Highlights from our trip to Washington

Well, if I told you everything about our trip to Washington, you would get bored really fast. We had a great time, but we did a lot of relaxing and just spending time with our families. So, I'll give you some highlights in pictures with some explanations about them.

The Cousins Meet for the First time
Lydia and Janie were born on the same day; granted they were born on different continents and it seemed like different days, on the calendar they have the same birthday. Due to Jeremy and Makell living in Japan, and our lack of time to be able to visit them, and schedules not matching up, the girls didn't meet until this trip. It was fun to see them interact and see their little personalities showing up.

The Children's Museum
We were able to go to the Children's Museum with Jeremy and Makell and their kids and some of Makell's family. Lydia loved the slide!! As soon as she reached the bottom she would run to the stairs to slide down again!! She especially liked going backwards! We also got a picture of all the grandkids together in the music room. Great shot, huh! (please detect the sarcasm here) I think that it was poor planning on our part because it is the only one of all of them together!

Taking Pictures
Jeff will tell you that part of the fun he had up in Washington was taking pictures with his brothers. They went and took pictures at Northwest Trek, and up in the Skagit River Valley, and then along Chambers Bay near our parent's homes. This one he got at Northwest Trek, and I thought it was pretty cool.


Christmas
Christmas was wonderful, as I wrote about in our previous post, so I'll let you read about Christmas there!

Meeting my brother's fiancée
So for those of you who don't know, my brother, Jeff, is getting married in February. He is marrying Kimia Poshtyar on February 22nd. During the break Jeff and Kimia came up and we (Jeff, Lydia and I) were able to meet her for the first time. I was able to go with my mom, Natalie, and Kimia to the wedding dress shop where Kimia bought her dress and was having the alterations done (when she met my family at Thanksgiving they happened to find her dress on clearance at a bridal store and bought it!). It was so much fun to get to know her and see my brother act all lovey dovey. I have never seen him like this!!! Jeff was able to take their engagement pictures, and there are a couple of my favorite!

Having the whole family together
So for a few days my family was all together (well, expcept for Ryan, but he is on his mission and we are glad he is serving the Lord!). It was so fun to spend time together and just enjoy one another's company. We played games, watched a movie, went out to eat, and just had fun! I love my family! They are the best. Unfortunately, I forgot to get the pictures from off of my mom's camera, so I don't have the picture of the family at the moment. I'll get them soon hopefully! :)

We were also able to have all of Jeff's family together for the first time in a while. It was really fun to be able to see all the grandkids interact and have everyone together.

Girl's Night
My mom and sister and I were able to one night have a mini "Girl's Night." The "boys" were all off doing something else, and the three of us were able to watch a movie together. It was fun to be able to just hang out and hear Natalie talk about how she loves the movie Hairspray, which happened to be the movie that we watched.

Aside from that, I love being able to stay up and talk with my Mom and sister. That is part of the fun of going home. We can talk about all different sorts of things and it can last forever! I love it!

Lydia
It was so fun to be able to just kick back and relax and watch Lydia interact with our family members whom she doesn't see very often. By the end of the trip she was warming up a lot more to our parents and even our siblings! She loved sitting on Uncle Andrew's or Aunt Natalie's lap to play pinball (or for that matter, anyone who would play with her!). She would go up and give kisses to our parents, and even let them hold her some (as long as mom wasn't visible--if she saw me, she generally would try to get away!). She started to talk more and just generally had fun!!

We hope that you enjoyed some of our highlights. That was a little longer than I anticipated, but you get the idea!! We had a great time and can't wait to see both of our families again!