New Year

After Christmas, my parents came for a visit! They stayed with us for a couple of days, then went to visit my Grandma in Whidbey Island.  

Danielle and her family made a last minute trip to Yakima for a funeral, so we all took the chance to go there and see them for a day. We didn't really get any pictures of the kids together, but we all went to Kids Castle and the boys had a blast playing in the play structures, ball pits, trampolines, and bouncy slide. We also swam at the hotel pool and went to a buffet for dinner.

T, E. They weren't sure about the ball pit at first.

My dad was in the Savior of the World play and grew a beard for his part. He kept it long enough to get a few Santa pics in with the kids.

We got to stay with the Grimmers while we were there too. We thought it was cute that Collin sat quietly listening to his grandpa read some story about Squanto.

My parents left on the 4th, and the plan was to move a week later on the 11th. Because of delays with school, licensing, and finding housing, we made a last minute decision to change our moving date to a week later. This ended up being perfect, because the whole week after my parents left, Rob and I took turns being too sick to do anything but lie down. We were glad to have an extra week to recover, pack, and do a few final favorite Portland activities! 

Getting ready to move meant lots of empty cupboards and things to get into! (Collin and Elliott)

One last trip to the Zoo. . . and it was the best Zoo day ever! The leopard was pacing right in front of the glass, the hippo was out of the water walking around, the polar bear was doing its trademark "dance",  and best of all: the lion cubs were out and playing! 

Elliott saw the lions and made the "roar" sound!

When I asked Collin what animals he wanted to see at the zoo, he said "a zebra, giraffe, hippo, and lion." I hope he wasn't too disappointed that it wasn't just like a Madagascar movie. . . 

He loves the lions and says "There's Simba! There's Simba's daddy!"

The Sea Lion is always a favorite too! The boys were all mesmerized.

We also had to hit up Salt and Straw one last time! SO good!!!

Our awesome friends had a going away party for us and the Ofisas who moved the same week as us. We miss our Portland friends! I think we will always treasure our time being a student family because of all the wonderful friends we had, many of which were neighbors too. Our 3 children were born there, many of our friends' children were born there, and it was so good to have so many friends in the same stage of life as us. We forgot to get a group photo, but we had a lot of fun with everyone at the party!

Pinata time

We'll miss Portland so much! We are completely different people than when we moved there. Portland is where we became parents, where we became runners, where Rob became a doctor. Where we experienced hard, hard trials, where we witnessed miracles, where our faith grew. We'll always cherish the memories.