Our Final Summer Adventure

The kids and I made our last road trip this past week (we rolled into town yesterday). We went to my parent's house in Kansas City to welcome my baby brother home from his 2 year mission in Concepcion, Chile. Of course, it is never easy getting a missionary home. He was supposed to fly from Santiago to Dallas to Kansas City leaving last Wednesday night and arriving Thursday morning. Wednesday night we get a phone call from his mission president telling us that Salt Lake had overlooked paying for his flight (they'd reserved it, but didn't PAY it) and he was escorted off his plane in Santiago and would make the journey a day late (after Salt Lake actually paid for his ticket). My family was SO super bummed. Luckily Wes was able to hook up with a friend in Santiago to spend the night and next day with, so he had a grand 'ole time....while we were at home feeling totally sorry for him and very sad ourselves!

All was well, though. He arrived on Friday morning (Mitch and I made sure everyone was at the airport early....when Mitch came home from his mission his flight got in really early, and no one was there to greet him until he was already at baggage claim...talk about a bummer....) safe and sound. It was such an amazing feeling to see him again. It's baffling how fast, yet how slow two years can be!!! The kids held "Welcome Home Elder Guenther" signs and there were lots of hugs and tears to go around. It's a beautiful thing when a missionary comes home.

Here we are...waiting...patiently.

FINALLY walking off the plane.

This was a sweet moment. Mitch and Wes (commonly known in our family growing up as "the little gents" or "the little boys") had not seen each other for almost 4 years due to the overlap of their missions.

The rest of the week was spent just being all together. We enjoyed listening to all of Wes's mission stories/experiences and speaking in Spanish, and then sounding like a Latino trying to speak english. My older brother, Martin, unfortunately had to spend the week in Chicago taking a class for work, so he wasn't able to be there, but his wife and kids spent a lot of time with us, so that was nice. But he was certainly missed. And of course Daniel was stuck at home working, so he was missed as well. We are all looking forward for Christmas when we can ALL will be together.

So school starts today for Tristan and Alicia. Wes drove back with us to spend a few awesome days here in Music City before he flies back home on Sunday. Daniel departs for his big 5 week adventure this Saturday. We shall see how I fair as a single mom for a few weeks!!!!

Mitchell wanted a picture with all the nieces and nephews.

Ryan, Mitch, Lily, Alicia, Addi, and Luke

But of course Tristan is too cool to pose with the younger kids, so he got his own picture.