Before and after

Right when I thought I had all of March taken care of blog-wise, I realized that my post about Kyle and Alivia’s wedding did not include the before and after activities we enjoyed. March! One more time…

The morning we left for Seattle, Jeff was chased, attacked, and taken down by three evil dogs out in the country west of Grandview. They BIT his leg and drew blood through his running pants! Poor Jeff! Naturally he called animal control and reported the beasts. He also visited the doctor to make sure he wasn’t going to contract rabies or anything. They bandaged him up The animal control folks wanted to take an official statement so we stopped at the Yakima County Sheriff’s office on our way to Seattle. Jeff filed his report and we kept driving.

 

Apples in the car

Happy little traveler.

Since my parents’ house was swamped with Kyle’s buddies (mission companions/groomsmen) and Mel and Uncle Stan too, they got a few hotel rooms for the extra family members to stay in. Jeff and I spent two virtually sleepless nights in the hotel room with our kids. Between Amber waking up and Rose’s LOUD snoring, we were very glad to check out of the hotel and go to my parents’ house after the wedding festivities were over.

 

Hanging out in the hotel room.

Pre-wedding blurry selfie!

After the wedding and reception, the residual family members convened at the Brown house for a fresh salmon feast with five kinds of cake for dessert. My mom doesn’t mess around. Kyle happened to get married on my brother Brad’s and brother-in-law Jesse’s birthdays. So naturally that equals five incredible homemade cakes. Go Mom! I did not inherit your baking genius!

Jesse and Brad, birthday boys. Pictured here: carrot cake, strawberry shortcake, lemon poundcake, and German chocolate cake. Not pictured: chocolate cheesecake and peanut butter pie. And a giant pan of mint brownies. Seriously, there were dozens of people in and out of Mom’s kitchen over the weekend, and everyone left feeling FULL. And there were still mountains of leftovers!

Am I over-using exclamation marks? I don’t want to dilute their efficacy, but how can anyone mention all that cake without some excitement?

Sunday morning, more folks left. But not before I got a few grainy baby girl cousin pictures!

  

Being six weeks older, AmyJane got to work teasing Amber.

 

Jay and Rose built a…boat I think it was, and Amber got to know Grampa Charley.

We had a pleasant time attending my parents’ ward. I enjoyed watching my Aunt Stefani and Uncle Bruce love on Amber for two whole hours. During church, Aunt Stefani took covert pictures of Bruce holding Amber and texted them to her daughter Brooke. At the end of church, Aunt Stefani said “I want a grandbaby!” Well done, Amber. Sorry, Brooke! Ha ha.

We had a family dinner (yes, Mom just kept cooking delicious food) on Sunday night and then said goodbye to the last people to leave: Aunt Stefani and Uncle Bruce and Uncle Stan. I got no pictures of them because I was enjoying their company too much to think about pictures. Monday morning, my Dad and I went on a run together for the first time in well over a year. We have enjoyed running together since I was eleven years old, so it was nice to get out and run with my Dad again after such a long break. He graciously slowed down and modified his run so I could keep up.

 

Us Whites decided to go on a Seattle adventure on Monday afternoon. We planned on hitting up the Lego store (sneaky birthday shopping for Jay) and then go on a walk in Seattle. While we were at the mall, we indulged in some Jamba Juice. The first time Jay ever went to the Lego Store two years ago, we happened to get Jamba Juice right after, so now if we go to the Lego Store he automatically wants some Jamba too. Why not? We got two large smoothies and shared them.

Amber wanted some too. All in good time, baby.

 

The kids played on the escalator for a bit (Jeff had to bodily remove them from the vicinity when it was time to go) and then we left the mall for Spring Break Adventure, part 2.

We planned on going to one of Seattle’s lush parks, but for no reason that I can recall, we randomly decided to go walk around by the Space Needle instead. It ended up kind of being an exercise in futility. We took about half an hour to find parking and then only had 45 minutes to walk around before we had to skedaddle to avoid the early onset of the infamous Seattle traffic. So our spring break family “adventure” was kind of small and pathetic. And those big smoothies made the kids have to use the bathroom every hour. We didn’t go up in the Space Needle because who wants to pay $150 for an elevator ride? (secretly, I do, but ain’t no teacher got money for that!)

 

 

Instead the kids chased some giant seagulls on the grass by the Space Needle, and we got conned into buying a balloon from a man in a wheelchair. Rose fell and started crying and he gave her a balloon as if to kindly make her feel better. After he gave her the balloon, he said “how about a dollar for me?” RUDE! We would’ve donated to his cause without being asked, but it really rubbed us the wrong way when he forced us into that spot. We aren’t the kind of parents that buy things for our kids when they are crying! I was irked. The whole afternoon was tiring. We were all sleep deprived from our hotel incident so we drove back to my parents’ house, shared some take out Thai food with my Mom, and watched Mockingjay part 1.

I think this sign asking for a Chewbacca Voice Impersonator was out in preparation for April Fool’s Day, but you never know in downtown Seattle.

We hung out with Grama Meri Tuesday morning and then drove home Tuesday afternoon, laden with a BOX of snacks and treats from her. My mom knows how to feed people. I need to take lessons. I’m hungry all the time in my house but none of the time in my Mom’s house. Jeff on the other hand hasn’t been hungry at all since we left my Mom’s kitchen, ha ha ha.

We came home to do housework and yard work for the rest of spring break.