Kelly returned home from Iraq (via Ft. Lewis) on Wednesday, 4/21. Up til the last minute the military was changing the date, time, location, etc. Finally we got the "official" word at about 10pm, Tuesday night that they would be arriving in Portland at 11am, Wednesday. So, the girls and my mom and I left for Portland planning to arrive by about 10:30 so we would be there when they arrived. Yeah, not so much. Kelly is texting as the buses are driving down from Washington telling us each city they pass and while we are still about 1/2 hour away, they have just crossed the river into Oregon. So, he got there before we did. I was really disappointed but, what can you do, it's done. We finally met up with him and held up his sign, got hugs and went into the Chiles Center to wait (3 hours!) for the ceremony to start.
We staked out our seats and sat and talked for a while. They made an announcement that lunch was available for the soldiers so Kelly went and got a plate to share with us. Later they apparently had a lot of food left so they opened it up to all the families so we got to have a nice lunch before the ceremony. Thankfully the ceremony was pretty short and after it was over we went to the armory, picked up his bags and headed home. We've haven't done much since then. We went to the Roadhouse for dinner on Friday and went to church on Sunday but the rest of the time has been spent hanging out. He doesn't have to go back to work until the 6th of July. He and I are taking a kayaking class and taking a week-long trip to Seattle next month and he's searching Craigslist for the boat he's been waiting to buy. Otherwise, we're just enjoying life right now!
