Weekend in Washington....

My mom asked me a few months ago if I could take her to Seattle to visit her brother. He lives in Lacey Washington and it has been quite a while since she has been up to see him and his wife. I obviously jumped on it!!! If I go there with her it would also give me a chance to go see the kids and visit Steve's brother Jeff and sister Val.

All ready to go.....

This was an enjoyable time spent with my mom. I never take the time that I should with her and this will be a great opportunity to grow even closer to my dear ole mom.

This part of Washington is absolutely beautiful. Trees EVERYWHERE! Everything was green and lush. Washington is sure a pretty state but I could NEVER live there. I am too hooked on the SUNSHINE! I personally think it is a bit depressing always waking up to this aweful "DRIZZLY" rain.

My uncle Terry and aunt Pat showing us their fancy outfits from Thailand (I think)

It was nice to visit with them and hear of their adventures as they have traveled around the world. They have been EVERYWHERE!!!! That would be a lot of fun to travel the world with the man I love! Maybe someday.....

Howie was working in California when I arrived in Washington with my mom, but he flew in the next day to spend the weekend with us. It was so nice to see him again. I miss him so much when we are apart. It is sure a small world..... Howie was a temple worker in the Seattle Temple before he moved to Utah and my aunt and uncle also worked there. They think he is awesome too!

We had planned to go visit the kids the night he flew in but before we did he had somewhere to take me.... We revisited the Redondo Beach Drive Boardwalk. We have some pretty amazing memories here. This is the place we lost our shoes and socks in the water. Details were on an earlier post. (one of our first dates together) It was very fun to go back and see this place and re-live that memory.
It is sure pretty there but it was FREEEEEZING!!!! We took our walk under the boardwalk like we had before and picked up seashells for my school kids. The wind was blowing right through me and I was frozen to the core!

I can't believe it has been a year since we last visited this place. MAN.... time sure flew by. I guess that good ole saying "TIME FLIES WHEN YOU ARE HAVING FUN" is true. We have had such an enjoyable life together this past year. I love Howie!

Night Out With the Kids.....

We decided to take the kids out to dinner and movie the first night. I actually do not remember what movie we went to but it was really enjoyable seeing the kids again and spending time with them. They are so funny..... Just like their dad!

After the movie the kids wanted to go to one of those portable photo stands that was down the hall in the shopping mall. The only problem is the mall was closed and roped off to keep people OUT! That did not stop us!

They really wanted to get some crazy pictures while they were all together. The problem with these miniature photo labs is that I don't think it is made for that many people.

It was hard to get all of their faces in on that little screen. But it was kind of hilarious watching them try. I've always thought that these photo places are a HUGE ripoff so I decided to take some pictures of THEM taking pictures. Mine are much, much , much cheaper!

It was pretty funny that here we were in the middle of the mall with security guards and the cleaning crew walking by us as we had our own little photo shoot. They were having a good time with their CRAZY dad!

After Steve led us out the EMERGENCY EXIT in the mall we decided we had better take some more pictures.

We don't get the opportunity to see them very often so we took many, many pictures. These picts really help us out when we are back in Utah and we start to miss them. We can look back and remember the good times spent together and look forward to many more in the future.

Hey be nice to my man!

Steve and Heatherly

Howie and his girls.....

Spencer and "GEORGE"

Come-on.....Howie. Flex those muscles.

Don't let your youngest son out do you!

"La La" and Howie

Me with the girls....

It would be nice to live closer to these kids because they are really GREAT! I will miss them when we head back to UTAH. I have really enjoyed myself visiting with them. :(

I am glad we were able to visit with them this weekend. Kylan is not in the pictures because just a few day before we left to come to Washington he moved to UTAH! It was certainly a surprise but a pleasant one at that. It will give us an opportunity to draw closer to him. He wanted a fresh start. UTAH is definitely a great place to start over. We are happy to have him so close. We love you guys so much!

