Missionary Homecoming

My brother-in-law, JC, came home from his mission in the Hawaiian Islands at the end of July. It has been a bit crazy since then and so I'm finally blogging about the homecoming. Here we are all waiting at the airport for him to come down the escalator. Have you ever been to the airport, waiting for a loved one to arrive home from their mission? I have, and I've also been that loved one returning from their mission. My feelings were very strong that morning. It brought back so many memories.

And his first hug goes to his mom! She hung on for awhile...and was so glad to have him back from his mission.

And now come the lei's. JC received a lot of candy lei's from the family and then he gave us lei's that he'd received from friends in Hawaii. Lot's of hugs were exchanged and most of us had permanent smiles plastered on our faces.

Here are a couple of my nieces that really grew up while JC was on his mission. He was a bit surprised when he saw them again for the first time in two years.

Just a general picture of family standing around listening, watching or talking to each other. There seems to be a theme of plaid shirts...um, apparently I didn't get the memo.

Look at those cute nieces! They are growing up so quickly. I married into the family when they were five and six years old...and now they are eleven and twelve years old. Where did the time go?

SM and JC are showing off their leis and their large smiles. JC did question why made him candy and Twinkie leis since he's not really a fan of candy and usually just tries to stuff Twinkies into the face of one of his sister-in-laws (they have a Twinkie war going on....). We told him not to worry because there were enough nieces and nephews around that they would eat the candy leis...and they did!

This is actually a great picture of me. I had been crying a lot when welcoming JC home from his mission but the picture doesn't really show my red nose and red eyes.

Here's JC with his former mission president that was released from his mission just a month earlier. These are the six missionaries that came home that last Friday morning in July. JC is the one wearing the red tie.