He Has Arrived. Meow.

July 11 finally came, and this is pretty much what it looked like;


Passing the "Welcome Home Elder Hagee" sign Jennifer made as we left for the airport.




We (ahum, Harlow) were a little excited and left for the airport WAY too early. We then ended up standing and waiting for almost two hours... I know, shoot me. Oh, and to make it even more enjoyable we decided to skip lunch to make sure we didn't miss standing for two hours Billy walking out, so we also didn't feel well. Pretty much the last two pictures illustrate how Jack acted the entire time. It was awesome. Also, thanks for the pose(?) lady in the green shirt.



Finally, after two years (and two long hours at the airport) he arrived! Elder Hagee came running out and we all cheered and ran to him - minus Gramme but she's 87 so she has an excuse.



This was before we left for Billy to be released and then hit up Pappasitos to celebrate.



Since he has been home we've had so much fun being all together again. We listen to stories about the Ukraine, hear Billy "accidentally" speak in Russian, go out to eat at Billy's favorite eateries and spend our nights laughing until our stomachs hurt going through the videos on the blog we made for him while he was gone. Life is good.

USA is A-OKAY

I love the fourth. I love parades. I love eating too much food. I love fireworks and I love America. Seriously, what's not to love about this holiday? I think that Jim Gaffigan (my absolute favorite comedian) describes it best;


The entire clip is about holidays and it is hilar,
but he specifically talks about the 4th at 2:09.
It's what the Founding Fathers would want.

Provo celebrates the fourth of July like nobody's business. The entire first week of July is the Freedom Festival and it kept us busy this year. We started off the week by attended the Children's Parade on Saturday. This was Jack's first parade and his reaction was adorable - he sat still in awe and waved the entire time.

Kickin' it at the Children's Parade.

Always classy.

Tuesday we got out to University Avenue around 3:30 and we were just barely there in time to find a spot to lay down our blanket for the Grand Parade the following morning. (People in Provo are cra-zay about this parade). In fact, on each side of us were tents because everyone sleeps there to save their spots, but I like my bed wayyy to much to do that. Luckily, the people next to us said they were willing to watch our spot if we paid them in donuts. No prob! But that night we went out to our spot to have a Wendy's picnic and walk down to the Freedom Days carny/shops.

We love our chicken nuggies.

Take a guess at what movie hes watching...

The morning of the fourth we got up early and went outside to watch a few of the hot air balloons from the balloon festival earlier that morning. Neither Garrett or I wanted to get up early enough to do that, let alone wake Jack up early and mess up his sched. So after we got ready we walked down to our spot and found it perfectly saved! Fantastic. We stayed long enough to watch most of the parade, but Jack wasn't in the mood for a two hour parade I guess.

Yes, that is a transformers chair.

We spent the rest of our afternoon playing at the pool and then hit up Texas Road House for some real American food. But who am I kidding? I mostly just ate the rolls. Jack was exhausted and ended up going to bed early and without any fireworks. Garrett and I then decided we would watch some television but go outside in time to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks. Well we were losers and both ended up falling asleep; I guess that's what having a one year-old will do to you!

Also, happiest birthday to my brother! Billy finally gets home this Wednesday after serving a mission in the Ukraine for two years. We cannot wait to see him and I'm so excited for him to finally meet Jack.

Obvs Jack is just as excited.