The 227th good thing about Lagos: Back in town just in time for Democracy Day!

I had a very smooth return to Lagos yesterday with no trip delays from volcanic ash clouds or anything else. While the United States celebrates Memorial Day today, we're having our own holiday in Nigeria. May 29th is Democracy Day in this country, and since the date fell on a weekend this year, the government decided to declare Monday the holiday so office workers could celebrate with some time off from work. Democracy Day commemorates the return of democracy in Nigeria on May 29, 1999 when Olusegun Obasanjo took office as President of Nigeria. President Obasanjo was the first elected and civilian head of state in Nigeria after 16 years of military rule.

During the time I was away Nigeria got a new official president. After several months of President Yar'adua being out of the country for medical care, and not seen or heard from at all, and then back in country but too ill to conduct any duties, he finally passed away. Former Vice President Goodluck Jonathan was then officially declared the President. I'm sure Yar'adua's family was sad at his passing, as well as were his henchmen who benefited from him being in office, but many in the country were just relieved to have this time of government inaction over with.

While this was happening in Nigeria, I was having a great time back in the States. We were able to travel to Utah to attend the graduation of our youngest son, Jordan, from BYU. He graduated magna cum laude in accounting and we're very proud of him!

In Utah, we stayed with my parents, who retired not far away from the BYU campus and they've been a great help to us and support to all three of our children who are now BYU graduates. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Our daughter, Lindsay and her two sons travelled from Boston for the graduation and it was great to have them there.

Kids are great, but grandkids are even better. This is Spencer (3), sitting on the steps during the graduation ceremony.

Outside during the picture-taking after the ceremony, Austin (16 months) was trying to scale the big rock that Spencer, just a few minutes later, would climb up and fall from, resulting in some big facial scrapes. Good thing we got a good picture of Spencer before the fall!

Back in Houston, we enjoyed some time at the park, where Owen (3) showed off his monkey bar skills.

I was able to attend a wonderful princess party where we celebrated Maggie's 2nd birthday,

and Elise's 5th birthday, which are a day apart. They were beautiful princesses and all 5 of my grandchildren are wonderful! I LOVE spending time with them. We also had lots of fun swimming in the pool together, but I didn't get a single picture of that.

Being at our home in Houston in the springtime was great. We enjoyed some wonderful weather and I was there just in time to see some beautiful flowers blooming in my yard.

I'm just here in Lagos for a week now before we meet Jordan in Israel for a last trip together before he starts his new job. I'm missing being with kids and grandkids, but I found it interesting that as I arrived back at our apartment here my feeling was "it's good to be home," exactly the same sentiment I felt when I arrived at our home in Houston six weeks before. It's nice to have two places to feel at home!