The Great Northwest

We recently returned from a great vacation to the greater Spokane area. I have lots of great pictures and great stories. The length of this post shall be great. I think you're great for reading it.
The main reason for our trip was to celebrate Dad's birthday. Not that I try to be present for every birth celebration of my parent's.... so I guess that was just the excuse for us to squeeze in one last trip before I'm too pregnant to fly in a few more weeks. Dad's party was fun - we played Apples and I won. That's why it was fun. :) Dad got to choose his party menu, which included burgers and strawberry angel food cake (no surprise there!) I gave him a photo skin for his laptop with a collage of his grandkids. I'll have to make him a new one in a few more months, obviously. The bottom middle photo is Dad playing hot-and-cold for a gift. I love that my family makes everyone play hot-and-cold to find gifts.

Brianna's favorite activity during the trip: SWIMMING. She talked about it almost as often as she talked about Nonny and Papa in general. The weeks previous to the trip were filled with, "I go see Nonny! I go swim with Nonny! Papa swim? Mommy swim? Daddy swim? I go airplane, go see Nonny, Nonny go swim!" The bottom left photos are my sisters Meredith and Samantha. Sammy gets to swim several times a week for physical therapy. It's SO great to see her doing something active. I always cringe to think of how much time she has to spend just sitting around, since she's a partial-quadriplegic. Brianna has an issue with pools that we can't seem to get over. About 4 out of 5 trips end quickly because she has a BM. Most of the time we can rush her out to the bathroom and get it taken care of. But there was one incident that involved a full pool closing that I don't think my dad will EVER forget... Poor Brianna. She doesn't seem to be able to overcome the laxative trigger of a swimming pool.

Brianna got read to a LOT on this trip. Possibly because Nonny has tons of cute new books, so it wasn't the same-old that I'm tired of reading over and over. One evening mom was zonked and went to bed at 7pm. But Brianna followed her, and disappeared for nearly an hour. Brian finally tracked her down and found her cozzied up with Nonny in bed with a huge stack of books. Mom deserves an award for that reading marathon.

Brianna loves her Aunt Jenny. Jenny is seriously amazing with children. She's so good at making them laugh and distracting them when they're acting up. I learn a lot from watching Jenny.Here's mom and Brianna playing in the front yard on Brianna's "bike." I love that my mom enjoys playing with her grandkids so much. Not surprisingly, she loves Brianna the most. But she goes out of her way to have quality time with all of them.

I think there's rule in blogland that you're not supposed to post hideously unflattering pictures of yourself. I'm obviously doing it anyway, because it's the only one I have with Linds. My buttocks wouldn't look so jumungous if it wasn't next her to ittybitty one.

We had a really fun time together. Lindsay is the only one that enjoys going on evening walks with me down our parent's super long driveway. It was really fun going to Zumba with her and Meredith. And we went running together one morning so I could show her the tigers from my secret peek-hole. We often talk about how fun it would be if we lived in Seattle near her and Dave. We played Bananagrams a lot.

The flashy red car has my two favorite men in it, heading off to see some Titan-clashing man movie. Brian had a great time on their man-date. Dad might have even taken him to Wendy's again for a baconator. It's annoying when they do sneaky things like that.


Dad at the grill... a very familiar site from my childhood. And here Brianna got to see it too.

Another incentive for us

to make this ridiculously long and expensive journey to Spokane was to see my parents perform their skit at church.

They wrote, directed, produced, and starred in their 2-person play. It was awesome. They had the crowd laughing and tearing and introspecting. I'm so happy I got to see it live!!

Brian and I got to get away for a little date.

We went to the Spokane Temple while mom took care of the rugrat. So great to spend time together.

And I loved driving the Spyder - stick shifts are so fun!

Fourwheeling: I'm actually just posing as the driver. Brian always drove. I don't know why I'm too chicken to try driving. Brianna loved going on rides.
But not as much as she loved going "hiking" with Brian and I. She got SO excited when we would tell her it was time to go hike in the woods. It was cute to hear her go running around telling everyone, "I go hike in woods! I see turkeys and rocks and sticks!" The picture with Lily in the red jogger has her holding one of the pretty turkey feathers we found.

