Home From Argentina!! :)

My beautiful daughter Jessica returned home from Argentina today!  Oh happy day! :)

What a wonderful day!  Hopefully we didn't exhaust Jess too much!  She boarded the plane last night around 8:00 pm (Argentina time...midnight our time) and set out on her journey back home.  My thoughts were constantly on her and where she might be.  I was soooo excited to see her!

The airport was packed!  There must have been 25 (or more!) other families there waiting to welcome home their missionary...many of those families waiting for a beautiful young women like Jess who jumped on the opportunity to serve a mission when the age change was announced back in October 2012.  So it totally made sense that a crowd would be waiting - this was the influx of all those first sister missionaries now returning home!  What a wonderful time we live in!  Jess said almost half the plane was filled with missionaries returning home.  She figured it would be a very protected flight! ;)

Her flight actually arrived early so by the time Jess walked down those stairs to the baggage claim, only part of our family was there the greet her...me and Scott, Tiffany and Jefferson, and Jason and Lily (Anna unselfishly dropped Jason off at the unloading zone so he wouldn't miss seeing his sister come down the stairs.)  The rest of the family members were still in the parking lot trying to find a place to park!  It was crazy full!  But it all turned out good - it was like everyone got to greet her individually...and since we've had three new additions to our family since she left, it gave Jess time to meet her new nieces and nephew.  Jess was literally bouncing off the walls and I mean bouncing!  She was just so happy to see everyone!  Jess is very blessed to have four wonderful brothers and sisters who diligently wrote her during her entire mission and arranged their busy schedules to be at the airport to welcome her home.  I certainly am one lucky mom too!  Jess repeatedly expressed her gratitude for all their letters and support.  Ya, I am one lucky mom!

First time meeting little Lily :)

Jeff wasn't quite sure how to hold little Jefferson!

Looks like Lily's dad is teaching her how to photo bomb early in life!!

If you look closely, Alexis is major upset!  Meeting this stranger was too much!

Jess with two of her favorite guys! :)

Cody's hugs always sweep you off your feet!

Finally Anna got her turn!

Not many missionaries can claim they served in TWO missions!!
MTC:  2 months; Tacoma Washington: 7 months; Argentina: 9 months

We had emailed Jess a few weeks before coming home and asked her where she would like to go eat once she arrived home.  Mexican American food was the request.  So we all met back up at the La Fountain in West Valley City and celebrated.  Aww...being with my family is the best!

After eating, Jonas finally warmed up to Jessica. :)  I love this picture!

After saying goodbyes in Salt Lake, (and dropping off Tiffany in Ogden - Tiffany rode with Scott and I which gave her a little extra time with Jess :)) We shuttled Jess off to the Ogden Temple Open House which she was totally excited about.  And talk about cute!  Every missionary and usher helping at the open house who had a badge on that said "Espanol" became Jess' instant friend.  It was so fun to hear her talking in Spanish.  For only nine months of speaking Spanish, I was amazed.  She received many surprised looks when people found out she had just barely returned home!

Next stop was a visit to Grandma Dean.  Aww, that one made me cry!  Jess loves her Grandma Dean and was so worried she wouldn't be here when she came home.  It was a joyful reunion!  Then we headed off to visit Grandma and Grandpa Maw.  With my mom suffering from dementia I'm not really sure if she knew who Jessica was but my dad did!  He had tears in his eyes when he saw her!

After the grandparent visits, I introduced reality to Jess...I pulled out her college class syllabus' and emails I had received from her professors.  I figured the rest of the drive home would be a good time for her to read through those and get a little prepared.  Yes, we were literally throwing her out of the frying pan into the fire!  We finally pulled into the driveway at 6:45 pm.  I totally thought Jess would be dragging by now but amazingly she still had quite a bit of bounce in her step.  And get this...within minutes of unloading the car, she received flowers!  From a guy!  How in the world did he know she had just gotten home??!!  A stalker perhaps??!!

At 8:00 pm we were at the church to meet with the Stake President.   He talked with all of us together first about how Jess' mission strengthened our family - even though she was taken away from our family for 18 months, all of us were strengthened and brought together spiritually through her service.  President Shepherd is an awesome man!  And then he talked with Jess alone - by 8:30 she was officially released...with tears in her eyes.

What a day!  Aww!  I love that girl!  I always thought it was my job to teach her but during these past 18 months she has taught me soooo much!!  Our family has truly been blessed through her!

WELCOME HOME HERMANA DEAN!!

WE LOVE YOU!!

This was cute...we only had a little milk left in this jug and needed the space to fit in our lunch leftovers.  Jess quickly volunteered to drink the milk.  She held in out in front of her and exclaimed, "Ahh!  Milk in a jug!!"  It made me laugh!

Jess had several gifts waiting for her when she got home...mostly belated Christmas and Easter gifts from us, but this gift came from Brother Maddock who religiously read Jess' blog every week and wrote letters of support to her throughout her mission!  This was Jess' mission motto.

Finally at the end of the day as we knelt down for family scriptures and prayer, Jess removed her shoes and stretched out her feet...Oh my!!  A true missionary's socks!!  That's what you call walking your socks off and she said this was one of her better pairs!!