I finished my job on July 18, 2008 and am now unemployed.
On July 22, 2008 my youngest brother, Brad, came home from his mission in Costa Rica, San Jose. It was awful awaiting his arrival at the airport. We were all anxious and antsy and impatient waiting for his plane to land and then for him to get off the plane and come out of the terminal. Brad had two friends come to the airport along with us family members, Andrew Anderson and Andy Kadelka (spelling?). Grant was running around the waiting area like crazy. He gets wild with his aunts and uncles around. In true Glenn tradition, we all made cheesey welcome home signs to hold up as Brad walked out of the terminal. There was even a Galewekitz sign (if you don't know what that's from, let me know and I"ll explain). Brad finally was spotted and we all broke into tears. My brother David was the most broken up, even more than my mom. It has been nice to have him back home and it brought our family together again for a few days. Below are a few pictures taken at the airport.
(Brad and mom hugging.)
( Andrew Anderson, Brad and Andy Kadelka.)
(Grant, Brad and David)
(David and Brad. As you can see, David is quite happy to see his brother.)
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After Brad arrived we all headed to Macaroni Grill for dinner. This restaurant, for some reason, has become the restaurant for family celebrations. We ate there the night before I got married and the day David, my other brother, returned home from his mission. We were keeping up with the tradition. After dinner, we headed back to my aunt Betsy's home for the night. Brad went through his suitcases, shared some mission stories and handed out gifts. He brought David and himself home machetes (no surprise there). On Wednesday morning, Grant and I headed back to Tucson and my mom and brothers headed to Prescott so Brad could be released. They then drove down to Tucson for a few days and Shelli joined us too.
On Thursday, we took Brad shopping because he needed new shoes and shorts. Brad just sort of walked around in a daze for awhile, not knowing exactly what to do, like or try on. He did manage to find a pair of tennis shoes and flip flops, as well as two pair of shorts. We had a fantastic BBQ to celebrate the homecoming as well. I grilled up Brad a t-bone and made some homemade ice cream. Shelli made congo cookies. I also had a summer cooler for the family (a cooler loaded up with soda for everyone -- a tradition started in our family several years ago). Grant had a great time helping make the ice cream. He loved putting ice around the freezer while it spun. He was a great helper. Pictures are below.
On Friday afternoon, my family headed up to Phoenix to pick up my dad from the airport. He was arriving from Seattle at 8:30 PM. I drove up with Chad a few hours later. Chad had his pharmacy boards on Saturday morning and then had to head back to Tucson to work on Sunday. We learned the following Tuesday that Chad passed his boards, so now he is a licensed pharmacist and officially done with everything. Now he can just stress about his residency and not a test too.I went to Prescott with my family on Saturday so that Brad could speak in church on Sunday. Shelli and I stayed with the Mangums. David and Brad stayed with the Larsons and my parents stayed with Stacy Arnold and her husband. We visited a lot of people while in Prescott for the weekend. We attended a wedding reception and were able to see many people we had not seen in quite awhile. On Sunday, we all attended church on so Brad could speak. Sadly, he was the last person on the program and the guy before him took all but the last 5 minutes. Thankfully, the bishop told him to take whatever time he needed. It was so annoying listening to the guy before Brad blather on about nothing, knowing that everyone in the congregation wanted to hear what Brad had to say. Brad did a fabulous job on his talk. I cannot believe that he is the little brother I have. He grew up a lot on his mission.
After church, we had a potluck dinner at the Mangums and also celebrated my dad's birthday, which was Saturday. I was able to go visit my friends from law school who bought my parent's house. It was nice to see my friends and they showed me what they had done to the house to make it there own. The best thing they did was knock out the top part of a wall to open up the downstairs. The house looks great and not too many substantive changes were made. We also went over to the Anderson's to visit. Andrew arranged for a bunch of Brad's friends to come over and see Brad. Brad stayed out until midnight that night. He's not having too difficult a time adjusting is he? While there, Jeff and Bailey had to go feed some calves they are fostering so Grant and I tagged along. Grant got to help hold a bottle for one of the calves and then we fed the horses some hay. He is still talking about it two weeks later. He really enjoyed that and it made me want to have some of that kind of lifestyle.
After the Anderson's, my mom and Shelli dropped me off at Laura Campbell's house to visit with her for awhile. It was great to see her. She is living in Prescott again for the time being. She has two kids, one just two weeks older than Grant. My dad and David had to go back to Phoenix Sunday night but my mom, Shelli, Brad, Grant and I stayed in Prescott until Monday. Before heading back, we, of course, had to have lunch at The Office. It was so yummy and all of the servers there thought that Grant was just adorable. When we got to Phoenix we dropped my mom off at the airport then headed to Shelli's to rest and relax.
Later in the afternoon, my second vacation with Grant began. My sister drove us out to join my friend Amy and her boys, Nicholas and Zachary at her in-law's timeshare in Scottsdale. We spent from Monday afternoon to Thursday afternoon at the condo, swimming, letting the boys play, trying to relax and just hanging out. We swam on Tuesday mroning and twice on Wednesday. We headed out late Thursday morning for Tucson and stopped to shop at Old Navy in Casa Grande. That was crazy with two 2 year olds and a 5 month old. The sale was worth it though. I love Old Navy sales for kids -- such great deals. This is the boys after many days in Phoenix and the final shopping trip. They had had it.
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