washington visit

if you're wondering why i've been mia, its because we have been on vacation for the last 2 weeks visiting family in washington and in utah. and yes my stuff is still in suitcases... my mom graduated with her masters in nursing from the university of washington tacoma branch so of course we wanted to be there for her. it had been 2 years since i had been to washington state so it was awesome to get back to the area where i was raised and see family. it went really fast, and i feel like we should have stayed a few extra days as there was some drama and towards the end and i didn't feel great leaving while my family was going thru crap. BUT, we did enjoy our time there, and got to see most of my immediate family. brynn had a blast with her only cousin on my side (my brothers daughter ava) and it was really sad to leave without having them say goodbye to one another. well, at least alaska is a little closer to washington then germany...i hope to go back again soon and hope that the price of tickets go down! it's crazy expensive to fly out of alaska...argh!
rather then write a huge long post about what we did, i'm just going to post a ton of pictures as i still have to talk about our utah trip.

the first night we arrived (the 8th), ava had a little graduation from preschool. brynn was so excited to see her (last time they were together, brynn was 11 months old) and followed her around like a little dog. it's pretty funny as ava is a whole year older, and brynn towers over her by a good 3 inches. they played so well together! it's so sad that we don't live closer.

we met up with my dad at coulon park in renton the next day so we could feed ducks, let brynn play on the playgrounds, and soak up the beautiful weather. it was crazy hot for washington while we were there, so i spent a lot of the time in the shade as i'm SICK of multiple tan lines on my arms/forearms.

posin' with my dad. don't mind the weird sun patches all over. it was crazy hot and us honkies hid out in the shade to avoid getting fried. brynn wasn't too happy with all the picture taking, so she decided showing off her tongue was pretty cool.

i finally agreed to get a shot from the SIDE of my enormous belly. don't mind my facial expression...the sun was making me a little crazy. or was it that i was incredibly dehydrated? who knows...

another shot at 21 weeks. and no, i'm not smuggling midgets. but thanks for noticing! LOL!

ava, grandma, and brynn. we are so proud of my mom! she is such a hard worker and we were all so happy to be able to see her graduate with her masters in nursing. i think we embarrassed her a little when they called her name as our section went crazy and definitely won the loudest people award.

our family took a whole day on thursday to see the san juan islands up north. we spent most of our time at friday harbor browsing shops and laughing at each other. it was so great to be back together with my hilarious siblings! we all laugh at the same things, quote lame movies, and have no problem taking gay pictures while tons of people stare us down. we all despise the stupid "sorority" pose, as pictured above, so of course we had to take a few of those.

our little family on the ferry. i was a nervous wreck with brynn running all over the place as she is sooo dang klutzy so i didn't really enjoy the multiple ferry rides we took throughout the day.

many, jon and ava.

cute brynn and ava.

(the morning before these pictures were taken, my sister dyed my hair and it did NOT turn out right. so excuse my nasty pony tail. i hate when my hair is up, but i had to do something as we had a lot of family to see so i obviously couldn't skip out)
4 generation picture.

my cute, sweet grandpa maher and brynn.

my brother anthony, uncle jeff, and brother jon. doesn't my uncle look a little like brad pitt?! i think he does a little. he is soooo dang hilarious and about made me pee my pants a few times.

my siblings from oldest, to youngest. could you tell we were watching a little too much america's next top model? RIGHT.

the last night we were in washington, we got together with my dad, his wife hong, and half brother christopher for dinner. we had a few hours to kill, so i convinced steve to let me walk around southcenter in tukwila as it had been added onto since i had last been there. holy crap that mall is crazy huge! i wish i had more time to look at things before we met up with my dad for dinner.

not the most flattering picture, but its so us.

brynn started to get a little delirious, so we had to throw her around a little between pictures.

my half brother christopher, hong, dad and brynn. my daughter now refers to my dad as "grandpa duck" but that's a long story...lol.