Welcome Home Sailor

After eight grueling months of separation Phil is back from Afghanistan. He came home on the 24th of January. It is such a joy to have him back and interestingly enough, it feels almost as if he never left. That must been a brain defense mechanism or something. Here is a breakdown of our reunion.
We were told that the buses carrying our people would be arriving between 4:15 and 4:30 p.m. The kids got home from school at 3:10 and we were out the door by 3:40 (thanks to all the last minute running around). We got to the base at 3:50 and when we pulled up to the Training Hall I almost freaked out because I saw some white buses and a lot of guys in the Desert uniform. For one brief, but terrifying second I thought they had arrived early and I had missed it. I knew that wasn't the case because I had been calling the number given to us all day to check the time and nobody was hugging and freaking out. I mentally gave myself a slap "snap out of it!" and got the kids out of the car.
We ended up waiting for an hour because they had gotten the time wrong. Finally someone announced that the buses were on their way and that they needed all the new mothers to go over to the right front corner of the grassy area (they put all the new fathers on the first bus). I grabbed the kids and we went and waited some more. Finally we saw the buses coming down the main road.

Here we are waiting for the first bus to come to a stop. When all the buses arrived the troops began to disembark. I scanned all the faces I could see trying to locate Phil, but did not see him. As the buses emptied and I still saw no sign of him, The kids and I spread out to try to find him. I was following Caleb when I saw him start running. He had spotted his Daddy!


Chase was right behind him. They were so excited and happy.


Then it was my turn. We hugged each other so tight (trying not to squish the baby, which was tricky) and it felt so good to be with him again. Then I got to introduce him to our newest little family member.


Phil, meet Dallin. Dallin, this is your Daddy.


Then Nathan and Jocelyn found us . . .


. . .and there was a Connor pile on Dad.


Together at last! Just the way it was meant to be.

Comments

Tiffany said…
I can't believe you are blogging already! I would still be sitting right next to him, not letting him out of my sight for a second. Ok - not really, like you said, it's as if he was never gone. Congrats on finally being a family again! I love all the pictures - I cried when I saw them on FB. Joy tears of course!
January 26, 2012 at 9:40 PM
Sandra said…
I am so so happy for you! These are great pictures of all the great moments that come with be together again at last! Love it and thanks for sharing.
January 28, 2012 at 1:41 PM
reynolds said…
So happy for you guys. Can't wait for our turn. These are seriously beautiful. You're an inspiration.
January 30, 2012 at 8:24 PM
Cole said…
I TOTALLY didn't realize that Phil was in Afghanistan when the baby was born! PUXA! That must have been hard! You're my hero, woman. Parabems!
February 3, 2012 at 9:43 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nathan's Baptism

Image
Nathan got baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on August 1, 2009. The baptism was preformed by his father and was held in the Mililani Hawaii Stake Center. It was so wonderful to see how excited Nathan was for his baptism and we were so pleased with his decision to follow the example of Jesus Christ. The program was a bit long, but the Spirit was there and we got through it with only a few escape attempts by Caleb and a few complaints of "Are they done yet?" from Joslyn. The Stake asks that you not make a big to do afterward so that the focus can be on the kids and the ordinance and not the party after, so we told Nathan that we would take him out to eat wherever he wanted. Yep, we went to Chucky Cheese. That was OK though because the kids got to play and relieve some of the pent up energy that sitting for an hour and a half had stored up in their little bodies. It was a great day and one of many such milestones to be enjoyed. All dressed in w
Read more

Chase Maxwell Connor

Image
It has finally happened. I am no longer pregnant, and even better than that is that I have a gorgeous new little man at my house. Chase Maxwell Connor was born at 10:30 on February 21, 2009. He weighed in at 7 lbs and 2 oz and is 19 inches long. I started having contractions on Friday and by four they were getting pretty strong, so I called Phil and told him to come home and take me to the hospital. All the kids wanted to be together so we called some friends and they took them for us. When we got to the hospital, they put me on the monitor and our little guy was having some problems. His heart rate would drop during some of the contractions so they admitted me and broke my water to hurry things along. We had one close call in the middle of the night when his heart rate fell and changing sides was not helping. They called for the doctor and all of a sudden the room was full of people! They had me get on my hands and knees to see if that would help and told me that if it didn
Read more

Two Boys in a Bed

Image
One thing that I love about Caleb is that he is such a sweet boy. He loves his baby brother so much and always wants to hold him and give kisses. He hasn't quite figured out what it means to be "gentle", but he tries to love Chase as best he can. This morning I woke up to calls of "MOM! OUT!" so I dragged my sorry self out of bed and went into Caleb's room and got him out of the crib. Then I went back into my room and flopped on the bed, not quite ready to face the day. I had my eyes closed, but I heard Caleb come in and start to talk to Chase, who was also awake and lying in his bassinet. Then I heard Caleb start to make kissing noises. It is not unusual for Caleb to blow kisses at Chase so I didn't look at first until Chase started making little grunts that coincided with the kisses. I sat up and I saw that Caleb had climbed into the bassinet with the baby and was giving him loves.
Read more