Kyhle's brother Saxon served a two year mission for our church in Santa Rosa, California. Kyhle and I had the opportunity to go out to California with Kyhle's mom to pick Saxon up when he finished his mission. Kyhle served his mission from 2007-2009 in LA, and so we decided we would leave a few days early and visit LA so Kyhle could show me the places he lived and introduce me to some of the families he served. My brother Ryan lives in Thousand Oaks, just south of LA, so we were able to stay at their house and have special time with my brother's family. They had been having a horrible drought in LA for months, and of course, the two and half days we got to be there, it poured the entire time!
We didn't let the rain stop us from getting out and seeing as much as we could. Our first stop as soon as we got our rental car was at the LA Temple. I had driven by it before, but I had never gotten out and walked the grounds. What a beautiful setting! Lucky for us, the rain stopped just during the 20 minutes we were at the temple. Isn't that awesome? As soon as we got back in the car, it started sprinkling again. It turned in to a total down pour after we left the temple, so we just stayed in the car as we drove around through Beverly Hills and Westwood, saw a little of Bel-Aire and UCLA's campus. Then we headed down to USC to see Kyhle's first area, and then on down to Thousand Oaks to Ryan's house, where we spent the evening and had dinner.
On our second day, we drove through beautiful Topanga Canyon, Calabasas, and went to Will Rogers beach in Malibu. We then took the PCH down through the South Bay, El Segundo, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, and ate lunch in Laundale at tiny hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant. We made our way to North Torrance, stopped and did a little shopping at Target, and went on to San Pedro. In San Perdo, they have the Korean Friendship Bell, and a really cool aquatic center. Saturday evening, we went to Bell Gardens, and visited an old Bishop of a ward Kyhle served in, and his family, the Gallindos. We had dinner at a cool restaurant called The Elephant Bar, and then went back to Ryan's house.
Our third day, we met Carly, a girl Kyhle taught on his mission, at a fun pizza place called Pieology. It's like a Subway, where they have small pizzas, and you go through the line and tell them what toppings and sauces you want. We then went back to Ryan's house and spent the rest of the day with family and hanging out with the kids. We had so much fun having that special one-on-one time with Gwen, Zach, Annie, and Tori.
Early Monday morning, we flew up to San Francisco and arrived at the airport shortly after Kyhle's mom. It was time to pick up Elder Saxon Porter! We drove from San Fran to Santa Rosa and got checked in to our hotel. We had a few hours to kill, so we all took a nap and then freshened up before going to his mission president's home. When we arrived to the President's home, they opened the door and yelled for Saxon. It was so cool getting to see Vicki see Saxon for the first time in two years. They had a testimony meeting that night with the missionaries who were going home, and there was one other family picking up their daughter, as well. It was a beautiful testimony meeting, filled with lots of funny stories and many tears shed.
Tuesday, Saxon wanted to show us as much of his area as possible, and boy did he! We drove all over northern California. We saw the beautiful vineyards in Napa and Sonoma, visited families in other areas he served, and had dinner with one of his favorite families in Vacaville. We did a total of 6 hours of driving on Tuesday, and saw a ton of beautiful California's county side.
We flew home Wednesday morning, and had quite a long layover in Las Vegas. We were so grateful for the fun filled days we had in California, rain and all. We were especially grateful to Kyhle's mom for helping make the trip possible for us, and to my brother and sister-in-law for letting us stay at their home. Welcome home, Saxon!
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