November 5, 2010

On Friday, November 5th Elder Christian Whitby returned with honor from his two year LDS mission to Portland, Oregon.  We had balloons, banners, family and friends all gathered at the Salt Lake airport to welcome him home.  If I’m being honest, it was a very strange and surreal experience.  A ton of emotions flying around!  I had a hard time convincing myself that the handsome righteous man coming down the escalators was my baby brother!   After hugs and tears and maybe a bit of awkwardness, it was almost like he was never gone.  (Which I’m sure is so different from how Christian felt!)  Then we all drove over to Chili’s for a celebratory lunch.  What an awesome experience!!

Aw, aren’t they the cutest?  All three of them.  Silly faces, fingers in noses.  All mine.

Sam with the sign he made.  “It says ‘Wel. Come. Home. Un. Cle. Chris. Tian. I. Miss. You. From. Sam’”

Here he comes!!  He had this same look on his face for the next 3 hours.

Sam ran up for the first hug.

Welcome home, Elder!  I hear you’ll eventually adjust back to “real” life!!

Now everyone knows why I’ve been so lazy these last several weeks.  One of the many things I’ve slacked on while I spent so much time with my face in the toilet has been my little brother, Christian’s, missionary blog.  I finally updated it, and plan to do so regularly.  Friends and family interested in following visit http://elderchristianwhitby.blogspot.com/

The Monkey . . .

And his Uncle . . .

October 27 Are you kidding me?  This wasn’t even a week ago?  Open house for Christian up in SLC.  Yummy food, lots of family, good times.

Oct 29 Take Erik to work.  Rapidly run some errands.  Come home to get dressed and maybe even a bit {fixed up} by which I mean brush my hair, and maybe even throw on some mascara.  Meet Erik at work, get dropped off at MTC, Erik takes Sam home for lunch and nap.  See ya later, Elder Whitby.  It was a super neat experience.  Follow Christian’s blog at http://elderchristianwhitby.blogspot.com/  He was so prepared and more than ready to begin his service.  Gardner Village that evening; I took maybe 3 pictures.  Visit Triana, she’ll tell you more about it!  Except the part where Gavin was a bit miffed Sam wouldn’t share his hot dog.  That I did happen to capture on camera.

Oct 30 Finally finally finally meet these two adorable bundles of baby.  Can I just tell you what a stellar woman and amazing mother my dear friend Julie is?!  I can’t even imagine, but she has survived two months with the cutest little boys you will ever meet.  Again, no pictures.  I am lame.  But I did finally finish these quilts with soooo much help from my talented mother.

Oct 31 Halloween, der.  Sam was so ready to knock on doors and get candy.  Despite all the practice, he definitely did not master “Trick or Treat” but he would say “Knock knock, candy!” at every door.  My friend Lisa and her family go all out for Halloween.  It totally freaked Samuel out and had him whimpering “Go home” the rest of the time.  But when we came home Sam couldn’t stop talking about monsters, kids, candy, pumpkins, knock knock, on and on.  So cute.

Nov 2 Released as 1st counsellor; called, sustained, and set apart as Primary President.  Told you things were only going to get busier!

One more shout out to the amazing muffin I call my husband.  He is my hero.  Thank you Erik, for every single thing you do for me.  Particularly during these past couple crazy weeks.  Love you mucho.

I’m tired.  Now it’s time for a nap.