Catch-Up Blog

Sorry it’s been so long since we’ve posted on the blog! We’ve had a few people ask us for an update, so we decided to do a catch-up  post :) I’ll try to fill you in on what’s been going on with us lately.

GIRLS WEEKEND

Back at the end of August, a bunch of girls from church decided to go away for the weekend. Isabel was getting ready to go back home to Germany, so we wanted to have one last “hurrah” before she left. We rented a big house and left for Friday and Saturday night. We had such a great time talking, laughing, playing games, painting nails, watching movies, eating junk food….all the typical girl stuff. Here’s a few pictures from the weekend.

Isi, showing off her newly painted nails, Samya (at the top) just hanging out, & Sarah smiling for the camera

Here’s a few more. You can click on the pictures to see them a bit bigger.

Group Shot:

YOUNG ADULTS RETREAT

A couple of weekends after the girl’s trip, Anthony and I went to the young adults retreat at church. We went to a campground about about an hour out of town. There was a special speaker from The States that talked about “Hope”. It was a really encouraging weekend and a great chance to make some new friends. Here’s a few pictures from the weekend:

 

LEADERSHIP RETREAT

Next, came the leadership meeting for church a couple of weekends later. I went since I’ve been teaching Sunday school. There were about 12 of us that stayed in a hostel (we rented the whole place). It was a good weekend of brainstorming and thinking of things for the upcoming year. And we had fun too, of course! :)

VISIT HOME 

At the end of September, we went home for a visit. We stopped through Sacramento on our way to Portland. It was great to catch up with our friends.

Anthony had to meet with the partner of the Sacramento firm, so Liz and I got pedicures and Starbucks. It was just what I needed! Dinner at Liz and Ricky’s was a lot of fun and Bella was as cute as ever.

Saturday was Miranda’s baby shower. I don’t think I’ve seen so much pink in a while :)

We went out for frozen yogurt with the boys after the party

Sunday, we had breakfast with Zach and Jen and then went to their son’s 2nd birthday party. Elijah had a great time opening all his gifts.

It’s always sad to say goodbye, but we had a great time. We flew into Portland for the rest of our visit. We spent part of that week in the Tri-Cities visiting Anthony’s family. We first visited with Vanessa’s side of the family and we got to see Grandpa’s new “man cave”, which was a very cool wood shop with a flat screen TV, recliner, and mini fridge. What more could you want?!

Tyler and Laura recently moved to Kennewick so it was great to see them too. We found a new sushi place with them that turned out to be really good! We went back to their place and played the game of “Life”. It was a lot of fun.

We got to have dinner at Jay and Linda’s house one night. It was a lot fun to catch up with them since it had been a long time. Courtney had a lot of fun learning all the Aussie slang and using them in funny sentences.

We then spent a day visiting with Mike’s side - starting at Marsha’s house for some appetizers and ending up at Rita’s for a barbeque. It was great food and we had a fun visit with everyone.  Grandpa Harris and Mike and Joyce came from Vancouver for the weekend. Marty and Rhonda were also in town from Texas, which was great timing. And it was a gorgeous day. I think Grandma’s homemade cherry pie was the highlight for Anthony :)

I had my camera, but I mostly forgot to take pictures in the Tri-Cities. We did get one family shot and I took a couple pictures of the gorgeous sunset on our drive back to Vancouver.

Back in Vancouver, my Grandparents celebrated their 50th anniversary. It’s an awesome accomplishment - we are very proud of them! We had a lot of fun celebrating! Vanessa did an amazing job on the food and decorations for their party.

We had to get some family portraits while we were all together:

Mike and Joyce had us and my parents over for dinner one night. We had frogmore stew for the first time with Mike’s infamous apple dumplings for dessert. Everything was delicious!

Amy, MaryAnn, Erin, and I have been friends since elementary school. It was fun to meet up with them for happy hour.

 

We spent a day in Kirkland, just outside Seattle, visiting with Jason. We went out to lunch and then Jason showed his favourite spot in Kirkland – the docks.

 

The Boys:

Brother/Sister shots:

  

Mandy had her baby shower while we were in town. It was a great turn out and she got a lot of cute things for her baby girl, Piper. She was born on October 10th, so the baby shower was just in time.

Vanessa organized a little get-together for some of our friends while we were in town. Anthony D. and Ashley brought their baby twins, Bliss and Felicity, who we got to meet for the first time. They were so adorable!

The girls together again: Ashley, Me, Stacey, Tami, and Tracey

The two Anthony’s:

My parents took me to McMenamin’s on our last full day home. It was a perfect day to sit by the water. Anthony was meeting with the PwC Portland office to talk about moving back to the Portland/Vancouver area.

 

There are not any official plans to move back yet, but it was good for Anthony to meet with the office again. They will be in touch over next several months to organize our transition back to the States, probably in May or June of next year. It’s crazy that our time here is already more than half over – it’s been amazing! We’ve still got a lot to look forward to which is very exciting.

One last Starbucks before getting on the plane.

A picture from the plane before landing in Melbourne.

It was a beautiful day when we landed, so we took a picture of the bay when we got home. We are going to miss this view!

Thanks for being patient with us. This turned out to be a really long blog, but we had about 2 months to make up for :) We hope you enjoyed the pictures. Have a great week!