After being deployed for a year Army First Lt.Edgar Nicolau, surprised his two kids Jamie Gabrielle and Dylan by showing up at Menchies Frozen Yogurt in the Admiral District on Sunday April 14 for an emotional reunion.

The surprise was set up by his wife Jenet Januto who was not certain about his exact return date from the year long deployment in Kuwait. Nicolau has served as reservist for the last 12 years.

Jamie works at Menchies so the surprise was planned to happen when she was distracted. "It was toward the end of her shift and I called her manager prior," said Januto, "He thought it was great."

Januto gathered her whole family, to come to Menchies and meet in the party room there. The plan was for the Lieutenant to come in the back door and just walk up while she was not looking. "She went to the cash register and that's when I signaled my husband, 'come in!'," Januto explained.

When he came in, Januto advised him to, "ask for a sample," as a way to catch her off guard so he went up to her and said, "Miss may I have a sample and she just stared at him and couldn't even speak. He had to say it again and then it dawned on her and it was oh my god!" Father and daughter embraced in a big hug. "In the meantime my son was with my brother and couldn't see what was going on so my brother said to him, 'Go get me a spoon.' "

Dylan went to get the spoon and saw a man in a uniform hugging someone, not recognizing it was his sister and father at first. So he walked up and tapped him and, "my husband turned around and of course Dylan was surprised. It was pretty cool."

Dylan said, "I just wanted to tap him and see who it was and he turned around and it was daddy!"

The whole family shared a big hug following the surprise.

The kids knew their dad was coming home but thought was going to be at the end of April.

For her part Januto said, "I'm so relieved, just to have him back safe and sound and here with the family."

As of now, there are no plans for any further deployments but, "he's here until he gets called again," Januto explained. It's been six years since his last deployment and Nicolau now reports to Joint Base Lewis/McChord.