COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- There is no place like home for a group of Fort Carson soldiers, who returned to the Mountain Post just in time for Christmas.
The approximately 250 soldiers are with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.
They spent the past nine months in Afghanistan supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.
"I saw her from the top and was like 'Oh there she is,' I wanted to see her so bad," Rowan Sprouse said. "I just wanted to run down the stairs and hug her."
Sprouse welcomed home her mom, Capt. Pamela Sprouse, along with her three aunts who drove from Illinois to attend the homecoming.
"We are welcoming home Capt. Sprouse, our youngest sister of four in our family," Rebecca King, Capt. Sprouse's sister, said. "We are so proud of her, and we are so happy she is home."
"I saw this one (Rowan) first, and then all my sisters holding their signs," Capt. Pamela Sprouse said.
"I am just really excited for her to be home and to spend time with her, it is hard not having your mommy," Rowan said.
The group embraced for minutes, crying the entire time.
They said this is a day they will never forget.
"We are just so prous of her, and we thank God she came home unhurt and safe," Andrea Hergenrother, Capt. Sprouse's sister, said.
"We have all been raised to be strong women, and it is being passed on to the next generation," Katie Pavelko, Capt. Sprouse's sister, said.
"I just did not want to let go, I still do not want to let go," Rowan said.