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!