Moving on down the list...

Johnny's Home From Italy!!!

The pictures from the airport might be the most tragic loss from Scott's phone catastrophe. We had a video of Johnny walking out of the terminal and the little boys seeing him for the first time. I'll maybe try to track down pictures his friends took.

We are SO HAPPY to have Johnny home!! He's already jumped right in and hasn't missed a beat. When he came though the security doors, Ben shot off running... right passe Johnny... and plowed right into my dad, "Grandpa Grandpa!!!" He didn't even notice Johnny! But Andrew couldn't stop staring at Johnny. He was SO EXCITED to have Johnny home. He talked about it for months. He carefully decorated all of our welcome home signs, and he just followed Johnny around from the second he stepped through the doors. It was so nice to have so many family members there to see him come home. Espen was able to come, which was so nice since he had a week before he had to leave on his mission to Denmark.

Johnny gave a wonderful homecoming talk. And Espen gave a wonderful farewell talk on the same sunday! It was a big family weekend and we loved it! Doug came into town, so did Grandpa Pete, and we had all the sibling together for longer than ten minutes for the first itme in years and years. It was so great to get everyone together. At one point in May, we had Kirsten and Nick in Utah, Scott and I were in New York, Doug was in Washington DC, Johnny was in Italy, and my parents were in Antwerp. We're usually all so spread out!

We had delicious Italian food at Johnny's homecoming, and we've loved having him back. Let the adventures continue! We're so excited to have one more buddy who'll always be up for anything! Johnny is the most remarkable person. Our whole family is so impressed by him. We're proud of him and grateful for him. He was the most up-beat, solid missionary I've ever heard of. He's a fantastic brother and a wonderful uncle. The boys are all over him, and Sarajane has this strange infatuation with him. She'll be shrieking at the top of her lungs, but when Johnny hold her, she leans her head on his shoulder and just mellows out. We can't figure it out, because she doesn't snuggle with anyone but Johnny! And she's never met him before! It's hilarious to see.

Matt and Loral

Matt and Loral came and stayed with us for a week, which was so fun! We really only hung out with them a couple times because we had such different schedules. They were in town for a wedding. Scott and I were up and out the door before they woke up, and then we were snoozing before they ever got home. But we did get to have dinner and spend some time catching up. We love Matt and Loral and can't wait to visit them in Portland sometime!