He's Home!

Pretty much best weekend ever!

Kate flew in Friday afternoon and we were just trying to dream up things to do to make the time go by till 10:30.
(at the dollar store)

We made a big welcome home banner for the front of the house, then the girls decorated t-shirts to wear to the airport ("we heart the boy!)

My cute girls...love them so !
Finally it got to be about 9:45 and we loaded everybody in the car...the anticipation level was over the top! We just got on our way and Dan calls.
"Hey where are you guys...KC's plane has landed!"

No Way! I was freaking out. The plane cannot land a half hour early!
My boy was going to get off the plane and none of us would be there!
Then I got to thinking...Dan must be joking! That would be just like something he would do! But Kelley said he could hear Brenda in the background saying it was true.

There wasn't anything we could do but just try to get there as fast as we could. Dan said he would come out and park the car for us so we could all just run in. ( He is a peach)

We got there and ran in and found Brenda waiting at the bottom of the escalator. There was another family there waiting for their missionary that was coming home from Russia with KC.

We were just so glad he hadn't gotten off the plane yet! Lots of people were coming down the escalator, but no KC. We waited and waited...the plane must surely be empty!

Then finally we see him at the top of the escalator. The video went downhill from there...(totally forgot I even had the camera in my hand)




That was a pretty great hug...He felt really tall and skinny!KC meets Sam for the first time.Kelley checking to see if he is still taller...not by much!

We thought KC would be tired after his 15 hour flight, but he was still going strong. He unpacked a little bit and gave us all cool Russian gifts. He brought Kelley a neat shopka....there will be no more cold ears while ice fishing!He got Candice this really cool Mariska with different cats on it. She loved it!

He gave me one with this neat blue Russian painting on it called Dael. ( I am surely spelling these Russian words wrong...just going by the way they sound)He got these amazing Mariska's with all the prophets painted on them.

We stayed up and talked for quite a while, then decided to call it a day.

Next morning, KC was up early and went to help Kelley with service project over at Llewelyns. When they came home, we all got ready and went over to the church with him to be released.

This was when we went out to get in the car...I knew KC was still KC when he pulled this face for me.

We met President Mendenhall over at the church. ( President Child was out of town, so he asked President Mendenhall to release KC. It was kind of funny that that happened because Pres. Child was out of town when KC was set apart too, so Pres. Mendenhall did that too...which is great...we love him!)

Pres. Mendenhall talked to KC for a while about his mission and asked him what he had learned. It was pretty wonderful to hear his answer...I was very humbled and felt the sweetest feeling as he bore his testimony.

President Mendenhall talked about what the future would hold for KC, then he said..."just one last thing to do...remove your missionary tag"

That was rough. Lots of tears and hugs.

It was really special that Jerry and Debi arranged for everyone on our street to fly their flags in honor of KC's return. That meant a lot to all of us.

Everyone has been so great and supportive. Lots of friends and neighbors came by to visit and say hello. So very happy and grateful that he is home...I told Jerry..."I can't stop smiling!"