Grandma Jan and her Swedish exchange student, Johanna, were the first ones to arrive late Thursday night (the kids' birthday).
The kids were SO surprised and excited to see Grandma Jan first thing the next morning. We stayed home and played all morning before going to pick up Aunt Mar and Garrett (aka. Uncle 'G') from the airport.
Shay and Tyce got these adorable dress-up outfits from Grandma Jan:
We spent the rest of the afternoon at home, playing and enjoying each others' company.
Aunt Katrina and Uncle Ulrich flew in late Friday night and Aunt Kolleen, Uncle Cory and Cousin Aralia drove up and also arrived late Friday night so they all went straight to their hotel. We met up with them Saturday morning at Felida Park before the kids' party that afternoon. *Lots of more party pictures to come!
After the birthday party, we put Tyce and Shay Shay down to bed and headed out to Big Al's for some more fun while Grandma Jan stayed home with the kids. We also met our friends, Emily and Steve, but they didn't stay long enough for the picture...
On Sunday, we went to the park in the morning and then had to say 'good-bye' to Aunt Katrina and Uncle Ulrich, as they had a flight to catch back home to the Bay Area. When the kids went down for their nap, Aunt Kolleen, Cousin Ray Ray, Aunt Mar, Grandma Jan and I all took Johanna and Uncle 'G' to Pioneer Place in downtown Portland. Neither of them had been to Portland before and Johanna was interested in doing a little shopping before her and Grandma Jan had to drive back to Southern Oregon.
The kids met up with us for a short while before Uncle 'G' and Scott decided they'd had enough of the shopping and decided to do some sight-seeing and head back home. After putting the kids down to sleep, Grandma Kathy came over to watch the kids while Aunt Mar, Uncle 'G', Aunt Kollen, Scott and I all went to the Portland City Grill for a late Sunday dinner (...what would we do without Grandmas?! :). It was a great end to a fun-filled weekend!
On Monday morning, we had breakfast with Aunt Mar and Uncle 'G' before taking them to the airport to fly back to LA.
As much as we miss having everyone here with us (and we really really do miss you all!), we are SO grateful for the time we did have together! I thank God for blessing me with such a supportive, loving family that would travel so far to show Tycen and Shaylie how special they are to you. Thank you for being here to sing 'Happy Birthday' to our kiddos, it means more to us than you know...And these memories we will never forget! We love you all!!
