We are back home!  We got here Monday evening at 7:10pm and Chris and Josie were there to meet us.  We had an exciting trip home.  We left Mongolia Monday Dec. 3rd just a little late -only about 15-20 minutes- and then the flight took a hour longer than on our schedule so we missed our connecting flight in Moscow.

Here we are at the Ulaanbaatar airport in front of the board showing our flight to Moscow with all our luggage.  President and Sister Clark stayed until we and our luggage were checked in.  Sister Clark was outside the window as we went through security blowing kisses.  We will miss them.

This is what UB looked like as we left Mongolia, cold and frosty!!

This is in Moscow from the airport window.  Since we had missed our flight we spent about four hours there.  Tom bought me a Christmas egg on a little stand there.  As you can see the ground did not have as much snow and ice as UB.  Since we missed our flight here, we also missed our flight in Stockholm.  There they wanted us to purchase another ticket because we had not canceled ours.  We told them the plane was late not us and then we had to call Salt Lake City to missionary travel.  They got us on the next flight that left within the hour.  When we got to Gothenburg, Sam, Lilli and the kids were waiting for us.  When we were mnot on our scheduled flight, Sam called Salt Lake and told them his parents were lost, but they assured him that we were fine and would be in on the next flight.

Sweden had plenty of snow.  This is Sam and Lilli's home.  It snowed when we got there and all of the next day.

So the first day we went out to see the snow.  We watched a very large barge go through the locks just like watching a small version of the Panama Canal.  And yes it was very cold and still snowing.

We baked Swedish pastries that are a holiday tradition.  And they tasted very good.

 Levi and I strung beads.  We made a necklace and then we made a bracelet for Kayla.

On another day we took the kids sledding.  Levi is the one oin the ground near the top.  He decided he liked rolling down the hill instead of going down on the sled.

We also ate some traditional Swedish holiday foods.  The top one is sandwiches with hard boiled eggs and shrimp, very delicious.  And then I am eating what is like a very light and fluffy marshmellow with a chocolate and coconut coating.  Very yummy but rich!!  We also had Swedish meatballs, lots of sausages and cheeses, and Christmas bread.

One day we spent several hours at the Christmas village called Liseberg.

In the summer it is an amusement park and this is the roller coaster.  It looked fun but of course was not running with all the snow.

The sign says Merry Christmas.

And how do you like these icicles!!!

There were many little stores like this candy store.  There were also many stands where we tasted sausages, cheeses, fudge, candies, and drinks.

Everything was beautiful with all the lights.

And of course Levi got to talk with Santa.  And outside his shop were live reindeer but then what else would we expect, right?

We rode a ride through storybook land with Levi...

And then we ate at Burger King!!

Before we knew it, it was Monday again and time to leave.  We had a tearful good-bye with Sam and family at the airport and within 10 minutes were on the plane to London.  We are so glad we had the chance to go to Sweden and visit with them.

This is a mural in the London airport.  It shows exactly what we saw as we flew in.  We were in the airport for three hours and then on our way to San Diego.  It was a long flight but we had no problems and had good food and free movies to watch.  When we got to San Diego we got through customs quickly and found Chris and Josie waiting for us at the bottom of the escalator.  Hugs, Smiles and more tears- happy ones this time.  We also saw an old friend, Siliva Fely, who was there picking someone up.  We also found out that we had been on the plane with President Meacham's son-in-law who is in our ward here at home. President Meacham was the mission president in Mongolia before President Clark, our mission president.  What a small world!

So in the last two years we have been to Mongolia, China, Russia, Sweden, and England!  We went on a mission and turned into world travelers!!!  Our mission was great and we love and miss the people in Mongolia, but we are happy to be with our family and friends here at home too.