He's Back!

My baby brother got back from his mission in North Carolina this past Monday and Afton met her Uncle Jordan (aka Uncle Jonah) for the first time.  We're excited to have him back on this side of the continent.  
Afton liked his tie...

and his nametag.  Jordan was pretty tired (and recovering from a month-long cold), but he looked pretty good.  He did say "y'all" a few times, but otherwise is missing any southern drawl.  

That evening we went to an undisclosed location for some sight-seeing.  (Sorry Chris and Audra, but the whole keep-the-place-where-you-live-secret thing only works when you live in the middle of nowhere.)  It was Jordan and Afton's first tour through the lights at Temple Square.  

This was my favorite picture.  It was one of the few that wasn't completely blurry (we need a different camera), it has the beautiful Assembly Hall, and the three of them are looking good even after a week of traveling around the tree-lined roads of NC.   
The happy family.  Aside from Afton, I was the most bundled up person there, and I was still cold!  
And here's Sweet Baby Afton giving her Grandma Debbie a giggle.  You would have never guessed that she had had a major stranger anxiety meltdown a couple hours before when her loving grandparents were trying to entertain her for the twenty minutes I needed to make dinner.  The short version of the story is that in my attempt to address the sobbing, shrieking child, I overlooked adding half of the meat to the meatloaf mixture until I tried to cut one of the mini-meatloaves open to see if it was done.  It just oozed apart.  There are things that should not ooze, and meatloaf is one of them.  My mom told me it would taste fine, and my dad claimed to have tried some and thought it would be good.  I chucked it all in the garbage after telling my dad (in retrospect, probably somewhat insensitively) that he did not have a discerning enough palate given that no one has cooked for him for six years.  (My mom is a great cook, but she just sort of stopped a while back.  My dad is fine with it, though.)  Sure enough, Afton perked right up while we waited for Tony to come back with the Thai take-out.  That's when my mom told me that I couldn't be mad at something as cute as Sweet Baby Afton.  (I must not have been very cute as a child because I certainly remember my mom being mad at me a lot...Isn't it funny to watch your parents as grandparents?)  Filled with the Christmas spirit or overflowing with the milk of mother's kindness I said, "I've lost a lot of sleep in the past eight months because of her," or in other words, "TRY ME."  A few minutes later and Afton was back in my arms where she reached up and started gnaw/suck/lick-ing my face.  I took it as her invitation to kiss and make up.  All was forgiven.  

All that aside, welcome home Jordan!