Weekend In Review

Last weekend was a blast. We all got bad head colds though by Monday. We've all had fevers and sore throats. And when I say all of us, I mean all of us. My parents, us, cousins, Grandma Houlie. We are waiting to find out if Grammie Bea will get sick or anyone else. Baby Luke is in the hospital and we are praying so hard for him. I'm glad the doctors are taking it seriously and seem to be taking a lot of diagnostic measures to figure out what exactly is wrong with the little guy. We feel so badly for their family. Luke is the baby of my cousins Jeff & Ali and the brother of Emi, who my girls adore and played with all weekend. We are waiting for updates on Luke and just pray he'll be perfect. He is the cutest and sweetest baby you've ever seen.

Everyone got into town on Friday and we all went out for sushi/Japanese food on Friday night at Mikuni's. Bens Crab Shack Roll...mmmmm, it's my favorite sushi I have ever had and I am a fan of the sushi. My girl's favorite type of food is Japanese. They love miso soup with extra tofu and edamame. They always get shrimp tempura and share a sunomono salad with me. I love that my kids like more than nuggets and pizza. Don't get me wrong, they love chicken nuggets and love to go out for pizza. But they also like seafood, vegetables, brie cheese, all Asian food as well as Mexican and Italian. Jessica doesn't like spicy foods but Katie does. The next day we got up and I made heart shaped waffles with strawberries and fresh cream. Jeff, Jut, Mike and I took the three girls and Luke to the park to feed the ducks. The girls made up a version of duck duck goose but played it with real ducks and geese. Katie would go up to sleeping or unaware ducks and tag them on the head saying "DUCK" then they'd try and sneak up on the geese to yell "GOOSE". But the geese at EG park are really big and aggressive so I don't think they actually got too close to any. But they fed them all the bread and we had a nice picnic lunch of sandwiches, fruit and vitamin water in the park. Then, we all came home and got gussied up for Grammie Bea's 90th birthday party at Cafe Vinotecca. Most of our family was there. All four of my Grandma's daughters, all of her grandchildren and all of her great grandchildren except for Jut's kids. They live so far away and tickets were really expensive to Sacramento so Jut's wife Tara and their kids couldn't come out. We missed them tons and wished they were with us but totally understand the cost was prohibitive. I am sad when I think that we'll be moving away in a year and will miss family gatherings. I have gotten used to attending all of them. Anyway, my cousin John and his family came from Idaho, all of our family from Portland came. Aunt Jayni came from Tacoma (we missed Uncle Tom too) and Jeff and Ali brought their family down from Southern Oregon. Everyone else is local. Grammie's one remaining sibling, my Auntie Sue came as well as Grammie's sister in law, Auntie Madeline. It was a really nice party and Cafe Vinotecca did an amazing job with both service and food. It was great to see my cousins. As we were taking the "grandchildren" picture, Bo gave me a wedgie just as the camera went off. It made me nostalgic for the old days when I could count on wedgies and rabbit ears or Bo's finger in my nose just as any camera took our picture. It was fun to see everyone but we are all so old!

The next morning dawned earlier than I would have liked and I rushed around to get everything ready for a brunch in honor of my Mom's birthday. All of our out of town family came to my house along with my Mom and Grammie Bea and Grandma Houlie. It was fun. We did the resurrection eggs with the little girls and gave a lesson about Easter. It was really touching and I was shocked at how good all three girls did paying attention and following the lesson. It was fun to hunt for eggs. Katie is just like me when I was little. I couldn't find eggs to save my life. Every adult would be yelling for me to "look up" "right there!" "it's pink Amy, LOOK FOR PINK!" And just as I would finally go to grab it, Bo would zoom in and grab it from it's hiding place. Katie was awful at egg finding. She found three eggs and Jessica found six. I never really cared and Katie seemed to handle it just fine. Brunch was yummy and the best part is I bought most everything already premade from Nugget or Honeybaked ham or Williams Sonoma. It sure makes entertaining easier! It was so fun to sit around and laugh with my family. I love the people in my family. We all have really good senses of humor and we love to laugh. My cousin Jeff is the funniest person on the planet and he tells the best stories. At one point in time I looked over at Mike and he was laughing so hard he couldn't breathe and he got a cramp in his side and was all "Owwwww...haaaaa haaaaaa owwwww." I think those are the best moments when you laugh so hard it hurts.

Too soon it was time to say goodbye to everyone. I hate that it was so short. But by Monday, we had fevers and stuffy noses so I didn't care as much. I am happy how it all turned out except for little Luke being so sick. Pray for him okay? Even if you don't know any of these people...pray for Luke anyway! Thanks.