sister's weekend 2013 and vacation

as usual, my blog gets quiet when my life gets busy. or when i get lazy. but in this case, i've been busy. on the thursday before memorial day, jonathan and i flew down to utah for my annual sister's weekend.

we had a full flight, so jonathan sat in my lap, but he did remarkably well. a huge relief for me (and all of the people around me, i'm sure).

my mom picked us up at the airport and jonathan got to ride forward facing in his carseat for the first time. he was giddy. it was pretty funny to watch him smile, kick his feet and giggle the whole ride home.

we picked up beth at the frontrunner station and then grabbed some cafe rio before heading home. audrey arrived before we had even finished lunch. and thus began a much anticipated weekend of sitting around, playing lots of cards, talking, and just generally soaking up time with my mom and sisters.

while i was at sister's weekend, randy was busy with his leg of our family vacation. his mom was kind enough to fly out to seattle and drive with him and the girls to boise. randy stayed in boise for a couple days and then he drove down with the girls and met up with us on sunday evening.

audrey was kind enough to give my girls haircuts on sunday night. they are terrified of haircuts and won't let anyone but audrey cut their hair. we're going to have to work on that.

on monday, we had my whole family together. we haven't all been together since we moved last year and it was wonderful to all be at my parents and hang out. the kids played and the parents talked and my dad cooked for all of us. the day flew by too fast and before i knew it, everyone was heading home.

randy flew home on tuesday morning to go home and teach, but i stayed in utah until friday morning. i saw some old friends, the kids got some extra time with cousins, and mostly, i just enjoyed spending time with my parents. i wish i could have had even more time with them. it's what i miss most about living in utah.

jonathan took a while to warm up to my parents, but by the end of the week, he was going to them all on his own.

 

i found diane like this one night.

on friday morning, we loaded up the car and i drove the kids up to boise.

the kids did really well (it helped that jonathan wasn't feeling great and slept a lot) and we made awesome time until twenty minutes outside of boise when we came to a dead stop because of some wildfires on the side of the highway. it took us an hour to go two miles, which was completely frustrating. jonathan did not do as well at this point in the trip and we were all relieved to finally arrive in boise at randy's parent's house.

as always, my kids went straight for the backyard. i don't blame them. i love hanging out in my in-law's backyard. it was beautiful weather and we got to spend time with family for a couple more days before heading home to seattle. randy's mom was once again oh so kind and drove from boise to seattle with me. i don't know how i would have done it without her. i drove and she did all of the hard work keeping the kids fed/entertained. 

 

jeanie didn't have to leave for a couple days after we got home, so we enjoyed some beautiful weather with her while we recouped from our vacation. we took a walk along the slough and played on the playground at bothell landing. jeanie left on wednesday and we've spent the last few days settling back in to our boring reality and missing family.