Welcome Home, Dad!!!!

The excitement was growing more and more omeyesterday as the time got closer to Daddy's arrival home after being gone for 6 months on deployment. Steve flew from San Diego earlier yesterday morning and landed in Atlanta in the afternoon. He gave Tyler and I link to a website where you could actually track his flight home to Norfolk. Once he got on that plane and Tyler and I could actually view the flight progress, we could hardly contain ourselves. Soon we were just too excited that we had to just go to the airport and wait. LOL Tyler had been wearing his jacket just waiting for the word to go. 6 months is especially long for a 5 year old.

After about a 20 minute wait, we got a text from Steve saying that his plane had landed. We decided to go upstairs to wait for him. We waited at the end of the moving sidewalk. Tyler held up the 'Welcome Home, Daddy' sign he had made for him. Everyone thought it was so cute as they passed by him. Then finally I caught a glimpse of someone that walked exactly like Steve, but he was too far away and the lighting was so bad that I couldn't tell. We started to walk towards this person and then all of a sudden they waved to us. It was indeed Steve!!!!!! So excited, Tyler and I both ran to him. I wanted to take video, like I usually do with our reunions, but I was too caught up in the excitement. LOL Words can't really describe how good it was to share in a family hug. We've missed Steve so very very much!!!! Tyler was a little shy at first, but he soon became more talkative. We came home, Steve unpacked all of his things and even gave us some very cool souvenirs he bought for us. It was after 11 o'clock by the time we all went to bed.

 Even though we went to bed so late, Tyler still woke up at his usual time. He cuddled in bed with us and waited for Steve to wake up. Then Tyler started to tickle him. We all got tickled in the end. LOL These are the moments you missed the most when one of us are missing. It felt wonderful to be able to have all have fun again. After breakfast, Steve jumped started the Impala. The battery went dead while I was in Canada. Then we went for a little drive and through the car wash. We came home, had lunch, and Steve and Tyler watched some Ed, Edd, and Eddy, before Steve replaced the stickers with push pins for the places he went to on his deployment. Then I made Steve's special welcome home dinner. My friend, Yasuko, showed me how to make somen noodles and bean sprout salad and since Steve's loves Japanese food, this is what I decided on making. Dinner was a success; he loved it!

Then it was bath time for Tyler. Daddy read a book to Tyler before bed and then Tyler read Daddy and I a couple of books. Steve was impressed with how well Tyler's reading skills had improved since he left 6 months ago. Tyler is now asleep and it's just Steve and I sitting on the sofa. There is nowhere else I would rather be right now. I'm so thankful to God for bringing him back safely to us. I haven't stopped smiling all day today and Tyler didn't stop following Daddy around all day. Life is good.