Up to Washington…

Just to finish up the Nielson U.S. tour in June, we ended our trip in Washington state to visit Tanner’s family. We had a lot of fun seeing all the family, and the reunion up in Mossyrock was particularly awesome! This is how we found Andrew and Audrey the first night back in Vancouver.

(It’s been a year since we took Andrew’s hacie away, and yet…there it is)

We spent some time at our favorite park in the neighborhood. Playing outside at clean parks is really such a treat.

There were motorcycle rides with Grandpa around the neighborhood.

We went for a day into Portland and went to a toy store, and stopped at Voodoo Donut for some yummy donuts!!!

The kids had a blast playing on Grandma and Grandpa’s bouncy castle.

Once some family started to arrive, we went one day to the children’s museum. It was a pretty good museum. Truth be told the kids would have been happy to play in that tire pit all day long.

We also got to visit with Great Grandma Nielson one evening. She is so spunky and fun to talk to.

At the reunion, we took family pictures, which went surprisingly well considering the sheer number of kids that were involved in that project. Grandma Nielson had fun activities planned for the grandkids. There was a talent show, hosted by Tanner and myself, a great child nature hike planned by Vonae and Shane:

and a great FHE, complete with old home movies provided by Heath and Steph. The food was great, and the family time was even greater. After we returned from the reunion, we were able to get our last bit of fun in with some movies and shopping. I was probably not too much fun to be around the last day as I was trying to mentally prepare myself for a 28 hour return flight to Indonesia by myself with the kids. Tanner had a last minute trip scheduled back to D.C., so while he was busy flying first class back to the east coast, I was in survival mode. We all made it back in one piece just in time for Andrew and Audrey to get the barfies all while being jet lagged. You should try it some time, it’s good fun. Tanner returned home just in time for everyone to be over the barfies and their jet lag, and barely in time for my 30th birthday. All in all, it was a fantastic trip back to the U.S. of A, and we have all of our family to thank for that. We love you and miss you all!

Off to the Sunshine State

After our great visit with Mel, we hopped on another plane (because we hadn’t had enough of that), and flew to Florida to visit my parents before they left for their mission in Argentina. Tricia and Dan came for the last few days we were there and we had so much fun with Nana and Papa at the birdhouse. I was thinking about how my mom was right (as usual) when they bought the birdhouse that it really was going to be a place for her grandkids to come and make memories. Even though it had been a full year since we had been there, Clark AND Andrew remembered with perfect clarity details about the birdhouse when we talked about going before we left Indonesia. There was a lot of lake time,

a trip to Aquatica,

some park time (we don’t get a lot of that in Jakarta),

For the record, I am not quite sure why Andrew is in the baby swing…he looks way to big for it!

Cute pic of Clark, but also check out Andrew in the background in time out!

a kitchen sink bath for Audrey (a must-do),

some sick time for Andrew (because apparently we can’t go more than 6 weeks without him getting a sore throat), some time at the urgent care and podiatrist office for Tanner since before we left Indonesia, even before the appendectomy, a non-think guard ran over his foot with a steel gate. No joke….and then he, the guard that is, laughed…that’s no joke either. The good thing was, Andrew eventually felt better, Tanner didn’t have a broken foot, and we had a great time with family.

Papa and Clark definitely had a great time with the water guns.

My parents had already packed out for Argentina, and at the time and even looking back now, I am pretty amazed at my mom’s ability to be so fun and care free despite the huge adventure they were about to embark upon. I appreciate the fact that they and Tricia’s family had fun with us and went to work only after we had left. I am sure it was a sacrifice by everyone but us trying to tie up all the loose ends in such a short period of time, and we appreciate all the fun we had together while we were there.

The U.S. Never Smelled So Good

The flight back to the U.S. didn't seem very long, probably due to our excitement at returning to see all of our family and friends. We arrived at LAX in the evening, and I got teary when we turned to go down the escalator and I saw the huge sign that says "Welcome to the United States of America." Then, as we went through customs, the officer said after looking through our passports "welcome home, family." It was so great. What was not so great was a little family incident that took place at immigration. Just know that it involved urine. But that got cleaned up and we retrieved our baggage, and we walked outside and quickly saw Melanie in her car. It was so wonderful to see her. I have pretty much been desperate to see her for the last six months so I was so excited to finally have some good sister time with her! She was awesome and had chocolate shakes ready and waiting for us in the car. She knows me so well!

We were surprised at how chilly it felt in Cali, but it felt so good. The air in San Diego felt so clean and just smelled so good. Every time we went outside, I told the boys to "breathe it in!!!" There was a trip to Target the next day and I went pretty nuts. It was so clean, so organized...so American. There were also stops at In-N-Out...uniquely American and Californian. We went to the beach where all the boys had a blast. We went to San Diego to the Mormon Battalion site and it was so well done. We shopped and went to Tru's baseball where he had a great game! We went swimming and had a BBQ at my aunt Rachel's house which was awesome, minus Andrew thinking he could swim without floaties! (Thanks Mel for saving him!) It was the best start to our vacation back to the U.S.! Thanks Mel and Spencer for hosting us. It was so wonderful. Tanner summed it up when he said "the U.S. really is a prime piece of real estate."

Indeed.

After we left Melanie's, we drove up to Orange County to visit my dad's parents. They are both in an Alzheimers facility and we were so happy we got to see them. Our kids were cute with them, although Audrey seems to be a little freaked out by older people in general. It warmed my heart when after we had said our goodbyes and they were waving to us from the room as we were walking away down the hall, my grandpa yelled to us "Stay strong in the gospel!" So much of what is good in me and my life has been passed down through them and I am so grateful.

Afterward, we drove to see our friends from law school, the Paulsons, in Torrance. They life about 15 mins from LAX so it is super convenient but we love to stay with them whenever we have the chance. We always have fun and we always play games. We see them about once a year and it is amazing to see each others kids growing up so fast.