Monday, August 27, 2007

Welcome Home Dada!

Chris arrived home yesterday afternoon around 1:30. He was three hours later than was originally forecasted. However, even with this delay this was by far the shortest deployment we have had to date. The kids and I are just so excited to finally have Dada home with us! Now we get two years of having him around the house on a regular basis. I'm not sure if the kids have fully realized yet that this is Dada home with them, in the flesh, and that he is more than just a photo on the computer or a voice on the phone (Garrett screamed with excitement just looking at photos of Chris from yesterday).
With the delay, I decided the best course of action was inaction. Translate to: put the kids down for a nap and pray they get some sleep. This is what I saw when I opened their bedroom door at 11:15 (we were supposed to be at the Base by 11:30 and we live 45 minutes away now). I guess the excitement of the day was just too much.


At 1 they told us to head over to the hanger to meet the guys. The hanger means lots of space (not air-conditioned) and lots of helicopters. My two were in heaven!
I love this silhouette of them with the Cobra (Daddy's copter) in the background.


Of course, my son finds the only "puddle" in the place and decides to play in it. Yuck!

When is Dada going to get here? Momma you said any minute (and Momma is tired of chasing them around the hanger).

Momma! There's a BUS! My Dada is coming on a BUS!!!


Do we really have to wait for them to do formation?


Garrett ran to Chris and handed him his American flag. Too precious! I just wish I could have gotten Garrett's face in the photo too.

Daddy's girl getting a kiss, and still posing for the camera.

Dada with his babes

Happy, blessed family!

7 comments:

Katie said...

Welcome Home Chris !! So happy that your family is together again :)

Our Family of 5 said...

Welcome Home! What great pictures! So happy to see your whole family together!

Barb said...

There should have been a Kleenex warning on that post. WELCOME HOME CHRIS!!! Thank you for sharing the wonderful pictures and your beautiful family!

Tina said...

Welcome Home Chris!!! The pictures made me cry. Glad to see you're back safe and sound!

Tina, Greg, and Toby

JuJu - said...

CRYING - what a beautiful sight to me - I can't express how much respect my family has for you both and for the sacrifices your beautiful family makes for our wonderful country.

thanks you to both of you:)

JUlia

Anonymous said...

WELCOME BACK CHRISTOPHER!!!!!
And good job Momma Merrill on truckin on. (literally with that cross country journey) At least the kids will be ready to head to Cali because they will be so used to it. Ok---Chris, we know the drill. When you guys are READY .....give us a call. We'd love to hear from you both. If you need the Japan country code let us know via email and we'll get it to you that way. Onigashimasu! (welcome) back. Love you guys. So gald the family picture is complete now!
Ben, Meg, and Nathan

Anonymous said...

We are so glad that Chris is finally home safe and sound - WELCOME HOME! We know that no one is more excited than you are that the family unit is together again on a regular basis over the next two years.

Hopefully we can spend some time together in Atlanta during Guatoberfest.