The homecoming!

So,daddy's home and we are all settling in. He has to go to work for about 7 days of re-integration,and then he will have some free time. It has been so hard having him go to work in the morning. I know,it's insane considering he was gone for a year,but seriously. The 5 hours he's gone feel like torture. Julianna stood at the window yesterday for an undetermined amount of time before finally saying "I don't think daddy's ever coming back." She sighed in defeat. Heartbreaking.

Right now he's off with Julianna getting a tune-up/oil change done on his truck,and Matilda's sleeping,so I thought I'd share a few more pictures from homecoming.

First,I set the alarm for 2:40am,and woke up a bit confused. ;o) I hopped in the shower and got ready with a stomach full of butterflies. I got the girls up at 3:40am,got them in their dresses,and we left the house at 4:12am. We got the the parking area,and the weather was looking ominous. Did I grab my umbrella? NOPE! I wasn't running on full throttle. We quickly got on the bus and waited to go to the hangar. Here are the girls all together on the bus.

We headed over to the hangar around 5,and picked a bleacher right in the front. The girls were so tired,and at one point,Julianna was wandering around with her eyes half closed. I had to go get her numerous times,because she was just.. lost. They had refreshments there,and after a few donuts and pink lemonade,they were a bit perkier.

We tried to snap few pictures before it got to crazy in the hangar.
Every 30 minutes they were announcing how close the plane was,and it got really exciting! About 20 minutes before they were supposed to land,we headed to the bathroom for a potty/lip gloss/deodorant break. What? It was muggy in there,and I was sweating like a stuck pig. I was pretty proud of myself for remembering the deo. Might have forgot the umbrella,but I had the deodorant,so that's something.

Then,it was time to head outside to watch the plane land...Y'all it was POURING. and FREEZING. And I didn't have an umbrella. Sigh. I left Tillie inside with a friend and decided to brave it with Julianna. We ran out and ducked under an umbrella,and the kind young man had mercy on our cold,wet selves and let us hang out under there for a few minutes.

The Plane!!!!

Welcome home soldiers!!!

Julianna was SO excited to see if she could see daddy.

And,he was one of the first ones off the plane,that never happens!

And then,they came straight into the hangar and formed up to sing the Army song,and uncase the unit colors.

After that,we had 15 minutes of family time,where daddy got the hug on his girls!


Once family time was over,the guys hopped on a bus and went the the unit. the families got on different buses,and went back to the parking lot where our cars were,then we drove over to the unit to wait. It was about 2 hours of waiting. They had a band out there,well it wasn't really a band,but some amateur singers who performed for us. They had snacks and drinks,too. It was just a LOOOOOONG wait. At this point,it was around 9am,and I was running on E. They finally released the soldiers around 10:15 just in time for it to pour down rain,again!
All in all,it was a wonderful homecoming,and we are so glad our family is back together again. The girls are just in love with daddy,and fight over who gets to hang on his legs while he walks around the house LOL. ;o)