May Flower part I

Good morning from the freshest place on earth!  I'm back from my adventure to the southern west side of the States.  Although beautiful in their own ways, there is no place like home to where I can see many different shades of green and breathe in the air that exudes from the fresh tree given oxygen.  This is the view of my community.  Our house is to the left of this picture but this is one section of our community.  Gorgeous isn't it?

Not to mention that veggies grow quite well here.  This boy loves the sun and water

And there is so much to see and do, all day, morning to night without fear of the harsh sun.  One of the things I love about being this far north is the gentleness of the sun on your skin.  Less sun damage, freckles, and early wrinkles.

Unless you are running a race and it's a hot day

Several of the ladies in my neighborhood started joining this race (Snoqualmie Run) last year.  I ran the Half Marathon last year but this year because I found out in March that I am expecting baby #4, I decided to take it easy and ran the 8k instead.  Several other ladies also ran the 8k in our ward.  We got together and went out to eat a nice big carb-ful meal the night before and ran the race together the next day

Debrie's friend from school had a Frozen party.  Brie still thinks hers was the best because her mommy made her a unique Elsa dress.  Yay!  Score!

We decided the kids need a new toy in the backyard so I put Dan to work after he gets off of work. 

After a few email correspondence between the kids in the family, we decided to vacay together in Lake Powell, UT.  This might possibly be the last get together/reunion before my brother Mike goes off on his mission. We rented a houseboat and split the cost.  It was nice to be away from internet/social distractions and to be off of our routine and soaked in this therapeutic atmosphere and warmth of Utah.  Actually it was colder than Seattle some of the days

Then we set off for Utah for the Nguyen's reunion.  He loves books, even in his sleep.

 

Sunglasses; check.  Scarves; check.  Shoes; check.  Kids; check.  Off we go~

I love my small little family.  In fact it's so small that we adopted the Haslems as our grandparents.  They are such amazing, caring people.  They call each of us very often, always remember special days, send us letters, and do all those things grandparents do for their family so they are practically our grandparents.  We always meet at CHUCK-A-RAMA whenever we're in Utah.  They drive 3 hours from Roosevelt, UT to meet up with us every time we are in Utah. That's pure love and dedication right there! We love taking them out to eat at Chuck.

We took our time coming down to Salt Lake.  We stayed at a hotel in Baker City, OR on the way down.  It took us another 5 hours driving to Lake Powell

 We arrived at our boathouse.  It was a bit tight.  We had the whole downstairs to ourselves though so that was nice.  One of the benefits of having a bigger family and many of my siblings not having kids yet.  Everyone else sort of piled in the living room portion of the houseboat on the couches, with the exception of Thao, Alex and their baby Zachary and my parents.  Dan was made captain of the boathouse.  He loves his role as the BIG BRO

 We also rented a motor boat for all the water fun

 Ronin got many many kisses from everyone

 It was this day that my family found out we were expecting baby #4.  A day before this my mom saw me wearing a tight shirt and commented that I looked a little fatter.  Remember Vietnamese are very straight forward people.  They do not intend to be mean when they blurb out statements like "wow you're looking a little fat" or "that shirt looks a little too busy on your or you are wearing too much make up".  I'm not saying these things to cover up for the Vietnamese.  I'm saying this is very neutral.  It isn't uncommon to hear "you're fat".  They don't care about body image as much as Americans do.  People always ask for opinions even from strangers and expect to hear the honest truth.  It isn't uncommon to hear someone in the store asking a total stranger "does this shirt make me look fat?" The stranger's reply might be "yes it does make you look fat or it's too busy.  The patterns are too much or it doesn't look like your type of shirt" and both parties walk away happy.  The person asking will be glad he/she got a good honest answer and the person who gave the honest answer feels happy that he/she is such a big help. 

I tell you all that just to give you the background of how my family found out.  I wanted to wait a little longer to tell my family but it's true, I started putting on some lbs and normally everyone knows I have a pretty flat tummy, not round.  I have also been going to the gym and just ran an 8k so my mom was very puzzled and curious about it.  After the third "that shirt makes you look fat or that swimming suit seems a bit tight on you", I decided it was time to tell everyone, so my mother doesn't feel lost.  When we announced it, everyone said "we knew it!  We thought you looked a bit bigger"  Haha I love my family

 I just had a little fun with photography while everyone did the water tubing.  I was going to jump in but everyone advised me not to since I was only 11 weeks along here.

 That woman trailing behind that boat on the tube is my MOTHER!!  She had the coolest flip ever!!  Wish my sister had her video camera on.  Dan was steering the boat and he made a turn that somehow caused her to fly about 5 ft high and flipped.  It was the most graceful fall and perhaps the best of all

The kids really enjoyed seeing all the fish swimming around the boat house

And being pulled around on the wagon by my brother's girlfriend Emily

 I love seeing Dan being the oldest brother in my family.  He is the 5th in his family and doesn't have many chances to be the leader.  I'm always the leader in my family so I enjoy stepping down and allowing him to make decisions about what to do and where to go.  He is loved by my parents.  They adore him.  He is loved by his 4 brothers in law.  He and the guys went out to a cave and my brother in law Josh got stuck at the top and couldn't get down.  Who did he call for help?  Dan.  I was on the boat witnessing the whole fiasco and just ROTFL.  Seriously the funniest to watch.  My phone died and I couldn't capture the event but you get the idea.  A 220 lbs Scotish man stuck at the top of the cave.  We all had a good laugh, including Josh.

The water was still a bit cold but that didn't stop this group

 Ronin and Zach.  These two are 2 months apart.  I was so happy when my sister announced that she is also expecting for this reason.  Ronin had a little buddy to play with when we get together.

 Our nights were filled with music and singing,  I love being with each and everyone of these people. So many fun personalities.  Here is a video of one of those nights

 Captain Dan got us back to safety after 2 days off shore.  There was some trouble with anchoring the boat due to the high wind we experienced one of the days but with some patrol help, we got unstuck and was able to steer the boat back to shore.

And here is my cute little family.  This is why every child is adored beyond measure.  We are so little.  My kids are spoiled with gifts and 24 hour attention.  When they get back to Washington, all they want is for my family to visit and come and live here.  Good news is my sister Thao is moving here as well as my parents in the next several months.  My sister Thuyen is thinking about it also.  We wrapped up with a nice hotel stay at the Hilton's.  It was very much needed.  My other 2 sisters and brother went their way.  Thuyen and I treated my parents to the hotel and a nice Mother's day breakfast.  Love our mother!