What a week!

On Mother's Day my dad emailed us to tell us that they would be coming home from their mission three months early because my mom had a growth of some sort that needed to be looked at.  They had sent pictures of it to their doctors in the U.S. and they figured it to be some sort of Sarcoma, but the closest place that had good medical facilities was in Australia, so they were told they might as well come home as go there.

Mom with the Smiths (the senior couple the served with):

This sent us into a scramble because their house needed some serious attention before they arrived home! They were going to fly in on Friday at 9:16 Boise time, so we all got to the house as quickly as we could. Shawn took me over on Tuesday after school (we wanted to be able to ride home all together later). The local family had already gotten a start on things the night before for family home evening.

Leslie came from Washington, and Ivy drove over from the other side of the state.  We all worked our tails off painting and repairing and cleaning and it ended up being so much fun to me! EVERYONE that was there contributed so much of their time and resources and it made me so proud of the family that I come from. Everyone came whenever they could squeeze in some time; the ladies were in and out all day---plus my brother Nathan, who took time off work to make a lot of repairs- and then more of the men came at night and whipped the property into shape!

I also found myself thinking about how much I love my sister-in-laws!  I am amazed that I didn't even grow up with these ladies, yet they cared just as much about the house and my parents as I do.  They feel just like siblings and I love them so much!

This was at the airport - not the best picture, but I wanted to include a picture of Leslie!:

Kelly painting before we put down new carpeting!:

Ori:

Finally, on Friday we cleaned everything up and headed to the airport!  We tried to keep the kids entertained; Kami started them on fun games whenever it got too crazy.  This was duck, duck goose, played by running around the circular hole in the floor before they could sit back down:

Sometimes it was still pretty crazy, which either had to be really annoying or very entertaining for the other travelers:

We visited!
Madeline and Sadie:

Nathan, Pace and Shawn:

We looked out windows and through the closed doors!
Pace on Josiah, who is beside Nolan:

Caden watching for their plane:

The anticipation was HIGH.....and then we found out the flight had been delayed and wouldn't get in until 10:30ish. We waited some more....  
Margie:

Aunt Ellen and Nathan:

Isabelle:

(It's really dumb that I don't have pictures of everyone that was there!  I am lucky I have these, really.  My sister Katie couldn't make it to the airport and texted me to get pictures for her or I would have forgotten entirely, I was so excited. )

And then - finally- there they came!  Words can't express the emotions that I felt - It was one of the happiest moments of my life!

Dad was trying to hug as many grand kids as possible all at once! He and mom were so, SO happy.  Dad said that he hadn't expected it to be such an emotional experience:)

l-r: Nolan, David Kerns, Mikelle, Josiah hugging mom, Abram, Jonathan and Kami:

Abe already sharing something amazing like, "Did you know I can do cartwheels now?":

When hugs all around were complete, we headed back to Oregon, making for a very late night!

The next morning dad showed us all of his treasures and let all the grandkids pick out five shells apiece and also some coinage from Vanuatu:

Mom showed us the native dresses that were bestowed on her - I will have to get a picture and explain more about those later!

And we watched a lot of videos.

And everything felt so complete and happy!

prom

I surely didn't do a good job documenting prom this year.  Kami went with a boy named Caden Cook. It was really funny when he asked her to prom because Maddie saw a kid in a baseball uniform approaching the door with some hangers.  She said, "someone is coming to sell us some hangers!"  I groaned and said, "Go find your dad..."  But then we waited and waited and the door bell never rang.  And we saw the boy go jump into his jeep and disappear!  So then we went and looked on the porch and he had hangers hanging all over the place and a note that said, "Don't leave me hanging out to dry; will you go to prom with me?" 

I had hopes that they would get some really great group pictures, but for some reason the group didn't even DO pictures?!?!?!! And... she wasn't even picked up for the dance until 10:00 pm and I was running out of steam by then! I was mentioning afterwards, as I saw pictures of couples on facebook, out under the trees, etc. that I should start taking pictures outside.  But then I thought, "Oh yeah.  It was dark outside!"

She had a really fun day-date.  They went hiking around Green Canyon and swimming afterwards. Then they went out to eat, and got home in just enough time to get ready for the dance:)