Kelly's Home!

Shelby and I wanted to do things up right for Kelly's return home. We had waited a very LONG year to have him back. We started inside and decorated with flags and balloons. Now Shelby loves balloons, but the car ride back from the party store with 4 dozen balloons in the car really wasn't her favorite thing. We were both feeling better once we got them inside the house. I hung up our hand crafted flags (one of the few projects I have completed lately) and our house was looking pretty festive.
Next, we had to work outside. We put up our flower garden flags and the flag signs that the youth group gave us. Plus Jill, the YW Pres from the youth group, came back and put up red, white, blue and yellow ribbons all over our trees, our house and our flagpole. Our house now looked good inside and out.
Shelby spent some time enjoying the live band at the air base. The flight kept getting delayed, so it was nice to have something to keep her busy. She walked around and explored and had a great time playing with all the kids. There were also plenty of people to tell her how cute she was, which she always enjoys.
These are the bikers that always send off and welcome home troops. These people are amazing and you can feel how truly grateful they are for the service the troops provide. They don't personally know the service members, but they donate their time and energy to provide them a safe and secure environment at all military gatherings.
Here is the plane driving towards the hangar and getting sprayed by the firetrucks. I got really emotional when the plane landed and had tears rolling down my cheeks. It seemed like it took forever for Kelly to get off the plane. It was so great to get to see him in person.
Our little family reunion at the air base. Shelby was not too sure about Kelly for the first few minutes, but she quickly put 2 and 2 together and didn't want to let him out of her sight. This included her not wanting to take naps or go to sleep for a few days. Once she realized that he would still be there when she woke up, she has gotten back to normal.
Here is the best picture - my 2 sweethearts at home with me. I am so grateful to my husband and all the service that he provides for our country and our freedom. I have worked hard to teach Shelby about the importance of our flag and our nation. I just hope that one day she will understand all that her Dad did for her. I am grateful that he is home safe and sound after spending a year in Iraq!

Yard Makeover

This is the best group of YM/YW ever!!!! These kids came to my house last Friday, along with their leaders and they whipped my yard into shape in about 2 hours. This is not everyone who helped, but it is most of them. They worked so hard and did so much.
All I did was provide my idea of the food pyramid. Notice how the base of the pyramid is made of brownies. I see nothing wrong with that idea. I did have some fruit and the cooler is full of water, so I figured we were covered for nutritional value.
Those kids weeded (and I had a lot of weeds), mowed, string trimmed, and planted tons of beautiful red, white and blue flowers. They also washed all my windows, even though I was nervous that they would fall off the ladder and hurt themselves, and scrubbed my patio set. They scraped and repainted the fence. They removed all the rough edges and extra concrete from my newly installed curbing. They kept Shelby entertained the whole time too!
They went above and beyond by buying me a new flag and restringing my flagpole. They also set me up with an ingenious clip system that is much better than our old system. We had a flag raising ceremony and all said the Pledge of Allegiance together before they left. I was truly touched. They were able to take a couple of our old flags and retire them later that night. It was such a neat day for me to feel so much kindness and generosity from people who I just met. I think every one of them thanked me for our military service, but I was blown away with what they did for me. I am so grateful for all their help and for the beautiful yard that Kelly will have to come home to now!

Nursery

Shelby has started going to nursery! She loves playing with toys and kids, so she really enjoys going. Initially, she had the best time, but then she got kicked out 1 week because I couldn't sit with her and had to go teach a lesson. She sat with me, while I taught, with a frown and kept pointing to the door because she wanted to go back to nursery. Last week Shelby was ornery during Sacrament meeting and was clingy in nursery so she didn't end up staying. I am really hoping that this week goes better. I would really like to have a few hours a week where I didn't have to chase her around. A girl can dream right?

Carnival Fun

Every year we have Pony Express Days in Eagle Mountain. They have a rodeo, a concert, a parade and a carnival - among other things. Now Kelly has never been in town for Pony Express Days since we have lived here. A couple times he has been able to participate in a day or two, but never for the whole week. This year was no exception. The great part is that the carnival is at the park that is only a couple blocks away from our house. Shelby and I decided to check it out.
I stuck some money in my pocket (for yummy deep fried food) and when we got there I realized that there were actually some things that Shelby could do. So, we headed back home to get the camera. It turned out to be a lot more exercise than I was planning on, but oh well. Shelby and I rode the Fun Slide 2 times. I wasn't sure if they would charge me 1 or 2 tickets to go down with her, so we ended up with an extra ticket.
Next, Shelby rode the boats. As you can see from the picture, she had a great time. Okay, she basically sat there and rode around in a circle and then got off. The guy could see she was a little nervous so he sent them around 1 time and she started to cry. I think she could see she was getting farther and farther away, but once she realized she was coming back she quit crying and was clapping by the time the loop was done. He stopped them and came over to tell me he would let us ride a different ride for free because he tore our ticket. I told him she would be fine and to start them up again. He didn't believe me, but did it anyway. She did wave at a number of strangers and had fun looking around at everything. She was super interested in the ride that was the equivalent of the Scrambler at Lagoon. I told her maybe next year she could ride it with Daddy because I didn't want to get thrown up on.

