Daniel McDorman of Rockford is in his final week of leave, soaking in as much family time as he can.
"You've got ducks over here and the geese. Wow."
It's a family trip to the Burpee Museum in Rockford. But for this family, it's a trip that means fun memories to remember when they're separated by war.
"While were home, it was one those on our check the boxes, we're going to do that," McDorman said.
"It's really nice. Actually we've done three overseas already. This is the longest he's gone," Kelli McDorman said.
Daniel McDorman's been gone nine months.
We first told you about him in June when his troop was followed by a Chicago news crew on a mission delivering school supplies to Afghan kids.
But it didn't go as planned.
"As we were doing the drop, some of the older students started saying Americans go, Americans get out of here," McDorman said.
McDorman says those students, with apparent ties to the Taliban, burnt the pencils and books.
"It's frustrating because you're there for them, what is this?" McDorman said.
He says the war in Afghanistan's more challenging than Iraq, where he's also served, because of major illiteracy, diversity and a long unstable democracy.
But there's been progress training local police, who've intercepted car bombs.
"It puts a smile on your face, you got a bad guy, that's good," McDorman said.
Smiles overseas and at home, enjoying his latest mission on the home front.
McDorman heads back overseas on Saturday.
He plans to spend the remaining days with his immediate family and go fishing with his brother.
When he's not serving our country, he works as a part-time supervisor at UPS.