It's so warm and sunny outside right now and I'd much rather go outside and play but I must prioritize and get this blog done because we had such an amazing trip. This week is supposed to be nice now that the storm is passed. it's seriously is like childbirth, you forget that it rained because when the sun comes out, this place is so beautiful. We love you Seattle.

A couple of months back we sat down and laid out our plans for 2010 and the first one was to Philly. We booked our tickets but the weather back East was so bad our flights got canceled. The next big event was having Dan go to Vegas for a get together with his brothers for a surprised priesthood session with their dad. His older brother Troy had this idea and we were up to it right away. We looked at plane tickets and one of our plans involves going down to Utah to meet our renters to make sure they're not destroying our house. We juggled with different ideas and finally decided to make it a family trip, not flying, but driving. So with our car so packed we headed to the Cascades and out to Walla Walla.

We drove to Walla Walla Washington and spent a night with our friends, the Frasers. They had plans to go down to St. George and it couldn't have worked out more perfectly. We caravanned together and the kids had a blast. We got to see many pretty places and what surprised us a lot was how dry the East side of Washington was. An hour and a half out from Seattle, pretty much past the Cascades were desserts like that of Nevada and Arizona and Utah. We felt like we were already in Vegas. Oregon and Idaho were fun states to drive through as we got to go through what felt like December with a bit of snow on the high parts of the mountains we drove through.

Debrie got over her 1 month stranger anxiety or teething sometime during the drive to Walla Walla. When we got there, Zach held her and I watched as he brought her head close to his chest and I guess that was the trick. She didn't fuss once when he held her and fell asleep in his arms. He put her down that night. When we got into to Utah, her uncle Lon did the same thing. Unfortunately we didn't take a picture but we have proofs of her aunt Thanh and aunt GayLynn holding her. She's a very cuddly baby.

When we got into Utah, we spent 2 nights with Lon and GayLynn and their family. The weather was colder than it was in Washington and we got some snow. But the kids were so happy to see us and ran to give us warm hugs and kisses. Our kids surprised us at how not shy they were on this whole trip. It started first with Zach Fraser holding Debrie and then her uncle Lon also held her right when she got there. She's very cuddly so if you hold her close, she'll love you right away. Reena had fun Easter egg hunting and playing together with all of her cousins and when we told her that we would be seeing more cousins, she said "More cousins? There's a whole bunch of them!"

We did some eating out to celebrate my birthday. My adopted grandparents, the Haslems drove 2 hours from their home in Roosevelt to celebrate my birthday with me at Chuckarama. I felt very loved. Also, this year I got to celebrate my birthday together with Lon since his birthday was 3 days after mine. It's becoming a tradition that every couple of years or so we share a birthday cake. GayLynn bought us a cake and my sister Thanh came up and stayed the night over at their house. We had a lot of fun doing crafts together and we stayed up 'til 1:00 to chat.

The next day we headed back down to Salt Lake and went out to eat with friends at La Cai Noodle House, one of my favorite places to eat. Diana and her sibling and cousin came along and she paid for all of us. Again, I felt very loved. I love my friends.
After we ate we headed to Cedar City to stay over at a hotel so that we wouldn't have to drive all the way to Vegas and drive back up the next day. We made a stop in Spanish Fork and saw some friends, neighbors and met up with our renters, There will always be a special place in our heart for Spanish Fork, but we are sure glad we've moved up to the Seattle are. We love the hills and highlands here.

The next day we met up with our friends the Frasers again in St.George for the in between conference shopping gala. We stopped at Deseret books and grabbed some gifts for Jeff's kids since we don't get to see them very often and their birthdays are coming. We didn't waste much time because we wanted to make sure that we get in town on time for the BIG event...surprising Dan's dad. We arrived in Vegas and had to take off our sweaters so to us it was summer! We went from cold wintery weather in Utah, to Spring in St. George to Summer in Vegas. No wonder it's so dry there. It was only April. We had a great time visiting with all the siblings and the cousins got reacquainted. Debrie gave them all hugs. Conference was great as always and we found out that our Stake President, Phillip K. Bussey was called to be the area general authority. He's also in our ward so we know him and his family. We're happy for him and his family.

The biggest and probably most memorable event of this trip was the surprise Dan and his brothers gave their dad by showing up and inviting him to the Priesthood session of Conference. My father in law is one of the most spiritual man I've ever met so you can imagine the emotion that was involved in this event. He froze at the door at the sight of his 4 boys in their best and his eyes were wet and he was speechless. It was wonderful to hear him expressed in person how happy he was that Dan came down. Let me just say that if you ever want a lot of hugs and kisses from your in laws, do something similar to this. We added a little extra boost to the event by timing the nice coffee table photobook of their trip to Seattle to arrive to their house that weekend. Everything went so well and it couldn't have been more perfect.

With that we started our way back up. We drove straight from Vegas to Salt Lake and joined my sister and her friends for a night of Easter celebration. She and her friends hid Easter eggs and had Reena walked around the house doing an Easter egg hunt. Reena really enjoyed that and they enjoyed watching Reena. She also joined them in playing Mario Party and didn't want to go to sleep that night. My sis and I and Diana stayed up 'til Midnight chatting. It was wonderful.
The next day we headed back home to Washington and on the way stopped by the Twin Falls Temple and saw the gorge on the way to it. We stayed the night again at our friends, the Frasers house. we drove home the next day and again was in awed when we drove through the Cascades. After the desert came tall mountains with lots of evergreen trees and flower blooming trees. We were home at last!

I kept putting this blog off until now. It was so nice and sunny the last couple of days (temptations to play was too strong). We have much to look forward to not just in terms of weather but in terms of seeing more families and friends as they come up for a vacation in the near future.

Well, that was the most amazing birthday trip ever! 27 finds me happily married to an incredibly handsome man who gave me 2 beautiful kids. 27 is old old old but thankfully everyone still think I look 22. It's a blessing to be Viet!!