9 weeks at last!

The first stretch was finally over and after 9 long weeks, Ryan was able to come home for three days!  He surprised us all by coming home early Thursday morning instead of really late Thursday night.  When Matthew first saw him, he just said "Hi Daddy" like it was any other day.  Then it sunk in and about 5 seconds later he turned around and yelled "DADDY!!".  The hugs and kisses didn't stop all weekend!  Drew was in amazement and had the best look on his face.  He was a bit shy at first with Ryan and wouldn't Ryan hold him.  It only took him about 10 minutes to warm up to him and then Drew was handing our hugs and kisses all weekend long too.  It was so nice for Ryan to actually see Drew's walking and running skills in person and listen to him say "Mama", "Dada", and "Ball".   

It was nice for Ryan to have a break in the nasty weather they have been having down there.  On Wednesday night his work was evacuated because of tornadoes.  When he and Gary left work they actually drove through part of one.  The wind was so powerful that it pushed Gary's truck (a 7,200 pound Dodge beast) horizontally across the street.  Ryan said there was wind and debris flying all over the place.  On the way home they had to move 2 trees that had fallen in the road.  Overall, they have gotten over 6 inches last week alone.  On Friday, St. Louis got hit pretty hard with 12 tornadoes!  We were very happy that Ryan drove this trip and didn't fly, because it would have been uncertain if he would have been able to fly in to St. Louis today.  So all in all coming home to 50 degree weather was a nice, chilly break from his 85 degree severe thunderstorms.

I took a half day on Friday so Ryan and I could get some errands and odds and ends done.  We bought Matthew's birthday present, because Ryan wanted to be a part of it and his next trip home will be for Matthew's birthday.  We spent most of the weekend as a family, just the way we needed it to be.  We did have some time that Ryan and I went out just the two of us and we also celebrated our birthdays with Ryan's family.  The four of us started a movie night on Saturday, but Drew fell asleep during his breathing treatment and Matthew passed out about 30 minutes into Toy Story.  We had a very casual and spur of the moment Easter with my parents.  The boys got to have an egg hunt in their yard and after our lunch we came home to get Ryan ready for his trek home.

Before leaving, Ryan took Matthew and Drew on their first JD tractor rides of the year.  A perfect way to end the weekend in those boys' eyes!  Of course once Ryan drove away, Matthew started asking for Daddy.  The next five weeks will hopefully fly by and Ryan will be home again with us for the weekend. 

Check out some more photos at our picture site.  We can't wait for Memorial Day Weekend.  Love you Daddy!