages.  When he was 24 years of age, January 1852, he embarked on the sailing vessel Golconda for Zion.  This vessel was commanded by Captain Jacob Gates. "

“Soon after leaving England the mast of the ship broke and they drifted along at the mercy of the wind and waves for many weeks.  They were finally picked up by a tug boat and towed into New Orleans.  He went up the Mississippi River got work on a steamer.  It was on this voyage that he became so sea sick that he had to remain in bed.  The girl who nursed him, later became his wife.”

“From there he went to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he got an opportunity to drive a team to Salt Lake Valley.  They wrote love letters on boards and bones to their sweethearts, who were in the following company.   They arrived in Salt Lake Valley in the fall of 1852.  He was married to Ann Newling, the girl he met on his voyage, March 27, 1853, at Salt Lake City."

That was an interesting YW activity! It was cool to hear and see different things from everyone’s ancestors.  Sarah brought some stories from Grandpa T’s autobiography and an old shaving knife from a few generations before her.  

Noah is still doing soccer and loves to be the goalie:

Our garden is going crazy.  I had A LOT of jalapeños and Anaheim peppers I needed to do something with.  I ended up doing another batch of pepper jelly.  Who knows maybe they will become future Christmas presents--haha!

The other day I caught Matthew and Noah sitting on the swing just chatting.  That doesn’t happen very often so I took a quick picture:

Noah started orchestra this past week.  They offer an elementary school orchestra before school twice a week.  We already had a violin so I talked Noah into trying it out.  So far he seems to like it.  Hopefully, it stays that way as the year progresses!

Matthew got to go to the State Fair in Salt Lake two Saturdays ago.  He loves getting out so it was a good activity for him and his staff to attend.  While he was there he even got a chance to ride and mechanical bull.  He was beyond excited about that.  Afterward he called me to tell me about it.  He then called Aaron to tell him about it.  He then called G&G Terry to tell them about it.  He also emailed the high school secretary to tell her about it, too.  He seemed to have really enjoyed riding the mechanical bull--haha!  Matthew even got a new calling at church.  He is the assistant building maintenance person.  It is a special tailored calling just for him.  He gets to help pick up trash after sacrament meeting and whenever else it is needed.  He was so excited when they said his name to sustain him in church.  He was yelling so loud that the people around us didn’t hear what his new calling was and had to ask us afterward.  I am glad he is excited about his calling.  He has done well with it, too.  After sacrament meeting he will go around picking up trash and putting things away before heading to Sunday school/Priesthood.  It is nice because he gets overstimulated by walking down the hallways when they are full of people.  This calling gives him a chance to serve and by the time he is finished picking up trash in the chapel the halls are clear and we can just slip into Sunday school without any issues.  It is great!

We follow the Illinois, Chicago Mission Facebook page and love to see any and all pictures of the missionaries especially ones that have Josh in them.  Josh is in this particular picture--he is the tallest one on the back row in this update:

We got to video chat with him for the second time last week.  He is happy and loves what he is doing.  He seems to really get a long with his companion which I am grateful for!  I am looking forward to talking to him again this afternoon.  Here’s everyone as they came and left on the video chat:

Daniel logged on for a minute in between Cross Country workouts:

Sarah came home from school and Aaron at work:

Noah when he got home from school:

We didn’t talk for as long this time, but it was nice to hear him and see him!  I did learn that he tried making pancakes Saturday morning and forgot and left the pan with oil in it on the hot stove.  It ended up smoking really bad and setting off the fire alarm.  They couldn’t get the fire alarm to stop so they took it off the ceiling and disabled it.  They were trying to get a hold of the older office mission couple to get a replacement, but they weren’t returning their calls.  I wasn’t very excited to hear they would have to go without a fire/carbon monoxide alarm for who knows how long, but what can you do?!  I told Josh maybe he should try cooking something different next time.  He was not amused--haha!  The missionaries in their area don’t get to baptize new members.  They give that opportunity to the ward members to help with fellowshipping.  They had a baptism lined up and had the ward service missionary try to do the baptism, however, after three attempts the service missionary wasn’t able to baptize her.  Josh’s companion ended up getting in the baptismal jumpsuit and doing the baptism instead.  Afterward they were supposed to wash the baptismal suit, but they ended up just wadding up into a ball until they were going to do laundry later in the week.  When I talked to Josh he was complaining that their apartment stunk really bad.  In talking to him more I found out the wet baptismal jumpsuit still had not been washed and was still wadded up in their apartment.  Ewwww!  No wonder their apartment stunk!  Hopefully, they were able to wash it soon afterward--at least I hope they did anyway.  Josh was also complaining that you had to use a ton of quarters to use the laundromat.  Haha!! I had to laugh because he has never had to use a laundromat to do his laundry or even pay for it before his mission.  I told him I didn’t feel to bad for him since Aaron and I had to use a ton of quarters at a Laundromat to do our laundry for the first two years we were married.  I told him it builds character.  He was not amused, but it is a good learning opportunity!

