Welcome Home Elder Jeffrey Johnson

If anyone has been paying attention to the countdown on the side of our blog, you'll have noticed that the countdown of Elder Johnson's homecoming has said "NOW!" for quite some time. Well it's true, he is home and last week we were able to spend a week with him and the family in Illinois.
We decided to surprise him and not mention that we were driving there the day that he got home. We called him when he got to the airport and told him that "we wished we could be there." Little did he know that we were planning on meeting up with them while they were at the church getting him released. He walked out of the room and this is what he saw, his little Nephew Jackson who he has never met! It was so fun! His older brother Jeremy also surprised him and flew in just an hour or so after he got to the airport (Morgan and the girls weren't able to come)On Sunday Jordan received his Eagle Scout Award at his Court of Honor. It was fun to have all these Eagles there with him (and the little Jack Man... our future Eagle Scout!) :)We had a good week and had quite a few adventures:
Here is Justin and Jeff playing the PlayStation just like good old times. We went to the mall one day and Jackson loved this Hot Dog Truck to play on.The Winnebago County Fair was in town so we got to take Jackson so the petting zoo. We rolled him up over to the goats and sheep and he just got so excited!! We wondered how he would do if we took him in to feed them, and again he seemed to really enjoy the animals. (He seems to like animals more than loud motor things)Another night we went to the lake to watch the Rockford Ski-Broncs. They do crazy things like....This!Jackson got his bum wet and dirty while we were there! The joys of a mobile child who will NOT sit in a stroller no matter how much you'd like him to! :)We also went to "Uncle Harold's" farm and got us some yummmmmy sweet corn on the cob! Jackson loved the corn as you can see. I bit off quite a bit from the cob and he had the best time just munching on the end of it. He would suck out the juices and get as much of the kernels that he could. Yumm Yumm!We all tasted the field corn vs. the sweet corn... there is a BIG difference, that field corn is n-a-s-t-y!Jamie's boyfriend Nate also got to come and spend a few days with the family. He is a great guy and a lot of fun!Last but not least, I must blog about the Johnson's famous foods. The Johnson's have their list of favorite foods that are a must have whenever we go visit. They include: Happy Joe's taco pizza, Happy Joe's Canadian bacon and sauerkraut, Maria's salad and spaghetti, Beef'A'Roo, and RLDS taco's (now the Community of Christ). The RLDS tacos are only during the fair, so I was lucky enough to try them for the first time.
Now I've got to mention that most of the food I like, but there are some of the iffy one's such as *coughsauerkrautpizzacough*They also have their list of famous/favorite homemade foods such as: sweet potato casserole, that salad, stupid salad, smirgrit (I have no idea how to even come close to spelling that word), and pickled herring. Here is Jackson trying the smirgrit and Nate trying the pickled herring. Again, I have the ones I like and the ones... not so much! :)
It was a great time and we are glad we got to go!