I actually kindof hate the turkeys. They woke me up one morning at the crack of dawn with their loud gobbling. I wanted to turn them into a sandwich. The woodsy picture has the turkeys - you might have to click on it to enlarge it enough to see the buzzards.

Next photo: the two expert horticulturists, gazing over Dad's amazing deer-proof garden. Just listening to them discuss the details and tricks of their green-thumbing blows me away and fully intimidates me from ever even trying to reach their gardening expertise.

I'll just stick with growing babies.

Brian got his eyebrows waxed!

I thought it was hilarious. He's the type of guy that would totally shun anything as "nonmasculine" as facial waxing. But Dave and Mere talked him into it.

Brian's such a good sport with my family and our ideas that are so different (to him) than what he grew up with in small-bubble-town Utah.
The photo with Grandma and Mom walking into Didiers was on the day we met up with Lindsay and cousin Krissy for lunch there.

That place has real nostalgic/sentimental value for me. We went there nearly every Tuesday night for .99 yogurt for like 10 years. Now it's $1.29. Stupid inflation.

The photos of the theater room represent Brian's favorite part of our Spokane trips:

watching movies in my parent's "cinema." It's really a cool room. But I don't personally use it much because I'm scared I'll break their equipment. The grandkids (led by Kiya) did a Talent Show one afternoon. It was really cute - they went up and did jokes, hula-hooping, Dad did a key-catch trick, Jenny did crazy yoga poses, I said the alphabet backwards, and if Brianna wasn't napping we would've had her go up and sing "I Am a Child of God."

She's eating a whole orange here -

representing her official freedom from her citrus allergy! It's all my fault for starting her on acidic fruit like strawberries and pineapple wayyyy too early. I'll make sure to wait until after 12 months with the next babies.

I looked out the back window and what did I see?

Brian lounging in the sun, and Brianna skinny dipping in a plastic pool. Glad they could both enjoy the unseasonably hot weather we had there. Good thing Grandma had already left by this point - she did NOT appreciate the fact that we occasionally allow Brianna to run around less-than-totally-dressed. I don't get it - she has such a cute little bum!

Brianna showed off her raw-produce eating skills. 

Here she is chowing down on tomatoes, kiwi, and cantaloupe. Notice the Big Sister tshirt she's wearing - I used to wear it as a running shirt in Hawaii when I was a lot smaller. Now, I'm pretty sure I couldn't get it around my arm.

Swinging with Brianna on the same swingset I used when I was about her age!

'

Dave stole my camera. I didn't find out til I got home and went through my camera. I bet he thinks he's pretty funny. I think I'M pretty funny for adding pretty purple bows to his head.

Bathtime for Brianna and Lily!

They were sweet together. They're 18 months apart, just like Meredith and I. When Lily got out of the tub, Brianna was pretty eager to get out too (note bottom right photo).

We had a babyshower!

It was double-the-fun. Meredith planned some super cute twin-themed games. Our friends and family so generously showered me with adorable gifts - mostly boy&girl baby outfits. My mom is known for being the hostess with the mostess - click on a closeup of the brunch table. You'll drool. Mom/Grandma/Meredith are just amazing.

This collage is just Brianna and McKay

playing with some baby toys. They were cute together... but honestly, I made the collage more for the excuse to show off Brianna int hat sweet little dress and big purple bow. Love it.

Brianna and Lily were really cute together. Brianna practiced being "soft with the baby", and she would often try to tickle and hug Lily. Though some hugs looked more like strangulation attempts. 

There's a chance Brianna's new brother and sister will share a birthday with Lily!

After our temple excursions we met up with Dad, Mere, Mom, and Brianna at Northtown mall for lunch at the Mustard Seed. I really like that restaurant - and I'm not a restaurant fan, in general. After that Brian, Brianna and I did some errands around the mall. I ended up being on my feet for about two hours straight, in sandals, and I paid for it with swollen legs&feet at the end of the day. I've never had that happen before, and I'll be quite happy if it never happens again!

Overall, another wonderful trip to the homeland.