Vegas: Part May

At the end of May - beginning of June, Tyson, Reed, and I journeyed back to Las Vegas for Jared's (Tyson's little brother) mission homecoming. For the past two years he has been serving in the Rostov-na-Donu, Russia mission. We were really excited to be able to see him again and for him to meet Reed. I was not even pregnant when Jared left, and now Reed is 15 months! It's all kind of crazy how much can happen in 2 years. It seems so short and yet, so long.

Our flight was non-stop, thank goodness, but was definitely not easy. It was completely full, so Reed had to sit on our laps (mostly mine). Throughout the etire 5-hour flight, he maybe slept 45 minutes. Yeah, definitely no good with a wiggly toddler! Thankfully, he did not cry, just was wiggly. We got to Las Vegas exhausted, but excited to await Jared's homecoming the next day. The 3-hour time change is a killer for babies, though. On Thursday morning, Reed woke up promptly at 4:30 am (7:30 in DC) and was ready for breakfast and everything else. Yeah, it was a REALLY long day for us!

Thursday was the day for Jared to arrive - the only problem: we had to wait until 9 pm! Yuck! I hate waiting....I really do. But, we played with nieces and nephews and got to meet little Carter for the first time. Cute baby! (I want another one of those!) We decided to keep the pregnancy thing a secret (except for to Tyson's mom) until Jared had been back a few days - real fun for me feeling crappy, but having to pretend I feel fine. Fun, fun......blah!

We made this huge sign for Jared which ended up taking most of the afternoon. The funniest part was that the paint leaked through the sheets and so there was a sign in the garage of the sign we had made! Luckily, it came off with a power washer and some scrub brushes!


Vance helping us paint....

Almost done with this huge sign! We sure must love Jared :)

Washing off brushes.....

Uh oh - our beautiful sign made it onto the garage floor as well....


Get that power washer out ...

Power wash and scrub, power wash and scrub....

Scrubbing and scrubbing.....

Aaah, all clean!

The finished product - not too shabby :)

The time was inching by, but finally, it was time to head to the airport and pick up the missionary! We loaded up and arrived there early, of course, so we had to wait around - anxiously awaiting his return! Tyson's aunt, uncle, and cousins ended up coming as well, so that was fun to be able to see them! Reed was pretty cranky - he just couldn't figure out what time it was and where he was at - poor guy.

Before Jared arrived - waiting and waiting at the escalator.....

Reed and Vance trying to be patient and wait....

FINALLY - he came down the escalator! As is only natural, the mom got the first set of hugs! They were standing so close to the escalator that the alarm started to go off. It was pretty funny! All the family members took turns hugging Jared and then, they reintroduced to some of the kids and introduced him to Reed and Carter for the first time. Jared seemed tired, but great! I could already feel a little bit of grown-up-ness (nice word, I know) in him! We all chatted and waited for what seemed like another eternity for his baggage. Finally, we were on our way to get him released and go home.

Hard to see him, but Jared is up a little ways on the escalator - the only guy in a suit!

The mom hugs!!!!!

The dad......

The brother..............

The oldest sister.............


Mom's second set of hugs :) Her baby is home!

Meeting Reed :)


Re-meeting Vance

Re-meeting Kenzi

The brothers - a must-do pose!

Welcome home Elder Jared!!!!

I love that look on his face :)

Vance finally saying something to Uncle Jared

Sleepy Carter

The showing of the battle-worn shoes

The eternal wait for baggage!

The shoes look worse in person...but he did great at keeping them throughout the mission!

It took a while to get him released, which I thought was a little weird. My releasing onl took like 10 minutes and Tyson said that his was only 5 minutes. But, ah well. We stoped at Taco Bell on the way home and Jared ordered. You can always tell if someone has been speaking a foreign lanugage for a while because of their intonation in English. This is what it sounded like, "I would like a Crunchwrap Supreme?, and also a rot beer?....." etc.... it just made us all laugh!

Then, the moment came that we had been planning for two years - to stop at the mailbox before going home. Ok, for those of you who don't know Jared, this was always the hugest annoyance to him since the mailbox is down the street. He would always get upset if his dad stopped at the mailbox before going home. So, we had to do it. So, stopped and Dave got the mail, but Jared did not say a thing!!!!! We all started laughing and Jared was like, "What's the big deal?" That made us laugh even harder because it was just so not what he was like before the mission! The mail was retrieved and we headed home. Tyson and Jared took a picture in front of the sign we had made and then, we all went inside to relax and chat.


Jared, Tyson, Reed, and taco bell ( Jared's favorite)

Jared unpacked his bags and told stories about all the people he had met in Russia. He put on some crazy hats and even told us that wehave been saying grandma (baboushka....i think) in Russian the wrong way! You put the emphasis on the first syllable, not the second! Thanks, Jared! I was basically falling asleep the whole time, but that is to be expected:)

Some Russian hat.....I think the soldiers used to wear them?


Some Russian knife. You look really scary, Jared.....really :)

Friday we went to the temple, and it felt so good to go! Later on, we took Walker family pictures and that is always a good time. We tried to take a photo of all the grandkids, but it didn't work out for well. In every picture at least one kid is crying! Awesomeness.....but, the pictures actually turned out really nice! Thanks Christy! You did great!

Saturday was the family pool party to welcome Jared home. Lots of Tyson's mom's family still lives in Las Vegas, so it was quite the event. Also, John, Shauntelle, Mary, an Evyn came! Always fun to see them :) We told Jared that night that we were going to have another baby. Everyone else had pretty much figured it out by then, but he was still clueless. Reed "wrote" Jared a card and let him know he was going to be a big brother. Jared seemed really excited at the news - yahoo for babies!

Sunday, Jared spoke in Sacrament meeting and did a fantastic job! I could tell that his mission had been hard, but awesome and so full of growth! You did it jar-head! Congrats! His only problem with being home was that he got boring doing the same thing for more than 20 minutes...I definitely know that feeling! But, it passes all too quickly!

So, the end of May was full of Jared, Jared, and more Jared - but we stayed until the beginning of June! Look for the Vegas: Part June update in the next couple of days!

Temple Day!

Fun uncle Tyson!


Kimber catching this bottle thing that was the entertainment when the individual families got their pictures taken.

Tyson getting ready to catch the bottle-thing...I don't know what it is called.

Cute Carter boy!

Crawling up the hill...phew....made it!

Reed attempting to drink out of Grandpa's 100 oz. water jug! That's right - 100 ounces!

We took a picture in the daytime of our sign with Jared in it, of course :)