Phi's House ~ Summer Vacation - Days 1 and 2

Saturday, June 21st marked the beginning of our first family vacation. After staying up into the wee hours of the night packing, we managed to drag ourselves out of bed Saturday morning early enough to feed the kids breakfast and finish collecting the last minute items for our trip. So, instead of being on the road by 9... we were finally on our way at 11:30.

The first adventure was the hour+ border line up. We even dashed through the Duty Free store to save a bit of time, but it was already almost 1pm by the time we actually made it into the US. Then upon seeing the gas prices in Blaine, we opted to only buy enough gas to make it a bit further south where we'd fill up a bit more economically. We grabbed some lunch at Jack in the Box around 1:30, and then continued on to Burlington to fill the gas tank for the first part of our vacation.

We made it to Phi's house in Gresham, Oregon around 6:15. Emma and PC managed to take some sort of a nap on the way down and that was a help. Sjo made a wonderful dinner of cornbread muffins, chips and a Mexican casserole that PC absolutely loved. He looked over at me after his first bite or two and said, "Mama, em NUM!". It was kind of cute to see him so delightedly surprised, and it was a nice change from making him swallow at least three bites of a meal for once. He even had seconds!

Before and after supper, the kids discovered the playhouse out in the yard. While the boys happily piled handfuls of gravel on the deck, Uncle E kept Emma busy dodging his broom. She wanted to investigate the drop off at the corner of the deck to see how the gravel was doing in case it needed company.

Sunday morning we went to meeting with Phi and his family. Dolly was too shy to say her verse even though she actually knew it well for once. She met another little girl that shared her first name, and they both thought that was great. Dolly was the center of attention since she was the newcomer, and she loved every minute of it. It was fun to see her so included by the other little girls around her age. We went back to Phi's house for lunch and had another delicious meal that even included a jello dish that the kids loved. Then there was a Strawberry pie for desert complete with ice cream! I think by that time, our kids wanted to stay at Phi's house forever. After lunch Phi showed Emma how the dishwasher worked and then it was nap time where everyone got to get a very relaxing nap.

After Gospel, I got a picture of Dolly and H-Rose and then I tried to take a picture of Em and Emma (another little girl that shared the first name of a daughter of mine), but Emma was tired and fussy and wanted Mommy to hold her... not take a picture of her.

H-Rose (almost 5) and Dolly(almost 3½)

Emma (9mo exactly) and Em (just turned 2)

Then I got a picture of three 3 year-olds, one of which was born the very same day that Dolly was. She's the one next to Dolly and is Em's big sister.

Dolly and Damaris ~ they share a birthday, and both have a sister named 'Em'.

Then we went back to Phi's house and had a light supper before heading to bed so we could continue our vacation in the morning!