ADVENTURES AWAITING: May - A month to remember

May means nicer weather so we did more stuff outdoor. This winter was rough. I think that's why I wanted to go check out Austin, Texas. But when May came and our compared our high 60's and 70's weather to Texas's 90+ weather, I was starting to wonder why I booked our tickets to Austin :)

May was also sad because we lost an angel of a man. Heaven was blessed to receive him.
He was the only grandpa I knew and he always made sure I knew he loves me. He made me feel like I belong and always tell Dan he is a lucky man to have met me. How do you not love him??? Dan was able to visit him a lot towards the end of his life while he was in Utah getting our house ready for sale and we were fortunate to spend our spring breaks with him. Best memory we have with him was when we flew them up to Seattle to spend a week with us. We will miss him so much...'til we meet again grandpa Evans! Here's the video we made for his birthday. It was tough getting everybody to sing but I hope he got a good laugh out of it,. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAMYhJ9kC2Y&t=3s

We drove to Soda Springs to attend his funeral. We changed my flight from Seattle to Salt Lake so I could surprise my mom. It was hard to leave.

I took a 6 hr red eye flight to surprise my mother in bed at 6:00 AM in Philadelphia on Mother's day. She was in tears of joy as we embraced and shared kisses! My dad was in on the surprise and snuck out of bed at 5:45 to pick me and my little baby Darion up at the airport. Best mother's Day for me and my mom ever!

We made it through the long flight taking selfies. I love my Darion.

It finally took a vacation for me to upload the video my dad took of it on Youtube. Here is the link: https://youtu.be/Cci8VHfkXH4 You might not understand the language but you can see my mom's reaction. It got a tons of people talking about it when my dad posted it on to Facebook.

My parents were overjoyed that I brought Darion. I had to since he was still nursing (and still is). I knew I wanted to see my parents before we headed for Vietnam so this was a perfect opportunity.

We walked down memory lane by visiting some childhood places in the neighborhood and my mom's nail salon.

They pampered me with seafood like crabs, clams, mussels. My dad and I went to the new Philadelphia temple and did baptism for my grandma. It was such an awesome feeling to have my dad baptized me. The temple ground is in a beautiful place. The story behind how the church got the land is unique.

The visit with my parents was short and sweet. It is never long enough to visit your parents. I wish they could brave it and move out West. So many times we attempted to get my dad a job in Seattle, put up their house for sale and even got some offers but then they got cold feet. I don't blame them. When you're established it is really hard to move. I feel the same about our move. The comfort, the big house, the fame haha. People really know me in the area. Too much to give up but sometimes you gotta be brave to live life to the fullest. Hopefully our example will get them to leap for it with faith. I sure would like to live closer to them.

We visited my financial partner and he wrote me a nice big check for a closing on a client's policy. That was nice. He had a rabbit pet and Darion was in love.

At the airport Darion got to play with some fun cars

He was pretty happy to be home

And my kiddos presented me with mother's day gifts when I got back. Philly trip was not long enough though with my mom and dad. I miss them but look forward to having my dad out to be with the kids while Dan and I escape to Texas

I got some free gifts from more modeling at Zulily. I modeled for them a few more times this month.

But the best gifts is probably these amazing pictures from Reena which I'm hoping to include in a book for her

The weather was warming up enough that we had s'mores many nights

Brie Brie turned 8 in May. She got to pick her two favorite things to do on her actual birthday and she picked swimming and a fancy cupcake from "Nothin' bundt cake".

She had a fantastic Moana themed birthday party which unfortunately all the pictures are on my desktop in storage right now. BOO! FAILED. I forgot to back them up to the drive before I left on our big trip and didn't post them on social media, also another boo, so you'll have to wait a whole year to see those. I was able to pull off two pictures from my open mic co-host Dino. We held her birthday party at Blakely Hall where I get to use the hall for free because of the open Mic I do for the community otherwise the fee would've been $100/hr. Debrie and I planned the decor. Everyone got Hawaiian leis as they entered and Debrie led them into making her favorite thing ever - goo! The goo turned out to be a hit because it was made with clear glue so it resembles Ocean who played a big part in the movie Moana. Here in this pic is a group of the brave girls who joined me in singing "How far I'll go" from the movie. It was tough running open Mic and the party but the rooms were big enough and we had enough activities that while others were performing I was able to keep track of both, magically, with the help of Dan and Dino. We had Kalua pork with rice and chips and I made Brie a Moana cake. She got her pictures for the baptism taken the day of the party and she is as beautiful as an island girl with her already tanned skin ready for Hawaii.

My sister and her family flew in 2 days before Debrie's birthday party so she was able to be there for the party. I took her to a new Thai restaurant in town with my friend Cami.

The cousins played so well with each other. They adore each other in fact

My other sister Thanh also flew in. We had a little mini reunion because my dad came into town to watch the kids for me and Dan to go to Austin. Seattle became the pit stop to see dad. I almost didn't want to leave for Texas when my dad and 2 sisters were in town but I didn't know they were going to book their tickets to come up and see Dad. We didn't have much time together before Dan and I left for Austin. We didn't spare a moment and celebrated with a seafood feast. The trio went to a few places in Seattle and shared with me some pics

Austin, TX

What a neat tech city that has so much character and THE MOST AWESOME BBQ. You haven't had a good bbq until you've had a true Texan BBQ. Oh my goodness I cannot even talk about a Texas bbq without salivating. We went to Cooper's BBQ right down town. It's rated 5 stars and no wonder. Our mouths were in heaven

Austin has a lot of rivers and streams. I always feel happy near water

Texas hat souvenir

We arrived Saturday, went to church Sunday and then met up with my sister Thuyen and brother in law Josh. In a way we crashed their vacation. That's just how we do it in my family. We tell each other our vacation spots and send out an open invitation to have other family members join. It's always more fun when other family members could join in.

Austin is becoming a tech city like Seattle so things are starting to come up in price which is a good time to get in.

We toured the State capitol, even got to watch a live event

And Voodoo Donuts of course!

And ate at Mexican restaurants because this is where you get the authentic stuff besides Mexico

The view from our Hyatt Hotel isn't too bad either. Thuyen and Josh had a tons of hotel points so we shared a nice big hotel room which out of pocket probably would've been around $400/night

One of the highlights for me on this trip was visiting this sweet family...Dan's cousin Josh's family. They are such warm hearted people. Not a moment was silent because we all enjoyed each other's company so much. The cousins have not seen each other for years and even though Josh was recently undergoing knee surgery he was still happy to have us there and he loved holding Darion. So sweet! Ariana and I became friends very quickly. Her kids loved Darion and they were so cute with him.

Thuyen and Josh left a day before us. We decided to do some kayaking down near Barton Springs. It was humid and hot and being on the water was just the most refreshing. We felt so happy to be near water. We realized how much we loved it and then it was bling bling click click that the reason we loved Seattle so much was because of the water!

We saw so many turtles. We lost track of counting. They were swimming in the water and hanging out on the sides

We hit some famous ice cream locations and headed home. Overall a wonderful trip and our children were safe thanks to my dad and sisters. We missed my dad by a few hours when we got back but thanks to google hangouts we were able to thank him for all the hard work taking cared of our children. I am a wimp when it comes to being apart from the kids. I actually prefer my vacations with kids so I don't miss them so much.