We landed at 11:05pm last Thursday. The airport was mostly empty - we didn't tell anyone our arrival time because it was so late. But somehow Julie and her cutie kids found out when we would land, and they met us right before baggage claim! It was the sweetest surprise! They gave us cookies and their hand painted signs. We surely felt loved!
We came home that night and tried to go to sleep. Of course, that was pretty hard considering it was in the middle of the day China time. 2am rolled around and Bailey decided to drive over to Del Taco for some chili cheese fries. At first I was like, "are you kidding me?!" But then I thought about it for a minute... and had him order me some nachos.
Our room has been an absolute WRECK this week trying to unpack. We do love our new decorations though. I wish I had a better picture of it, but Whitney and her kids made us the cutest "Welcome Home" banner to come home to!
We had parties on every side of our family. At my Grandma Shiba's house we ate delicious homemade Japanese food (which we had missed so much!) and I showed everyone the apps that Bailey's students helped us download, haha.
Bailey's family party was so fun, especially because we gave all of our nieces their souvenir fans! They thought they were the fanciest things ever! We didn't forget about our one nephew, of course, we gave him a cool 3D puzzle. We also gave out late birthday presents, which they all loved. Featured here is Lecsie's calligraphy pad. We got her a real calligraphy brush, and when she dips it in water and uses it on this pad, it looks just like ink! It dries out clear so she can use it over and over again. Her calligraphy was pretty good when we gave her a list of characters to copy over!
We got Brinley that pink bag on the edge of the counter. It is just like a Chinese makeup bag or something, but watching her open it was the cutest thing ever. She zipped it open to find... another bag inside! Inside each bag was a smaller bag, totaling maybe 5 or 6 bags total. She just thought it was hilarious! In the very middle we put a nail polish for her to find.
My favorite late birthday present, though, would have to be baby Scout's. Isn't she so cute?!
I've been home for a week, and guess who has been home for two weeks today?! Chanel! You wouldn't believe how excited I was to see her! I hadn't seen her since September, so it has been so good to catch up. Whenever we hang out we share stories of our adventures and find that maybe China and Lavia aren't so different. She and I got to go to the temple together, which was really special because neither of us had been to the temple for a while!
We also got to catch up with Allie, Kess, and their husbands this past week! We had them as well as Seiji and Kylie over, and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows while playing volleyball and badminton. It was fun to hear about Allie's new place and how she's adjusting to married life, and it was fun to hear about Kess's baby who is due in December! How I love to have such a great group of married couples to hang out with!
So, life has been good here in the States. We've kept busy so far - Bailey started a new job just this last Monday! He is a sales representative and is killing it so far, he's the top of his training group! I'm working on job hunting which has proven difficult because not many jobs would work with my fall class schedule. But I'll keep looking, and until then I'll enjoy just playing with my family and friends all day!
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