Welcome Home Elder Peterson!!

It is so hard to believe that THIS post was two whole years ago!! (Two years plus a couple months since I'm so slow updating...) Nathan had a wonderful mission and even though we were SOOO excited to have him back, it was also a little sad because we really loved all his letters and faith inspiring stories. It really didn't seem real that it had been two years. So much has happened since then but at the same time, it just felt like he had been away for a week at EFY or something. Thursday morning, May 26th, M, D, and W drove to our house so we could all go to the airport together. We were all so excited and Aiden of course had no idea what was going on but still had fun with everyone together.

Excited/"shocked that it's been two years" faces in the car on the way to the airport.

 It was so hard to wait once we parked and walked in. We entertained Aiden with airplanes and escalators until FINALLY it was time to watch down the long hallway for Elder Peterson. I swear he must have let every single person off the plane before he went because it took absolutely forever for him to get out. When  he finally did, it was chaos. I don't even know if we really have any good videos and this is the only picture I have of him walking down the hall because who wants to stand there taking perfect pictures instead of hugging Nate? NOT me!! :)

Elder Nathan Clark and Elder Nathan Peterson. Companions in the MTC, home together on the airplane. (Right Nath?)

Thanks to the nice ladies who took this picture for us. I'm pretty sure it's also the only other one we have from the airport greetings. Oh well.

Oh yeah and this is the picture that everyone will kill me for putting up. So the story behind the next picture is this: The week before Nathan was getting home, we all dressed up and took horrific pictures to send to him in his very last package. We wrote a note saying something like "haven't you missed your lovely family?" Well unbeknownst to us, a "kind" neighbor gave Mama the idea to blow up these awful pictures and bring them to the airport to greet Nathan with. UGH! We all (except for Tyson) forced ourselves to be good sports about it and held them in front of our faces for Nathan to see first thing when he rounded the corner. The worst/funniest part was that Mama INSISTED that we hold them in front of our faces until Nathan got to a certain point in the hallway, THEN we could move them and say hi and give hugs etc. Well, Mama held hers in front of her face for MAYBE three seconds before running to Nathan to get a hug. Yeah I get that she's the mom and whatever but it was still so unfair! Once the rest of us realized we had been scammed we quickly hid the pictures and joined her. So wanna see how bad the pictures were? Here you go:

Yeah...mortifying. Airports are busy places you know...

Anyway, once we had all said hello, I pretty much shoved Aiden at Nathan and forced them to get to know each other. We gave Nath some treats to bribe Aiden with and had him take Aiden on his favorite escalator. They went several times and Aiden was more than happy to hold Nate's hand for the ride.

Nath said it was so weird seeing me be a mom to Aiden and that it took a long time to sink in that he wasn't just some random kid I was tending for the day. Haha!

 As we were leaving the airport, we all kinda took turns helping Nathan with his luggage. Aiden didn't want to be left out of the action and picked the smallest one to drag all the way to the shuttle and then again to the car. He was cruising with that little suitcase and nearly every person in the airport stopped to point and smile or laugh. Of course! He was the cutest thing there! :)

Too fast and diligent to stop and smile. Actually he might not have been able to stop because he'd have lost his momentum...I realized later that the little suitcase was crammed full of books and it was HEAVY!!

No wonder people were staring! How cute is that? Too handsome missionary boys dragging their suitcases.

At least this one you can see his sweet face.

 Aiden and "Unco Nase" have become best buddies since Nath has been home. It is so fun to watch them play together and get to know each other better. I'm sure they will be friends for a long long time! :)

"CHEEEESE!"