My brother is HOME! (Snapshot Edition)

Today has been an exciting day. A very, very exciting day. My little brother, Sgt. Austin T. Lewis, returned home safely to his family today after a tour in Afghanistan. We are all SO thrilled and relieved and excited and proud and...

The list goes on forever.

Sometime soon I plan to actually calm down long enough to write a whole post about his homecoming. I just can't do it today. There is so much happening in my head that it would be super long and super mushy.

The bottom line is: He's Home!!!!!  

Here are just a few of the pictures from the day.

These are my boys, waiting patiently. Logan made that sign himself (mostly) and Brodie was super proud of his American Flag. If this picture doesn't scream U.S.A., I don't know what does.

Some friends of the family rode their Harleys to the airport to greet my brother's unit and then escorted them to the base to see us. This is Kasey Burton. Yes, that's an American Flag jacket she's wearing. Yes, she's a total badass. Yes, she cried several times throughtout the day. Her husband, Jack, said "This is the coolest thing I've ever done." They were honored to be escorts and we were honored, too.

This is my brother, Austin and his fiance, Meganne. They did this for several minutes. They did NOT notice me taking this picture. I'm glad. It makes the picture better. They may have missed one another.

 This is me hugging my brother. I think he was excited to see me, too. Not as much as Meganne, duh, but still, he was excited...

Logan and his Unc. They're kinda close. This is a VERY BIG DEAL...for them both.

And Brodie and his Unc. He's been gone awhile. Brodie forgot how cool Unc was. It didn't take him long to remember. By the end of the day, they were shooting guns.

This is the first and only time I've seen my dad get emotional through this whole deployment. It was really, really neat to get to watch.

.

All of the excitement got to Grandpa Bud, it seems. He climbed in the back of the Government owned 15 passenger van and took a nap. Seriously, Grandpa? Well, his hat does say US Navy, retired. Guess he earned it.

This is, by far, one of my new favorite pictures. How proud am I? How freakin' grown up is he? You know, we call him "The Golden Child"? You wanna know why? 'Cause he totally is! The kid is just amazing. And, I'm not just saying that because he's home safely from war. I'm saying that because it's the truth.

Happy Friday, or as we've been calling it, National Unc Day!!!