Lets Catch Up

We're in Seattle this week/s. Its kind of an annual thing for us now. We always manage to find cheap tix for us to fly to Seattle over Memorial weekend, for the celebrating of birthdays, mothers day, and our anniversary.

We celebrated Mark's birthday back on the 11th. Andrew and Liew came up the weekend before to celebrate with us and to make their monthly temple trip. They surprised Mark by decorating our dinning room and picking up a chocolate and peanut butter birthday cake while we were at the adult session of stake conference at church.
Speaking of stake conference, Elder Scott, an apostle of our church, came to speak. Its rare for a church leader that high up to come visit, especially since our stake is just another stake, but I'm glad he did, cause he gave some really good inspirational talks about being better parents/spouses/people in general.

We celebrated our 4 year anniversary in Seattle. We've come back every year and always spent part of the day doing work in the temple. This time we spent a lot more time then usual and I thought I'd be so tired the rest of the day, but actually it was the best way to spend our anniversary. It just put us in the right frame of mind to remember the covenants we made when we got married, and the rest of the plans that day just seemed to play out perfectly. We didn't do anything extraordinary but it still felt like the perfect day. We went to grab a bite to eat along Lake Washington on a beautiful, sunny and warm Seattle day. Stopped by Frys Electronics store for Mark to get his fix. Went to Ivar's waterfront restaurant in Mukilteo for delicious king crab and seafood dinners and see the sunset. Then stopped by Cold Stone to buy an anniversary raspberry cheesecake ice cream cake. YUMMMMM!!! That's a new tradition I think we'll keep. Then went back in time to put Evan to bed, and played Nintendo Wii! Simple, but a wonderful day.

Segway... we got a Wii!! Finally. Who would have thought that the game section at Hollywood video would be selling it? I'm not a video game player, cause I guess I have bad hand eye coordination. But I can actually kick Mark's trash at tennis! Its the only thing I've got going for me, but I'm hooked. I've been sore ever since we got it. ;)

This past weekend was so busy. I feel bad that we didn't get to visit with some people we wanted to see while we're in Seattle. My brother is in town from UT, and Mark's brother and wife are in town from HI. So, we can't cut out time with family on a weekend they're all in town. I don't remember the last time my whole family has been home having dinner and playing games together. It was nice. Mark's aunt was in town too from Taiwan, visiting with Mark's cousin, so we had a family dinner on that side too. And to top it off, we got both our families and friends together for a big BBQ at Mukilteo beach on Memorial day. Another beautiful sunny day in Seattle too. I like this tradition my parents started, I think we'll keep that too.

Mark flew back to DC on Tuesday, while Evan and I are out here in Seattle for a few more days. Mark's luggage never got on his flight, and his medications for his eye/eczema problems were in there. The airlines gave him $25 to buy toiletries and anything he needed. He finally got his bags the next evening at a different airport. Oh, and the adaptor for the Wii was that suitcase too. Poor Mark had no Wii to play.

Evan has seemed to grow so much on this trip. I know I say he's grown leaps and bounds all the time, but now he says SO much. Don't ask me how many words, I lost count along time ago. He's saying little sentences and gives us directions and asks us questions too! Like where we're going. Where someone went. Asking for help to find things or do something. He went as far as to grab me around the waist while I was playing the piano to help him find his tennis ball in the pile of pillows he made in the living room. He'll play 'where's it?' with my mom, hiding something behind his back and asking her where it is, then showing it to her and saying "there it is!" We were sitting at the dinner table waiting for my sister to come and he calls to her in Cantonese to come eat.
Evan has started to call me Bev too. Except it sounds more like "Bec". He probably learned it from Mark. He'll yell out "Bec" from far away, at home or playground or store. I think he thinks it means "come here", because he sometimes says it to other people too. I've been correcting him to say "mommy" or "ma ma" to get my attention. He's getting better, but sometimes he slips and says "Bec, mommy!"

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