We are definitely missing Josh.  Aaron made tri tip last week and usually there are no leftovers when Josh is around.  However, this last time we had lots of leftovers which is crazy.  I also made a peach cobbler because I thought everyone liked it and we still have a ton of frozen peaches.  I was wrong.  After I made it none of the kids ate it.  They told me they don’t like peach cobbler and it was always Josh that ate it every time I made it.  I guess I will have to try making something else with all the frozen peaches I have in our freezer. 

Flu clinics are in full swing.  I got to help at a training clinic two weeks ago down in Salt Lake to help train the new seasonal staff.  That was interesting.  I also got my flu shot at that clinic, too.  These next two months are going to be super busy, but I am not complaining.  More money is not a bad thing, right?!

We have never trained Sophie to tuck in kids or wake kids up, but she is always there to do either.  She knows every evening that she helps tuck in kids before bed.  Then if the kids aren’t awake in the morning she will help me ‘wake up kids’.  She is a funny dog.  The other morning Noah wasn’t awake yet so I had to help me wake him up.  As soon as you say, “Let’s go wake up kids!” She will immediately grab and toy and run to their closed bedroom doors and wait to be let in.  Here she is waking up Noah:  

Sophie is pretty well behaved most of the time.  However, she was unsupervised for a while Sunday morning.  A very short time later it was discovered that she had gone downstairs and done her business on Daniel’s cross country jersey while it was on the floor.  Ewwwwwwww!  Daniel was NOT happy, but what can you do?!  I was surprised because she rarely has accidents in the house and usually there is a reason why when she does.  However, we can’t figure out why she did it this time, though.  What a naughty dog!  Good thing there is a sanitize cycle on our washing machine and that she is cute, though!

Daniel had a Cross Country race down in Rose Park this last week.  Rose Park is a bit of a sketchy area.  I joked with Aaron that they wouldn’t know which gunshot sound was the actual start of the race--haha!  Actually it wasn’t too bad.  Here’s Daniel getting ready for the race (he is left of the kid that is bending down):

There were a ton of different high schools that participated in the race.  They split the race up between boys and girls.  Then split those into Sophomore/Freshman and then Junior/Senior race.  The race Daniel was in was the boys Freshman/Sophomore race.  There were a ton of kids that ran:

Daniel didn’t want to get his picture taken after the race, but he humored me even if it was with a crusty face--haha!

Speaking of Daniel he got to pull an all nighter last week.  The high school had an all night fundraiser where the kids earned money for walking laps around the track all night long.  The Cross Country team participated.  Instead of walking they ran their laps.  Daniel prepared for all night by bringing snacks and drinks.  However, he seemed to have overdone it a bit and ended up throwing up Takis a few times.  Gross!  When he got home the next morning at 6:30 am I caught him before he went to bed and he said his nose/mouth/throat were still burning from throwing up the spicy Taki chips.  Poor guy!!  Don’t worry he survived it, though!  That is how you know you got a good workout in is if you throw up I guess.  Daniel also interviewed and got accepted into the city youth council again for this upcoming year.  He is also taking some college courses and got accepted in to Weber State so he can do concurrent enrollment.  That is crazy he is kind of considered a college student!

They shut our secondary water off for our city September 1st.  All our tomatoes ripened shortly after and we have had tomatoes coming out of our ears!  I did a batch of spaghetti sauce and salsa when I picked another bushel.  We have so many tomatoes:

Some of them have some pretty weird shapes like this one that my kids thought was hilarious:

I got through another big batch of salsa when I ran out of lids, but still had about another bushel left to process--DOH!!  Decent lids have been impossible to find this year as well as last year.  I didn’t want to worry about trying to find anymore lids so I just put out a post for free tomatoes and zucchini and the tomatoes were gone by the next morning, but we still have a ton of zucchini left.  I might have to start doorbell ditching the zucchini--haha!

