My handsome little brother has returned home from his mission in Yekaterinburg, Russia. We loaded up our kids and van and headed to Idaho for the 3rd time in 4 months. We hit the road at noon after Curtis taught his Wednesday morning. We knew we would be cutting it close in order to meet Kendal's 10:45pm flight at the Salt Lake City airport, but we were determined to be at the airport to welcome him home. When we were in St. George Utah filling up with gas and grabbing some Arby's for dinner it hit me "The time difference!" Curse you day light savings! Instead of having a possible 30 minute cushion of time now we had to race against the clock. Why did I not consider the time difference? I blame it on our crazy life and my brain being frazzled and way overloaded. We gave it our best try, Curtis pushed the speed limit as much as he dared. When we were about 20 minutes from the airport my Mom called me to announce that he had arrived. I was thrilled and bummed at the same time. Seeing your missionary fresh off the plane at the airport is such a special moment and I missed out on that family memory. But there is no use crying over spilled milk so we decided to keep heading up the highway and meet them all at my parent's home in Malad.
Knowing we we would be traveling late into the night I had the car all decked out for kids to sleep as comfortably as possible. I even bought a twin mattress pad, cut it up and added extra padding to all the boosters and car seats. When it started to get dark we changed the boys into some pajamas and settled them all down in their reclined seats with pillows and blankets. They slept great in the car for 3+ hours. We were very grateful. As we pulled into my parent's driveway Curtis turned off the car and we both conked out right in our seats along with our slumbering children. Twenty minutes later my parents pulled into the drive, and we woke up to Elder Kendal King tapping on our windows.
It was a fast trip, only 4 days but we packed it as full as we could with family and memories. Thursday we took it easy and recovered from our late night. Friday the adults left the kidlets in the capable hands of Tia Aubrey while we enjoyed a session at the Brigham City Temple and dinner at Maddox.
Saturday we had family pictures taken and visited with Grandma Bluth, Aunt Yvonne and Uncle Dave. Saturday evening we celebrated Mom's birthday and it was fun to have everyone together for her special day.
Every year my parent's grow giant pumpkins around their landscaping. They had a really good crop this year and the boys had fun playing on them.
Sunday was Kendal's homecoming report and family came from all over to support him and welcome him home. The Corey King family took care of the musical number. Mom accompanied while Dad and all 5 siblings plus Dan our brother-in-law sang an arrangement of Love One Another a song we sang together when we were kids years ago. Being able to sing and perform with my whole family again was seriously special for me. Definitely one of the highlights of my life so far. After church everyone gathered for a delicious dinner and visiting, but again we had to miss out on most of that as well. We went to my parent's house to pack and load up. By the time we got to the luncheon most people had left already, but there was still plenty of food left. We took an hour to relax and have some final moments with my family before hitting the road for home. Our journey home was smooth sailing once again. We pulled into our garage at 2 am with our hearts and minds full of love and gratitude for the Eternal blessings of family.
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