He's 2nd from the bottom w/the glasses on. It's a little hard to see.
With my sister Alicia and I.
Happy to see all of the family.
We went to Utah this past weekend. My awesome husband was willing to take on the nasty, snowy drive for me to be able to see my little brother Chad come home from his mission and give his homecoming talk. It was a hairy, white knuckle drive down and it took longer than usual, but we made it. We actually made it just in time to see him arrive at the airport. We made it about 30 min. early, plus it takes 15 min. or so for you to get off the plane. We were even there before my mom because she got stuck in traffic. She made it there in time with cool signs in hand. She had a ginormous banner that I forgot to get a picture of. There were 4 missionaries all together coming home from Australia so the bottom of the escalator was packed with families. We had a prime spot right at the bottom. You would have thought they were rock stars with all the cheering and noise the families made as we saw the first missionary. It was so exciting. The first dinner he wanted when he got home was Panda Express so that's what we had for dinner. We visited that night and got to hear some stories before going to the hotel. It took the baby FOREVER to settle down and go to sleep. He wouldn't stay in his pack and play and thought it was fun to get in and out via the bed. So he ended up screaming in our bed until about 11pm. Which means no one sleeps until then. Then for some reason the hotel alarm clock went off at 5:40 am-probably having to do with a certain baby playing with it before bed. I couldn't find the switch and had to use the light on my phone to find it-after waking everyone up of course.
With all of my handsome boys after church.
Church was at 9am, so we had to get up at 7am to make sure we made it on time. He gave a great talk and used his accent a little. He has a great sense of humor. When he left, his farewell talk took the whole time, but they told him to keep going as long as he wanted. Same thing happened this time. But they had 2 musical numbers, so it wasn't his fault. After sacrament, we went to my mom's for breakfast, but our kids had already eaten a little at the hotel because they didn't want to wait. I only ate a little bacon because we were all saving room for In 'n Out. Totally worth the trip there. We are truly sad and annoyed that we don't have one here yet. We're looking forward to CA and AZ after Christmas so that we can eat there multiple times to get our yearly fix. I was really bummed, though that it was so snowy so we couldn't eat the big yummy breakfast and then have a full lunch at my mom's. Oh well, maybe next time. We drove in slushy snow pretty much all the way thru Utah, but when we got close to our border we had pretty clear roads all the way home. Just a little wet and foggy. We even got to stop and visit with B's step-mom for about an hour and a half. The kids really needed a break from the car after traveling all day the day before too.
Jo Jo was so excited to have this hat and actually left it on for quite awhile.
The morning before when we left, B had me say the safety prayer. Bad idea. I totally started bawling and had to pause several times. I was just so happy to be seeing my brother. He and I are 12 yrs. apart in age so he was only 6 when I left home for college, so we really got to know each other thru letters and emails while he was gone. I am so proud of his hard work, sacrifice and wonderful example to my boys. I am so thankful for his strong testimony that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true. What a wonderful memory this will be for my boys.
2 comments:
That is awesome! I didn't know you guys went to Utah for your brothers homecoming. Glad you had a fun safe trip.
Time goes by so fast doesn't it?! Maybe it just feels that way to me. It doesn't seem that long ago that you were talking about him leaving. I'm so glad that you got to be there for his homecoming.
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