We had fun at the carnival despite the fact that there were no really good "fair food" vendors. Last year the food was good, this year not so much. Perhaps next year Kelly will be here, there will be lots of good food (I am hoping for funnel cakes), and Shelby can ride all the rides. Heres hoping Ü

The Longest Day Ever

Tuesday morning I was up and at 'em at 6 am (11 pm here). I got dressed and packed what I could while Shelby was still sleeping. I got her up and fed and bathed, then packed the rest of the stuff. I think we were supposed to be at the terminal at 7:30, but we may have been a few minutes late. It didn't seem to matter, but things at the Mildenhall terminal were very professional and businesslike compared to rinky dink and silly at the McConnell terminal. It was basically 8 old people and then Shelby and I. Karissa, Jack, and Elli stayed with us in the terminal until we had to go through security. My favorite part was that they had recorded announcements that could be played overhead and as soon as I went into the bathroom I heard the announement to not leave your baggage unattended. Real cute. Next, the kids were getting a little restless when they played the announcement about keeping your children under control. Well, we made the flight and were finally headed for the United States. I didn't take any pictures, but just imagine the same plane as the way over, but more people because we had a huge group of soldiers on board. Since we were flying from England to Spokane we were able to fly almost directly over the North Pole. It was neat to look out the window and see all the ice and glaciers floating around in the ocean. It was a long, long flight and we landed at Spokane International Airport because the runway at the base was under construction.

It was pouring rain and quite cold, but I was so glad to be on our way home. I was planning on just walking to the ticket counter and buying the next ticket home. It wasn't until we got loaded off the plane that they told us we had to go to the base and would not be allowed to go to the airport. We were in a 15 passenger van and every passenger except 2 wanted to go to the airport. The driver asked if she could drop us off at the terminal and was told no. Someone asked how far from the terminal we were and she said about 1/4 mile. They then decided that at the stop sign ahead the driver would stop and the passengers would jump out and walk back to the airport. If I hadn't had Shelby I would have done it, but I couldn't manage our 4 bags plus a stroller for the 1/4 mile hike on loose gravel. So now it was just one couple and us in the van. We were told that we could be dropped off at the front gate or at the terminal. The couple wanted to know which was closer to the base lodging because that is where they were headed. The lady decided she could give us the scenic route to the terminal and stop in the parking lot of the hotel. So, Shelby and I end up going to the terminal where there was supposed to be info about a shuttle to the airport (didn't we just take a shuttle from the airport??!). So the lady is helping me unload our stuff and she tries to give me my last bag - which wasn't my bag. One of the idiots that hiked in the rain left their bag in the van. At this point, the driver was pretty sure she was going to get fired for breaking all the rules, but she called the number on the bag and told the guy she would drop off his bag at the terminal. Now I was in a hurry to get back to the airport and didn't want to have to pay for a cab, so I just said "since you are going back to the airport can we ride along?" She agreed and we got dropped off at the curb. It worked out pretty well.

I walked up to the counter to find out that there was a flight leaving in about 20 minutes. I said okay and we were told to hustle or we wouldn't make it. Things were going well, until security. They had 1 security line and I forgot that I had put a can of Diet Coke and a water bottle in my bag. Of course, they had to search my bag. Then Shelby's jacket zipper set off the metal detector so we had to be searched. We were finally ready, but the guy was still going through my bag. He saw something weird and was looking for it. It ended up being Shelby's I Spy that was full of birdseed. Instead of quickly getting his job done, he was walking around showing the "cute toy" to all the employees. It took all that I had not to yell at him to hurry. So we made it to the gate and I realized I really needed to pee. It would have to wait. We sit down on the plane and Shelby starts crying. She is hungry and I also didn't think to get her something in the no time that we had. It was a long flight to Vegas, but we did survive. The Vegas airport offered bathrooms and food, so we both were feeling better after we took care of our issues. I just want to point out that I hadn't peed for about 13 hours!

We had a short layover in Vegas and Shelby was able to run around and get filthy from the disgusting floor. Then we boarded our final flight of the day to SLC. Thank goodness Shelby slept for this flight - she was exhausted. We landed and collected our bags and my parents met us out on the curb. Now we had met at the airport when we left so they had taken my car home with them. However, they decided that I shouldn't drive home since I had been awake for almost 24 hours (and they didn't even know that I would have driven on the wrong side of the street). We got to our house at about 9:45 pm and I bathed Shelby and put her to bed. I haven't been that tired in a long time. There is nothing like coming home after a long trip and sleeping in your own bed. I took a quick shower and climbed into bed and slept like the dead. I hope to never have a day of travel like that day ever again. Poor Shelby was such a trooper, but we made it home and were able to stay home and recover for several days thanks to my mom being so smart as to buy us some milk on the way to pick us up.