The last of my lids for a big batch of salsa:

The sunrise is getting later and later.  Sarah usually is walking to school around the time sunrise is and she took this beautiful sunrise picture from our neighborhood last week:

Speaking of Sarah she is doing Jazz Band this year.  It is held before school 3 times a week.  However, this past week was picture day.  Sarah got up and was concerned about looking nice for picture day.  Last year her picture wasn’t the best so she wanted to have a good picture for this year.  She came and asked me to do her hair and makeup.  When it was time to go to school, it was then that she realized she had totally spaced Jazz band that morning because she wanted to look nice for her pictures.  Poor girl!  Her pictures did turn out nice and hopefully, missing only one morning of Jazz band won’t hurt her grade--keeping my fingers crossed for that!

Almost two weeks ago BYU played the U in football.  They have not won for 9 years against the U, but they finally pulled it off this year.  Aaron was so excited.  However, the game ended really late Saturday night/Sunday morning so it made early morning Sunday meetings for Aaron not very pleasant.  We usually get together with the Einzinger’s to watch this game, but they were sick this year and we weren’t able to get together, unfortunately.  Aaron was so excited he made sure he wore his BYU tie to church the next day--haha!  Here’s the end score:

It is Grandma T’s birthday this week.  We had a family get together yesterday to celebrate.  The kids had fun seeing their cousins and the adults got to catch up.  It was a nice afternoon!  Happy birthday Grandma T!  Matthew was thoughtful and even went to the dollar store to get her a gift without anyone even reminding him.  He was so excited to give it to her yesterday!

Saying Goodbye, Tongue Tacos, Dancer of the Week, Chicago, Bottling, Flu Orientation, Soccer, Youth Council, Piano, Minnetonka Cave

This past week has been busy.  The last Saturday before Josh left to go to Chicago we were able to do a morning endowment session at the Ogden temple.  I wanted Josh to have as much temple experience as he could before he left on his mission.  Although there is a temple in the Chicago area we didn’t know how often Josh would be able to attend so we tried to do as much as we could before he left.  There is so much information to take in at the temple that the more you go the more you understand.  It has been a really neat experience to be able to go to the temple with him and Aaron these past two months.  

After the temple Josh’s online Home MTC district wanted to get together in person for a lunch before everyone left for their different missions.  They chose to meet at someone’s grandma’s house in Provo.  The district members that lived close by were able to attend and meet in person.  On our way down we were a bit early so we stopped by a BYU apparel tent sale where a tender mercy came to pass.  I have been apprehensive and nervous to send Josh out to Chicago.  However, at the tent sale Aaron struck up a conversation with one of the employees.  It just so happened that her son had JUST come home from a Spanish speaking Chicago mission two months previously.  She knew who the mission president was and raved about how great of an experience it was for her son that had just returned.  That made me feel a bit better about sending him out.  After visiting for a few minutes we then left to take Josh to his district luncheon.  When we got to the house we quickly met a few of his HMTC district members and then left Josh there so he could visit with everyone outside of a computer screen.  They had this sign up for the district members that were able to make it:

After Aaron and I dropped Josh off we found a small street taco place to grab a quick lunch.  It seemed to be authentic because they offered 6 different tacos a few of them including beef head, beef tongue, tripe, chicken and steak.  To try and be adventuresome Aaron and I ordered one beef tongue taco and split it.  I tasted the meet and it was very tender, but after looking closer at the meat and seeing the actual taste buds on the tongue meat in the taco I didn’t want to try anymore.  I guess I am not as an adventurous eater as I had originally thought--haha!  Here’s our cow tongue taco with a meat chunk that you can see the taste buds on:

Josh’s district had only planned to spend lunch and an hour or two visiting, but it ended up turning into about 4 hours of visiting time.  Aaron and I came back after two hours and Josh was not ready to go so we left for a bit longer.  

Here’s everyone from their district that was able to make it:

After four hours it was time to come back home.  Josh was sad to say goodbye, but they are all on each other’s email lists so they will keep in touch. 

When we got home that evening we spent some time together as a family.  During Josh’s Home MTC in his free time we have been playing some family games (our favorite was Five Crowns), watching different church movies/video clips and safety videos, going grocery shopping and going on walks.  That evening we played some games while we washed all of Josh’s clothes preparing to pack them the next day.  The next day was Sunday.  We went to church.  Afterward Josh and I started packing his bags.  He had collected everything the week before to make sure he had everything he needed.  We picked up the things he was missing throughout the week--Thank goodness for same day delivery from Amazon!!  Anyway, we put everything inside the suitcases and thankfully, it fit and was all underweight.  Then we had our last Sunday dinner and invited G&G T to join us.  After dinner and visiting for awhile it was time for Josh to say goodbye to G&G T for two years.