Easter Egg Hunt......

The next day we had planned to have an Easter dinner at Heather's apartment. Steve and I decided to surprise them with an Easter egg hunt before dinner. We hid candy and eggs all around the park near their house. I got to the park early and began to hide the eggs. As I waited for them to arrive this crazy CROW (I think that is what kind of bird it was) kept swooping down out of the trees and would peck at the candy on the ground. Before I knew it he zoomed down and picked up a Reeses Peanut Butter Egg in his beak and flew away with it. I spent the next ten minutes or so guarding the candy from this greedy little bird. He seemed to really be attracted to the yellow wrappers. The yellow laffy taffy and fruit snacks were the ones he also tried to get but I ran frantically around the park screaming at him. Some boys drove their bikes through the park and saw me. They probably thought I was a bit possessed as I ran around all by myself acting like a fool to save my candy!

We decided at the last minute to fill the eggs with cash to surprise the kids. Heather really banked! I think she found over 20 eggs.

After the egg hunt we went to Heather's and had roasted chicken, yummy potatoes, rolls, veggies, and dessert that Heather prepared. She is going to make a great wife someday because she does such a great job entertaining and cooking for others. We also spent several hours looking through some of their old photos of when they grew up. It was fun seeing them as young children and seeing how Steve interacted with them when they were small. He seemed like he was a fun dad!

Easter Dinner with Family.......

We traveled up to Jeff's ( Steve's Brother) house to have dinner on Sunday. It was nice to see his cute family again and visit with Valerie (Steve's Sister) who also lives in Washington.

Steve and Val....

Notice those yummy rolls in the picture! They were so yuuummmmy! Val made them and they were GREAT!

Val and her youngest daughter......

Tori and Brenna.....cousins

While everyone was downstairs visiting and waiting to get started I snuck upstairs to visit with my little buddy, Amanda

She introduced me to some of her stuffed animals......

Showed me her toys........

And took crazy pictures.

She also sang for me, danced for me and played the piano for me. I have them on video but I can't figure out how to post videos yet. She is such a sweet heart and she's adorable!

How appropriate..... Bunny Ears for Easter!

The Howell family is really big on card games. Everytime they get together you can find them playing Screwball Rummey or Train ( I think that's the name)

It is a tradition for Steve to bring the double chocolate malted balls for treats. They are soooooo good! Heidi's mom has them strategically placed right in front of her for easy access! Just kidding..... she kept pushing them away because once you eat one you are HOOKED!!!

Tori makes the BEST no bake cookies and Howie absolutely loves them! He practically begged her to make them that day but it was simply not going to happen. No matter what he bribed her with she was not going to do it. NO LUCK TODAY STEVE.......SOOOO SAD !

Tori is involed with track at school and is really BUFF. Hey Jeff you better watch out she is going to be stronger than her Daddy!

Heather, Spencer and Hayley were able to come over later that day and played card games with us for a while. It was fun to see them one last time before we left to go back to Utah.


Right before we left the next morning we decided to call up Hayley and invite her to eat lunch with us. Spencer was at school and Heather was at work. Just one last chance to visit before we head back to the land of "Sunshine"
Heather is such a cheerful girl. Always a big beautiful smile on that face of hers. While we were eating she pulled out a piece of paper she had printed off the internet. It was some remarks that Heather had written about her dad, Steve. Hayley read it to us there in the restaurant and it really choked me up. She was writing about all of the wonderful things her dad has done for her and about all of his great qualities that she loves. It was funny as Hayley read about the memories they had growing up and the things their dad did with them - it is exactly the same way he is interacting NOW with our grandkids. The fun bedtime stories, the piggy back rides, the blanket swings, and the crazy song that he creates. It would have been a lot of fun raising children with this man. I guess we will just have to wait for the next life! Until then we can just enjoy our children we have now and our beautiful grandkids.
I am so glad my mom invited me to travel to Washington with her. We had a very wonderful time!