On January 27, 2010, my brother Jonny went into the MTC, his first stop on his mission to Argentina. Here was the last time I saw him before he left. Notice my belly nestled right under his shoulder. That's baby Carter, who would be born two days later, just missing out on meeting his uncle Jonny!
Fast forward two years. I now have two babies my brother has never met (and neither of them are really a BABY anymore), and we find out he has a two hour layover in SLC on his way home to St. George. So, along with my aunt and three of her kids, we went up to meet him.
It only took Carter about 2 minutes to get over his aversion to Jonny (I had drilled it into his head that "Jonny was nice" enough that he walked around saying "Jonny nice."), but was entirely too fascinated by the baggage claim to pay any attention to him. But, oh, it was so good to see Jonny! It was almost like he'd never been gone. It wasn't weird at all, but just so, so good.
When I was pregnant with McKay, we knew that if it was a boy, we would be giving him the middle name of John (it was STRONGLY suggested by Jeff's mom, as John was her father's name and all of Jeff's brothers have a son with the middle name John). I was okay with that. But I also wanted to name him after another Jon that I adore. My brother Jonathan. So I asked Jeff how he would feel if I spelled Jon without the "h." He said it was fine with him. And since I was the one filling out the papers for the birth certificate, that's what I did. So little McKay Jon got to meet his namesake for the first time. And he seemed quite pleased. I just wish this picture wasn't so blurry. It was with my phone. :(
Jonny worked at Jimmy John's before he left (Jimmy Jonny's, as we like to call it), so I thought it would be fun to bring him a sandwich. He loved it. Apparently I did too, by the looks of this face I am making.
It was hard to watch him leave to go to St. George, and I really wanted to be there with the rest of the family when he got there, but we only had to wait 10 days until we drove down for his homecoming. That was this past weekend. I wish I had taken some more pictures, and I don't have any of us all together, but here are a couple video clips if you are interested in taking a look. We had our kids learn a song and perform it for him after church. So precious!
We also put on a Family Play (or Roast, as my mom called it). This is something we have done many times in the past. Most of these are inside jokes that probably won't be that funny to you (unless you know my mom), but I find the whole thing hysterical. It's in two parts, and will give you a little glimpse into what we think is "fun."
I sure missed my baby brother while he was gone, but he has come back an even better person than he was when he left! I can't wait to get to know him all over again, and have my kids get to know him too!
1 comment:
Reading this made me cry remembering how wonderful it is to have brothers return from missions. I can't even imagine when it's your Son. Glad he's home and that you got to spend some quality time with he and your family!
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