Then it was time to take Matthew back to his group home.  His very first day of school was the next day and he didn’t want to miss it so he said goodbye to Josh that evening.

We checked and rechecked everything on the papers we had.

Then it was time for bed since we had a very early morning.  Josh’s flight was at 8:20 am.  They told him to get to the airport two hours before his flight which meant 6:20am.  That meant we had to wake up at 4:45 am to get ready for the day since we would be dropping off Sarah, Noah and Daniel at school when we came back from the airport.  Then it came time to leave the house at 5:20am.  Josh said goodbye to Sophie:

Made the drive to the airport and parked.  They have totally redone the Salt Lake Airport so it took a bit to figure out where to park so we could walk inside.

Walking inside the airport we all had to be wearing a mask.  Then we headed over to check his bags at the Delta check in.  One of the perks of living in Utah they had a line open dedicated to just missionaries checking in.  That made the check in go so quickly.  He checked in and checked his two large suitcases for the Chicago flight.  We then made our way over to the security area.

Had to stop and check the flight status.  Thankfully, it was a direct flight and running on time.

If there is moving walkway you HAVE to use it--at least that it what all the kids told me--haha!

Then we got to security and it was time to say goodbye. 

 Time to say goodbye and hug:

Aaron:

Sarah:

Noah:

Daniel:

I was having a bit of a hard time.

Then he walked down the security line on his way and didn’t even look back:

We tracked his flight and knew it landed, but didn’t hear anything from him.  Luckily, his Mission President and wife took pictures of the new incoming missionaries after they had landed at the Chicago airport and posted them to Facebook.  Aaron and I scrolled through them all and picked out Josh from the different pictures.  

All the new incoming missionaries to the Chicago, Illinois mission:

We got an email from the Mission President that evening saying the new missionaries made it.  Then we just had to sit tight and hope for the best since the missionaries aren’t supposed to contact their families until the next P-day.  It was radio silent......

Aaron took the rest of the day off.  We drove back after dropping Josh off and then we dropped off all the kids at school.  Aaron and I grabbed some breakfast and just bummed around the rest of the day.  I was sad.  It was bittersweet.  I am so grateful Josh chose to serve a mission, but we will really miss him.  

Since Josh is not supposed to contact us outside of P-days we have no idea what is going on from day to day.  So it is a bit exciting when we can see little updates even if they are from his Facebook.  Later that evening Josh posted that he moved to Chicago on Facebook:

The next day he said he moved to Waukegan city.  We had never heard of that particular city so Aaron googled Waukegan, Illinois and that wasn’t the most reassuring thing.  From now on we will not google information about different cities because ignorance is bliss.  This is what googling Waukegan brought up--Ahhhh:

We weren’t going to hear from Josh until his next P-day which is today.  It is usually Monday, but if it falls on a holiday then they push it back a day.  Since yesterday was Labor Day, he will be calling today.  He should call this afternoon and I am so excited to talk to him for the first time in over a week!!

My sister, Jennifer from Ohio, knows what it is like sending out a missionary and was sweet enough to send me some ice cream from Ohio.  Ice cream makes everything better, right?!  That was an unexpected, but very sweet surprise!!

Interestingly enough her nephew from the other side of the family is currently serving a Spanish speaking mission in Chicago as well.  She told him to keep an eye out for Josh.

Josh’s Mission President sent us an email saying that he got there okay and was doing great.  He included a picture of him, his wife and Josh:

Here’s Josh’s first in the field companion:

The rest of that Monday was hard, but life goes on.  The next day was a bit easier.  It helped that I had a ton of tomatoes from our garden that I needed to do something with before they went bad. I spent the rest of the day making and bottling spaghetti sauce:

The next day I was very pleasantly surprised to find this sign in our front yard when I got home from running some errands:

Sarah got picked as the ‘Danzer’ of the week.  Here’s what her dance teacher wrote about her:

Here’s my cute ‘Danzer of the Week':

This past week Sarah started Jazz Band in the mornings.  So far she says she likes it even if it means she has to wake up and be at school an hour earlier 2-3 times a week.

Sarah and Noah started up early morning piano lessons again.  We had to find a different teacher since our old one stopped teaching lessons. It has taken me over a year to find one, but they are both excited to start lessons back up again even if it means they have to practice every day.

