It feels a little silly to blog about something that happened SOO a month ago, but let's face it, I'm months behind so this is a drop in a very large bucket and I might as well get over feeling silly. And let's face it, these apologies are going to people who are just grateful to have something new in their googlereaders.
Sooo, my baby brother Michael came home from his mission on August 13th and we were so happy to have him home. Mike's return had been anticipated for a long time and I had FINALLY really started to miss him. I mean, I missed him the whole time, but I knew he was where he was supposed to be, so I didn't really think about it too much. Right after girls' camp we had a meeting and the missionaries were all there from our entire stake. They closed the meeting by singing the closing song and THAT was the first time I felt a genuine ache for my brother having been gone for (almost) two years. And just in time since from that meeting I only had to wait about 6 weeks.
We all got all cute (didn't want to have him think we got all grubby while he was gone) and made sure to arrive at the airport at a prompt time. Getting there before my mom was a particular feat since she contemplated spending the night JUST IN CASE his flight came in early. (okay, maybe not really, but she was, of course, really excited.) Here's the grandkids waiting before hand. I had asked who was excited to see Uncle Mike. Only Brooklyn fessed up and I think Austin is trying to hide his enthusiasm (Seth is just hiding behind the pole):
We were joined by our cousins Jerolyn, Maggie, and family friend Chris for Mike's arrival. My brother, David, was a tid bit late, but had provided us with cute posters to hold anyway.
Ok. And I just have to say how great it is that the younger cousins (pictured above) love each other as much as the older generation pictured below:
OK, so this picture is out of order, but this is from our Summer Countdown chain. Additional writing by Briggs and I think it says, "I guess I'm excited to meet this guy I don't even know."
Here's a shot with all the grandkids and Grandma waiting for Mike. We narrowed down which escalator it would be by asking the first ones down which flight they were on.
Michael's companion was actually from Las Vegas too, which made for a large crowd and a huge cheer. I think it would be great if people would always cheer for others when they got off the escalators into baggage claim. We could hire our services. Anyway, here's what I saw looking back at the crowd once we knew it was his flight coming into baggage claim:
And what I saw looking up the escalator. (That's Mike with the camera blocking his face.)
Oh and you know my mom lost it about right then.
Poor Michael wanted to hug and greet and meet and all Brock wanted to do was climb on him and be held. We kept having to tell him to get off of Uncle Mike, but considering Brock had been praying for Uncle Mike for two years, I think he was pretty excited that he did come home safely.
K, I'm not just sayin' this because Mike's my brother (okay, maybe I am), but I thought he was so good-looking! He didn't look that much different than when he left. It was just good to see him. With the parentals:
And all the siblings. [Note. We did not color coordinate, but HOW COOL that we mostly all match.]
The kidlets with their Uncle Mike. Now who are they going to send all their construction paper drawings to?
It was a great day for our whole family. We went to the church where Mike was released as a missionary for the church by our stake president and then we went to lunch at In-and-Out Burger. I took my kids home to nap and give Mike some space before the adults went to dinner at BJs and then to the church to play a great game of dodgeball. Nothing says "glad you're home" like a good whack with a dodgeball.
Mike's now in the swing of things with school and work and cell phones and fancy Mac laptops (the perks of being the baby . . . TOTALLY kidding Mike. I meant the perks of working hard before your mission to save up for fancy Mac laptops!) It's fun to have him around and to talk with him and just have him be close. The first day home we stopped by Mom's for a minute and when Brevin saw Mike he said, "Hey! What are you doing here???" I think he was genuinely surprised Mike was still around. The great news is he's not going anywhere so out of touch again. I'm grateful. Love me some Baby G! Welcome home Mike!
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