Monday, May 14th was a day I had circled and starred both on my calendar and in my mind for 7 long weeks and it finally arrived. After working half a day, I picked up Ava from Vicki's and we sped on over to the Guard base. All sorts of family members (all smiling) gathered in the Operations building while we waited for the plane to arrive. Just before they were scheduled to land, we headed on out to the field just next to the runway to watch them come in. They did a low approach and a "wave" to the crowd, then circled around again to land. Then there was an excruciating wait of about 30-40 minutes while they checked in with customs and tied up everything they needed to do. Ava had a ball playing in the field and watching the other planes at the airport take off. She pointed each time and yelled "sssshuuuuu!"
Their plane finally came back to us and the troops began to exit. Seeing Scot again for the first time was amazing! Ava was a little bit leery and gave him a shy smile, but didn't cry when he held her. She seemed genuinely happy to be in his arms again. And of course, I was too.
Then it was back to business--the troops had to in-process and do some medical things so Ava and I waited around for another hour or so while Scot finished up his tasks. We grabbed Olive Garden To Go on the way home and had a nice family dinner. It is so wonderful to have him back home!
Scot and I are off to Duluth for the weekend to stay at a B&B, while Ava stays home with Grandma Diane.
Scot showed us most of his pictures the other night. Thanks again to those of you who sent him mail--he got the most letters/packages by far out of anyone in his crew. They also passed on some of the goodies to the guys on the ground in some of their air drops. So, those goodies went a long way in helping the morale of everyone.
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