Home From the Dominican Republic

Ethan arrived home safe this morning - very early this morning. The plane landed at 2 am, after an 8 hour layover in New York, which was followed by a 3 hour delay on the runway... We tried to get a little bit of sleep, and when we went to bed it showed his arrival time as 2:24, but when we left at 1:40 am, it showed 2, so we were booking it trying to get there in time, (we didn't want to miss him like we did Mel)... We were glad that we made it, with time to spare, to see him walking through the sliding doors with the other missionaries, doing a triumphant movie walk, after their victorious battles against sin -

Here's a video of the moment - 

Hugs all around - Lily ~

Grandpa Wride ~

Joseph ~

He hugged Mel and me too, I didn't get pics of ours. I'm not sure if I got those in proper order, refer to video for correct timeline of hugs. A picture with the sign Corey's parents brought ~

The kids had made some posters, but once the arrival time changed from 11:00pm to 2am, we decided that the little kids would stay home, Abi and Wes were our sitters. Ethan meeting Katharine - 

It's probably been a while since he's held an infant. I think holding other people's children is not allowed for missionaries these days. 

(It was ok when I was a missionary.)

With Corey's parents. They were there nice and early, at 1:11 am according to life 360. We were grateful to know that they were there when we were worried we'd miss it.

Group picture!

Walking to get his baggage - 

Three generations of "Elder Wride"-s

Ethan with other Dominican missionaries - 

I thought I'd try to recreate the photo of when he left - 

but too bad, I just looked at that link and he was on the escalator in that pic, not the moving walkway. Oh well. Katharine did pretty good in the car. 

Being awake at 2 am is just average working hours for her, so it wasn't bad. 

Holding Mel's finger, so cute.

We came home, and Ethan was tearful. We knelt with him in a prayer of gratitude to God for his safe return, and then we listened to him walk around in amazement at our home. "There's carpet!!" Ethan went to the bathroom to get a tissue to wipe his tears, and said "This toilet is huge!!" followed by a nostalgic and tearful "I pooped in so many places..." (that made me laugh, as I remembered the "toilet hunt" story at the end of this post) Ethan had some of Mel's amazing rice and beans as he continued to experience mixed emotions...

They stayed up laughing and talking, Corey and I went to bed. O and P were up at their usual times this morning. Soon they were all in the boys room and waking up Ethan. Ethan said he felt like he was in this scene from Galaxy Quest, which made me laugh! Natalie, Owen, and Daniel were staring at him and ready to talk.

Ethan wanted to see Katharine, and she just quietly stared at him. I think she could see a special spirit about him - 

Other kids started to wake up - Ethan is more tired than any of us, and if he can't sleep anymore, neither can you! Corey asked Peter as he pointed at Ethan "Peter, who's that?!?!" "JOE!!"

Joseph to Owen "Did you see Ethan?" "Yeah!" followed by "...I thought he was our cousin..." Ha! Ethan got a bag out of his luggage and then went into our room to give his siblings some gifts of Larimar jewelry. 

Then he played his ukulele for us and we all talked and laughed in our room for a bit. 

Abi mentioned this morning how she had a dream that she was in a talent show playing the ukulele, and then she learned that Ethan had been playing it for Mel and Joe while Abi was asleep, so that was funny. At 11 we went out to eat for brunch at Black Bear diner. 

Eth getting to know Katharine ~

Reading over the menu -

Eth and Wes played tic-tac-toe and squares while we waited for our food.

Eth to Wes "You're going to cry when you lose..."

Everyone enjoyed the meal. 

I had already had peaches for breakfast, so I nursed Katharine and enjoyed the visit. 

We took a family picture after we got home - 

...and then Ethan took a short and well deserved nap. He will be released tonight at 6. Mel woke him pu at 2:30 to leave for a 3pm eye exam appointment. He needs new contacts. Mel went as his companion. She just sent us a pic of his answer to some questions for them...

    "What is your occupation" - "Recently lost job"

    "Please list your hobbies and activities" - "Preach the gospel"

Ha, that was funny, and reminded me of Ethan's answers to his medical exam before his mission. He is really funny and makes us all laugh, it's going to be fun having him around for the next few weeks before he heads down to school. I'm sure we'll take more pictures today, I'll maybe update this later with those pics or will just share them tomorrow. We're so grateful that Ethan is home!