Philly!

Last Thursday (October 9th) my mom, Steven, and I flew from SLC to Philadelphia. My mom, brother, Marc, and I lived in a southern suburb of Philadelphia for a few years while Marc and I were in high school. Two years ago Marc went on a mission for the LDS church to Sweden. He left from Philadelphia and even though none of my family lives there anymore, he returned there. He knew my mom was going to go pick him up from there but he had no idea I would be there!

On Friday we met a few of our friends at the airport and all surprised him when he got off the plane. We were all standing right outside the door to the terminal and when he walked out he started looking around but totally just glanced right over us. It took him almost a full minute to see us standing there. When he finally did see us, he just stared at us for a while before coming and giving us all hugs. It was awesome! I having been planning on going to pick him up pretty much since he left and I'm really glad everything worked out so I could go.

We stayed at a friend's house and had a really good time while we were there. Marc's best friend, Rich, planned a welcome home party for him so most of his friends could see him before we came back to Utah. My mom and I couldn't stay long because of Steven but Marc had a blast. He was able to spend a bunch of time with his friends which was awesome for him. I'm sure we all could have used more time there but c'est la vie!

On Sunday we were able to go to church at our old ward and see a bunch of people we haven't seen in forever. That was great. Marc spoke and you could tell he was still thinking mainly in Swedish. I think it's awesome that he seems to have learned the language so well and I really hope he can continue to use it.

Steven was great the whole trip, even on the plane. I was really worried that he would scream and cry during the flights, but he just slept! As everything I think will be difficult proves to be relatively easy, I'm wondering when he's going to change and I'm going to pay for it all. Hopefully that'll be a while still!

P.S. It was a masquerade party and most of the people at the party had been in plays in high school and they didn't play "Masquerade" from Phantom of the Opera! I was shocked and a little disappointed ;)

I thought this was the cutest little hat on him! It's too big which makes it even more endearing :)
Mrs. Canamucio (mother of two of our good friends) holding Steven. She kept checking on him to see if he'd woken up so she could hold him

Marc & I at Rich's party

"The Pose" back together again! L-R: Natalie, Marc, Rich, Joe, & I

Marc & I with our AWESOME masks!

Natalie & I. (I've noticed my camera takes a fair amount of blurry pictures. Really annoying. Most of them are great quality but then there are a few that still turn out blurry. Lame)

Natalie & Marc

Our friend Katherine came over to hang out while we were there

This is Steven's favorite sleeping position...I can't imagine why...

I just thought this was a funny picture...

Steven got his own seat on the last flight back! It was very nice