We're in the U.S. After a 40-minute delay in taking off and an almost 13-hour flight, we landed in Los Angeles. John only slept about 3 hours and Jane didn't sleep at all. Nealy handled the flight pretty well, and only a few times was a little fussy. John's first comment to the Border Patrol officer as we went through customs was "You won't believe how happy we are to see you!" A quick stop at immigration to hand off Nealy's paperwork, picked up our luggage and then headed up to where everyone greets the arrivals. We were supposed to meet John's second cousin, Bebe, but were surprised to be greeted not only by Bebe, but John's parents and John's sister Elaine! They made the trip out to LA yesterday and will be on our return flight to St. Louis tomorrow. Dropped all our luggage off in our room and went to the hotel restaurant for dinner with everyone. Not only was it great to have dinner with everyone, but we enjoyed ice for the first time in a few weeks and soda in a glass bigger than a juice glass. Then back to the room to finally get some sleep. Not so fast... a fire alarm went off at 11:30, but we were told it was a false alarm as we were leaving our room. We're anxious to see how Nealy handles the time change. Everyone will be at the hotel for breakfast and we will be joined by Kael, a cousin of John's. Then we go to the airport to fly back to St. Louis. Will probably add comments to all the pictures tomorrow or Sunday. Right now, we're exhausted and need to get up in a few hours...