dan came home!

We LOVE uncle Dan. He has been a major part of our family for the last 7 years since we moved back to CA. Of course we loved him long before that, but 7 years ago when we came to SD he became one of us, especially to the kids who don't really have any memories without him.

Lexey had to draw a family picture last year and her picture had Mom, dad, dan, Calvin, clare, Lexey, Jo and Tressel! To her, that is a complete Gonda family!

 It was so fun to see Dan get ready for his mission and then faithfully serve for 2 years in the Washington Kennewick and Spokane missions. We were beyond thrilled that he was able to return home from his mission here in Houston.



Dan was scheduled to arrive on Tues Aug 26th about 10pm which was pretty late for a school night but we thought it was worth it for such a special occasion to keep the kids up. Then the plane got delayed and delayed and delayed again in 15 or 30 minute increments. We put all the kids to bed not knowing if it would even come in that night. Finally we knew it would be here about midnight so we decided to wake Clare and Lexey to take them but leave Calvin and Jo here asleep. Not worth having them miss a few hours of sleep!

We had a lovely drive to the airport in spite of some tolls. It was fun going through downtown Houston. It is a beautiful city.  We got to the airport in plenty of time to park and walk in and find a good place to wait for Dan.


Looking for a good place to hold up our signs.  We started here by baggage claim but then moved closer to where they come out of the main terminal.

 

 So great to have Dan with us!

Look at those worn out missionary shoes!

On the way home from the airport we stopped for a snack at Burger King. unfortunately it was so late there was no good food to offer to Dan.

The next couple of days, with Bob and Kari in town, we took Dan to get clothes and a phone and out to eat at a few good places.

We had another couple of days with Dan after Bob and Kari left.  At that time I was still driving Calvin to and from school so it was a lot of in the car time for us. Dan asked, "can we have a day where we don't drive all day?" My answer was, "sorry, no, this is my life right now." haha. Dan was fun to have in the house and kind enough to go to the children's museum with us one day and babysat one night while Dave and I went out on a date. So far our only date here in Houston.

The kids loved having him here. They really look up to uncle dan!