Memorial Day Weekend

This past weekend we went down to Vancouver, WA for Memorial Day. We stayed with my brother, Mike, his wife, Audra, and their children, Isaak and Maggie. We had a great time!

One of the highlights of the trip was going on a ride-a-along with my brother, who is a police officer. That experience will require a post of it's own!

On Saturday, we took the kiddos to "Kid's Club" which has an awesome indoor playground. It's kind of like the play structure at McDonald's, but 10 times bigger. Gwen loved it, especially the ball pit!

Isaak spent most of his time playing video games. Notice the sweat!

Saturday night, Audra arranged a babysitter and went to dinner and saw Indiana Jones. It was fun to have some adult time! We were nervous to leave Gwen with an unfamilar sitter, but she did great!

Maggie got up early on Sunday morning and made pancakes all by herself for us! It was so cute and sweet. Gwen loved them!

After church on Sunday, Mike planned an amazing dinner for us. I got to be his humble assistant in the kitchen and suffered minimal abuse. We made homemade pizza, grilled artichokes, and even made homemade mayonnaise for dipping. The artichokes were so amazing. I'm actually going to recreate them tonight. Anybody who has ever had the opportunity to experience my brother's cooking knows that it is absolutely out of this world. I'm salivating just thinking about it!

For dessert, Mike bought a special chocolate cake for dessert. It was significant because Gwen loves to say, "Uncle Michael loves cake!"

Gwen and Mike had a few serious talks...

Sunday night, we put the kids to bed as early as possible and played games with just the adults. Of course, we played Settlers of Cataan, and eventually we broke out the Wii and the Xbox. Also, we have recently started a new tradition of trying out some gormet cheeses and pairing them with fresh fruit. Stilton seems to be a constant at our cheese tastings, and we usually buy a new one. It's so fun! Sunday night, we had three cheeses along with a variety of crackers and pears. Yummy.

Monday was Memorial Day. We went to lunch at a Dim Sum restaurant in Portland. I tried Dim Sum once before, and didn't really like it. I was looking forward to trying it again with someone that knew what they were ordering. As it turns out, I just don't love Dim Sum. My cute little niece was stomaching it better than I did! But, my appetite wasn't spoiled and we stopped by a gelato place on our way out of the city that was very tasty!

Gwen loved the gelato too!

After lunch, we went to a National Cemetary. Mike and Audra have a tradition of taking the kids every Memorial Day to place flowers on the graves of the soilders. They write down names of some of the soilders and do research later to learn a little bit about their lives. It was a really neat experience and we were really grateful we were able to share it with them.

It may look like Gwen is reflecting on the many sacrifices the soilders have made for us but....

she's actually talking to a little bug.Thanks for a great weekend!