He's home!

We have waited for this day for 2 years!

We drove down to Las Vegas to pick Ethan up from the airport.  He had the option of flying into St. George but would be in the airport in Denver for a long time before his flight would leave.  So he chose to fly into Las Vegas and have us pick him up there. 

Ethan spent his morning in the temple doing an endowment session and then sealings.  He had lunch with his mission president, had his final interview, and then was on the way to the airport.

We drove to Vegas early to do some shopping.  The traffic between St. George and Las Vegas is unpredictable and I didn't want to be late, so we got there early. Ethan sent us some pics while we were shopping.

While we were waiting at the airport, Courtney tried to look like the guy with the sign waiting to pick up VIPs.  It was hilarious trying to get a good pic where Courtney looked as serious as they were.

Courtney was ready with the signs and we were just waiting for Ethan to come from his plane.

We weren't sure which escalator he would come down so I was at one, Bryan was at another, and Courtney was in between.  Suddenly, I saw Courtney start to run and Bryan waved me to come.  Courtney got the first hug, which was just fine with me.

Here is the video she took:

I started to where he was and this is the video I got:

He gave great hugs and even brought Courtney a lemonade from Auntie Anne's which she swears tastes better when it's in an airport.  We took lots of pics and then loaded up into the van to go home.

After grabbing Chick-fil-A for dinner, we headed home.  Traffic was horrible before we got to Mesquite so it took a lot longer than it usually does.  I kept our Stake President up to date on what was going on and we met him in his office at the Stake Center around 10:45 pm.  It was emotional but Ethan was released.  He is home!

Finished basement

Here are pics of the finished basement.  Hopefully, they will work ok because they are panoramas.

Main room:

Ethan's room:

Courtney's room:

Hallway from the exercise room to Ethan's room:

Library:

Bathroom:

We still have decorating to do, but we are happy with how it turned out! We need to finish the laundry room and the storage room.  But those will come with time.

US Women's National Soccer Team

The US Women's National Soccer Team had an exhibition game at Rio Tinto in Salt Lake City that we just couldn't pass up!  We got tickets months ago and were super excited to go up to see them play.  We had good tickets too.

We drove up and hit a mileage milestone. I don't know if you can tell, but our mileage was at 77,777.

We had great seats in Rio Tinto.  We were in the shade, which was great, but we were close to the field where we could see the action.  It was a lot of fun and such a beautiful day.

The game began and the USA was winning and then the clouds rolled in and it began to rain.  Soon after it began raining, the lightning began and they stopped the game.  All fans were asked to leave the stadium area and seek shelter.  We went up on the upper deck, no one was stopping us, and waited out the storm.  We weren't sure how long it was going to last but we wanted to see if the game would continue.  

The rain eventually stopped and the lightning was far enough away that they resumed the game.  We stayed in the upper deck because it was easier to follow the action from above.  It was a great game and a fun memory.

We stayed the night in a motel in Provo and then drove home the next morning.

Getting things ready for Ethan to come home

Ethan comes home in 2 days so we are getting things ready!

Courtney is updating her bedroom countdown.

His welcome home stuff is on his bed (electric toothbrush, toothpaste, new shirts, Amazon echo to replace his that we stole when he left, new towels, a new Minky blanket, and come earbuds).  His room was all ready for him to come home and it was exciting.

We had welcome signs up all over the house.

This is his bedroom door.

Can you tell we are excited for our missionary to come home?!

Clean garage

We have been trying to figure out how to get the bikes out of the way in our garage.  Bryan came up with the idea to take out one of the cubbies and have the bikes rest on the wall.  After that, it was easy to get it all organized.  I can't believe how much extra space there is when everything is organized.  I had to document it so we can remember when it starts to get out of control again. ;)

SCHS soccer camp

For soccer camp this year, the SCHS soccer coaches decided to put one on themselves.  They had people come in for trainings, put the girls in teams, and had different games and activities.  Courtney had a great time.

They had one day where it was a "USA out."  They had to wear USA stuff.  The team with the most representation got points (I don't know what the points went to but it was motivation).  Courtney and I spent the day before trying to find USA stuff that would be cool.  We found socks and a shirt that she could wear with her red shorts.  It worked great.

The next day was their team color day.  Courtney was on the yellow team so we went out to find yellow stuff for her to wear (I think she may have "borrowed" a pair of Ethan's funky socks).

Friday was the day for a "White Lie."  The girls wrote on their white shirts a white lie.  I can't remember what Courtney wrote but the one that won the day said "I'm so glad to meet you."  We had a huge laugh about that one!

After practice was the team breakfast and film session.  I had signed up to help with the team breakfast.  There was another mom helping and I talked to her beforehand to ask if we could do yogurt parfaits.  She was excited about those so I made a bunch of yogurt and took granola. The other mom brought the fruit for the parfaits and also some watermelon for the girls to eat.  She also brought water and Gatorade.  It was a hit!  I thought there would be yogurt left over but it was all gone by the time we cleaned up and left.  The girls were hungry! I should have taken a picture of the "before" but here is the aftermath when everything was picked over.  When we started, there were 2 of everything.