Melissa is HOME!

The REAL Welcome party!
All eight grandkids together for the first time!

Melissa with Grandma Judd who "used" to be a Sister Johnson missionary about 60 years ago!

Couldn't resist picking up the "Horton Hears a Who" movie complete with Horton puppet and book. Two of Melissa's favorite things combined - elephants and Dr. Seuss.

Melissa with brothers Mike & Brian

Melissa with Rob & baby Stetson

The foiled greeting party!

Well, the long anticipated airport greeting for Melissa didn't quite go as planned. Melissa’s plane was scheduled to arrive at noon, so we all hopped into two cars at 11:30, then got to the airport gates right at noon. Rob & Brian dropped us all off while they went to park and we hurried up to the gates. We looked at the flight board and it said that the plane was “IN” so we stood there with a “Welcome Home, Melissa!” poster in our little group and waited for her to come out the gate. We waited… and waited… and waited. Mike & Sally came, Jeff & Niki came (but Allie threw up in the car just as they were getting out – so Niki and Allie had to wait in the car in the parking lot). Brian & Rob were taking forever to get up to the gates, so Kristi finally called Rob's cell phone. Here’s what happened: Just as Rob parked and started walking toward the elevator his cell phone rang. It was Melissa! Her plane had arrived half an hour early! So she was already down in the baggage claim area getting her luggage. She was standing around wondering where her family was (and beginning to think it was a replay of the RM movie) so she finally found a pay phone and called Rob’s cell number. Then Rob called Brian’s cell phone because they got separated in the parking lot and parked on different levels. So Brian went down to the baggage claim too and found Melissa. They tried calling Kira’s cell phone to let us all know where they were, but Kira never heard her phone ring. They didn’t know that Mike & Sally or Jeff were up there with us, so didn’t think to try their phones, and forgot that Kristi had her cell phone on her. So just about the time that they were thinking to go find us, Kristi call Rob’s cell phone to see what was taking them so long. Sooooooo…. in other words, we missed seeing Melissa come off the plane! Poo! It never occurred to us to check the flight to see if it was on time or not. So poor Melissa got off the plane and walked through the gates with NO ONE there to greet her. Is that the saddest thing you ever heard or what??? So we all went running down to the baggage claim area and finally met up with her.

Then… after we all hugged and talked for a bit, we headed out to the parking garage. We were all parked on different levels so split up. The only problem was that since Melissa had called Rob just as he was getting out of the car… the distraction made him forget to pay attention to where he had parked. He ended up walking all over that parking garage looking for our car! Up and down all the levels. So we stood around with all her luggage on the level where Jeff was parked so that Melissa could go see Niki and Allie in their car. Brian got his car and drove over to where we were all standing, so we loaded part of her luggage in his car…. But no Rob and no car. Rob had disappeared. Finally… about half an hour later he drove up! Talk about a comedy of errors! Well, Melissa has always been the one to do things different around here! No ordinary, run of the mill, return missionary, airport greeting for her! So Melissa had no greeters, a throwing up niece, and a lost Dad/car to make her return interesting.

Anyway, we finally all got home and sat around talking and looking at pictures of Melissa’s mission. Grandma Johnson and Lurline came by and Grandma Judd came over too. Then we had to meet with President Deaton at 5:00 so that she could be formally released. She was kind of funny. When he got to the part of asking her to take off her name tag, she beat him to it. She yanked it off and handed it to him without any qualms. She said she was exhausted and ready to get back to normal life and be anonymous again! That Melissa. She just can’t do anything the “normal” way. Then we went back home and made Mexican food for dinner. Mike & Sally, Jeff & Niki, Brian & Kira and all eight grandkids together for the first time! And just to make Melissa feel even more like the RM movie, we hadn’t had time to get anything ready for her to come home. The Stetson house still has all her stuff packed away in the back bedroom, Brian & Kira were using Rick's empty bedroom. Soooo….. Melissa had to sleep on the hide-a-bed in the living room for the first three nights! Not even a bed or room to call her own. What a greeting, huh?