Matthew had his first day of school.  He has been looking forward to school starting ever since it stopped for summer.  He loves school and was excited to go back.  He knows that we have a huge cooked breakfast the morning of the first day of school at our house.  He asked me to cook him breakfast for his first day of school.  I cooked up a big breakfast for him Sunday afternoon and sent it in a Tupperware for him to heat up and make breakfast burritos the next morning.  He loved his breakfast and had a great day at school.  They are opening more job sites up so he is excited to get back to trying out different job experiences again since they were all closed down last year due to Covid.  

Last Wednesday Daniel and Sarah got to help volunteer for a community Illumination event.  It was a community mental health focus/program.  They had different classes throughout the week and ended with a huge community celebration Wednesday evening.  Sarah volunteered with the Jr. High National Honor Society club.  Daniel volunteered with the city Youth Council.  They both helped run different booths during the celebration.  Then later that night they did a big fireworks show.  It was a good experience and they were glad they were able to help out.

Flu season is right around the corner if you can believe it!  We had our flu orientation at work which is for all the returning and first time seasonal staff at CNS last week.  They provided a catered dinner and then talked about all things flu for a few hours.  Even though I am a year round Core staff member they still have the core staff members attend flu orientation every year as well.  I don’t mind.  It is fun to see returning flu crew members that I haven’t seen since flu season ended last year.  I have my first flu shot shift Thursday.  I still can’t believe it is that time of year again!!

Friday Sarah got to go to her first Jr. High dance after school.  She was excited to go with her friends.  However, when she got home after the dance she said she was not impressed.  I just had to chuckle and wonder if she will go to the next Jr. High dance.  Aaron was surprised that there was a Jr. High dance and that Sarah was old enough to go to it.  He still sees her as a 1st grader--haha!  That evening Aaron and I went to the Highschool football game.  Daniel was playing in the band for the game that night and we wanted to see him play.  This is the first time they have had a band play at the football game so it was new for everyone.  Here he is on the back row in the gray and blue sweatshirt:

He is playing the baritone saxophone:

This past week Daniel reapplied to be on the city Youth Council again.  To reapply you have to fill out an application and submit it with a current picture and a letter or recommendation.  Daniel asked our bishop to give him a letter of recommendation and this is what he wrote which was really nice:

He has interviews in a couple weeks for Youth Council so hopefully he can serve for another year.  

We were gifted another 3 bushel of peaches from our friends.  I love peaches and am grateful for them.  With this round we did some more jam, jars of half peaches, I tried making some peach juice and then some fruit leather.  Here’s the fruit leather:

Peach halves, peach jam and peach juice on the right:

With the leftover white peaches I pealed, pitted, halved and froze them.  Here they are in the freezer:

Needless to say we are SET for peaches--haha!  The kids have already eaten two bottles so I guess that is good they like them, too.

Daniel has discovered a LOVE of grilled cheese sandwiches.  He has made so many this past week.  He even made some for breakfast yesterday and today.  I can’t say as I blame him---grilled cheese sandwiches are yummy!  Here’s his breakfast this morning:

Noah is still doing soccer and loving it.  Noah is a busy guy.  He doesn’t hold still very often, but the other evening he fell asleep on Aaron while watching TV and Aaron LOVED it!!  

This weekend was Labor Day.  We didn’t do anything super exciting over the weekend.  Saturday we did errands and spent the rest of the day bottling peaches.  However, Monday we decided to go for a drive.  We had Matthew spend the night Sunday night and got up early the next morning.  When Daniel got home from Cross Country practice we headed up to see Minnetonka Cave which was a 2 and a half hour drive away up in Idaho.  It was a first come first served ticket process and they were limiting groups to 20 people.  I was nervous we wouldn't be able to get tickets, but we didn’t have a problem getting some after driving up there.  

The drive up there goes past Bear Lake and was beautiful.  The foliage is starting to change color and is so pretty.  I LOVE fall.  You can see some of the red leaves on our walk to the cave opening:

It has been a few years since we have visited this cave, but it was still fun to see.  There were lots of stairs so we even got a nice stair workout in, too--haha!

Our guide shined a black light on the walls of the cave and you could see where the water seeps in from the outside:

You could even see the bioluminescent bacteria on the top/roof of the cave:

We did all have to wear a mask, but that isn’t that big of a deal:

We even got to see a few bats flying around inside.  Aaron was NOT happy about that (he HATES bats), but I thought it was pretty cool.

It was a fun visit.  Afterward we drove in to town and grabbed lunch at LaBeau’s in Garden City.  You can’t drive by Bear Lake and NOT get a raspberry shake, right?!

Here’s Bear Lake as we were driving out of the valley to get home:

The air is still pretty hazy here from the California wild fires.