The Traveling Aunt

Last week my younger sister was here visiting. She is the last of six kids and the only one not married and/or with kids. Therefore she has assumed the role of the Traveling Aunt. In 2008 alone she will have visited me once, my sister in Pittsburgh twice, my sister in Dallas twice and gone on a family vacation with the whole lot for a week in Orlando.

As a result of such frequent visits it's no surprise that she has also become the Favorite Aunt. We had so much fun while she was here doing things as wild and crazy as picking blackberries, throwing rocks in the lake, doing yoga and just hanging out at the park. Funny how being with your sister makes even the day-to-day things seem like a vacation. Love you Liz and thanks again for making the trip out to see us.

Picking blackberries with Auntie Lizzy

Eve's face after she would repeatedly pick and eat the pink ones

Down on the Farm

The past two weeks have been a bit crazy what with my in-laws coming to visit, all of us going up to the San Juan Islands for a few days, coming home for one night and then flying to Idaho for a funeral/family reunion/birthday party and then a few days down on the Lochhead Country Club (aka my parents place).

We'll start from the beginning.

This is Eve with Scott's Mom who spoiled her granddaughter to no end. They don't get to see her often so Grandpa and Grandma Neuner took advantage during the six days they were here. The highlight of the Seattle part of their stay was the aquarium. Eve's new favorite word is ish.

After a couple of days at our place we all drove up to the San Juan Islands where we spent a few days looking at scenery like this

and this

We decided to go to Orcas Island and stayed at an awesome place thanks to a tip we got from some friends (thank you Currits!). Our time was spent going on hikes to waterfalls, building sand castles and rowing boats at the lake, simmering in the hot tub and going on a whale-watching boat ride. Thanks to Eve's cousin Ellie (3 1/2 months older than her) we also worked on our sharing skills. Which basically means, Grandma buying a similar toy so that they could both have a little plastic animal.


Scott and I left Wednesday afternoon and drove back to Seattle where I did a few fast a furious loads of laundry, re-packed and then caught a 7 o'clock flight the next morning for Boise for my uncle LaMar's (my Mom's sister's husband) funeral. He died after fighting cancer for 10 long years leaving behind him his wife of 66, nine children and 43 grandchildren. His youngest daughter is my same age and we have always been super close so I was so glad to be able to go and support her and her family.

We had the funeral on Friday and then on Saturday morning we had an early birthday celebration for my Grandmother who will be turning 90 in September. It was awesome! There was quite a group of us you see as my Grandmother has 12 living children, 91 grandchildren and something like 250 great-grandchildren. Of course not everyone was there, only about 370 of us. We had a throne for her and let all the great-grandchildren put bead necklaces on her and then we sang songs and had a slide show of old pictures. The real highlight though was a dance where the oldest son of each family took turns dancing with Grandma; from my 50 year-old cousin Doug to 13 year-old Kawika.

I hadn't seen a lot of my cousins for years but that didn't matter. There's something about family; I love them to pieces. And they are some of the best people I've ever met. I mean really good people. I called Scott and the drive down to Utah and told him that I would give up a lot in order to live by family so that our kids could be close to cousins. Which brings me to...

...Utah. If you had asked me two weeks ago if we would ever move back to Utah I would have said no way. But priorities change and though it probably won't be for another five years and nothing is certain, I would have to admit there's a good chance we'd move back to Utah in order to be close to family.

Another factor in the decision to possibly move back to Utah eventually is that we'd like to raise our kids in the country. Eve was in absolute heaven at my parents house and I was remembering how great it was to grow up with horses and chickens, tree forts, a big garden and endless projects like building rocks walls and ponds (aka Mosquito Habitats).

Here are some more pictures of Eve down on the farm as it were.

classic

Making Our Blog Private

After thinking about it for a while, I have decided to make our blog private. If you would like to still have access just leave a comment to this posting and I'll send you an invite. Thanks!

Dancing

I read an interesting article on the New York Times the other day about a guy who liked to travel and would take short clips of him doing this dance wherever he was. He put it together and posted it on his website and before long Stride came to him and paid for this similar video. Here's the link . What's place when it's name comes up makes you get the travel bug?

Strawberry Fields

Last Saturday we drove out to a little town called Carnation to pick strawberries (a recommendation from a friend who goes every year). By the time we found the place I was starving and to keep from eating all the strawberries I would pick, we decided to get a bite to eat before going to the field. The options were: Blake's Pizzeria and Pasta, some kid of pub with ample neon beer signs in the window and finally, a Mexican place called Ixtapa. We opted for the Mexican and had the best Mexican food since moving to Washington. Hallelujah! Afterwards Scott said that it was worth the drive just for lunch.

Anyway, we didn't turn around and go home but went and picked over 10 pounds of strawberries at 89 cents per pounds no less. Definitely the way to go. The name of the place is Harvold Farm for anyone who's interested. The strawberry season ends next Monday but their raspberries should be ripe and ready to pick soon.

Like our hunter-gatherer ancestors, we eat all parts of the strawberry.

Here's Eve going into Strawberry Shock

Thank goodness for bleach

Melting

After Church on Sunday.

Our coolant system.

That's Our Dainty Little Girl

My Mom recently sent us a pair of pajamas for Eve.
Since our daughter is a bit on the large size the pjs were size 18 months (Eve is 15 months old). They fit fine except for one little problem, the wrist and hand area.

(in deep manly voice)
"I'll fix that sleeve for you sweet heart."