Welcome Home, Shayla

 One of the best parts about extending our trip in Utah was that we got to welcome home my youngest sister from her mission to the Philippines. It was such a treat to greet her at the airport, and get her fresh off her mission! I was the one with my mom's camera capturing everyone at the airport, so the only pictures I came out with were these two back at the house.

Alina loved those shiny princess balloons! She watched as 3 boys were each given charge of a balloon while we waited for Shayla to come down the escalator. It was nice for  the grownups that the three rowdies  had the balloons tied to their wrists--because then we could spot them in the crowd, no matter where they were. Once the excitement died down, Alina was finally given the chance to hold a balloon and she did the cutest little happy dance. Her one-year old self stomped with one foot, apparently trying to twirl around with her new treasure. She was beyond happy to have her turn, and couldn't contain the happy dance inside of her when she got her hands on a big shiny balloon.

Here is the group that gathered for Shayla's missionary homecoming talk. We had Trevor and his family, Tanya and her family, Blake and two of his daughters, Dionne's three boys, Me and my kids, as well as my parents and Dacia, Capri and Shayla. A good looking group, if I do say so myself. 

I need to mention here that with 10 kids in my family, at this time we were spread out over 6 states. That number has now increased to 7 states, but it used to be 10 kids spread out over 9 states, coast to coast. A gathering of this size represent a lot of traveling, a lot of miles, and a lot of love and support to share with each other.

I think one of my favorite things about this weekend was when we left the dads and uncles with the kids, and the women folk (with our beautiful nieces ages 8 and over) attended the General Women's Broadcast at the local stake center. It was memorable, and made me wish that I could catch experiences like this more often. It felt like such a legacy of covenants to be sitting in the chapel, snuggled on to a pew together while we listened to messages about the importance of eternal families. 

(If any of my sisters want to email me the photo we took that evening with all of us together, I'd like to add it to this post right here, in this spot.)