Josh Returns! (Part 1)

The day finally arrived to pick up our missionary from the airport!

All ready and waiting...

Haha!  This is kind of a funny picture because it's a great shot of a missionary who I've never met returning to his mother's arms and Josh is off to the side.

Honestly, he came earlier than I was expecting and I was caught off guard so I didn't get good pics as he walked in :(

I've really whittled down the pics from this day but you're going to think I didn't since there are still so many :)

Sweet little Benji was not doing well.  He was pretty out of it but was still able to show Josh his shoes and shirt :)

Merill and Nancy arrived a few minutes later...

Nancy made a fun sign :)

I ended up being much more emotional than I thought I would be.

After mingling for a while we went in search of Josh's bags.

...and mingled for a while longer.

The grandpas were done and ready to go :)

I just couldn't get enough of these four being together again :)

Grandma Jannie was able to get a small smile out of Ben.

More and bigger smiles from Ben :)

At this point, Ben seemed to be coming around for a few minutes.

So good to see some smiles!

and his infamous fire hands :)

Not sure what Josh was sharing here but they were getting a kick out of it.

I included these three seemingly similar pics but I love watching the exchange between Ben and Matt as they progress :)

Talking to the Uncs...

Jo giving his smolder look... 

Again with these four...

Having them all in the car together again :)

Josh seeing the mountains again...

He loved it!

James suggested a fun Mexican restaurant that the rest of us hadn't been to.

*wish the lighting would have been better*

Josh was hankering for some tacos :)

Abby and Matt sharing some fancy fries...

After lunch we all split our separate ways...including Abby who had come up from Provo for the day.

Josh was exhausted and zonked on the way home.

I will stop here and come back later for the rest of this exciting day.

Honestly, trying to record events like this overwhelms me and I worry about not saying the right thing.

Inevitably, I end up saying not enough, so just know that my lack of details and emotion is a coping strategy :)