Exchange Students from Sweden

Our two sixteen year old exchange students from Sweden, Katti and Natalie, said their tearful goodbye's as they boarded a bus to the airport this past Tuesday. Alan and I were their host family for two of their four weeks in California. They came with an EF group of high school students from all over Sweden and Norway. Many of them didn't know each other before the trip. They visited all over L.A. and even went up to San Fransisco for a weekend with their group. Alan and I were responsible for housing, feeding and driving them to and from their events in town. It was fun to have 2 teenagers living with us for a few weeks and learning all about their Swedish culture. The girls spoke great English which made it easy for us to communicate. Overall, it was a fun experience and we'd love to do it again in the future. If anyone else in the Los Angeles area is interested in being a host family for exchange students next summer, let me know and I can direct you to the people to contact.

Hi, girls if you're reading this! How was you're LONG flight home? Have you been enjoying your Swedish meatballs?

More pictures

Weekend in Oceanside

This last weekend my brothers and sisters and I planned a birthday party for my parents since it was a birthday year marker (60- sorry mom). My parents were born 4 days apart in the same hospital so it was only fitting that we plan one party for the both of them. Scott, Lisa and Jack flew down from Redwood City and the rest of us made ourselves available. The weekend started with a Padres Game at their new stadium, Petco Park. The stadium was really nice (still feels new) and the seats were good too. Unfortunately, the Padres lost but it was fun anyway.

Saturday evening we had the party for my parents. We played the games that they always made us play when we were kids like: pin the ear on Snoopy, drop the clothespin in the jar, cottonball races and a pinata. All the adults got way involved in the games especially with the pinata. People were diving and dogpiling to get candy. It was quite a sight!!

Those are just a few of the fun things we did that weekend. Below are some pictures of the baseball game and Jack playing in the water in the backyard. Jack loves water especially when you spray it on him. In fact, one day he got a hold of a spray bottle and kept squirting himself until he was soaking wet. He kept laughing and squirting- it was way too cute.

Me, Ruth and Renae

Alan and Chris

Scott and Lisa

Jack playing in the water

Fun times in Washington

This past weekend (Thursday- Sunday), Alan and I went up to Washington State to visit with his extended family and with some friends of ours. We stayed with one of Alan's Aunts and Uncles in Bellingham along with the rest of Alan's immediate family. His parents flew up from Guatemala and his sister and her family from Mississippi and his brother and his wife from Pasadena. It was fun for everyone to be together again. Alan's dad has 8 brothers and sisters and they are all married with kids and many of their kids have kids. So as you can imagine it was quite a weekend.

We had a huge family reunion Friday night where almost everyone was able to make it. It was 59 total that were there. A lot of names and connections for me to memorize, but by the end of the evening I could pretty much name everyone and know who they belong to. We took a family picture in the rain which was hilarious because trying to get 59 people to take a picture in the rain was quite a task. By the time the picture was taken we were all soaking wet. I can't wait to see what the picture will look like.

Alan's Aunt Jeri and Uncle Duane( the ones we stayed with) have a tea house in Lynden, Washington which is about 10 minutes from Canada. On Friday we had lunch at the tea house with his immediate family. It was such a cute store. Inside the main room were little rooms that were decorated differently for private parties for tea. People can reserve a certain room for tea if they'd like too. We ate in the main room because there were too many of us to fit in a smaller room. Below is a picture of one one the rooms. The tea was fun since everyone gets their own tea pot and strainer for the leaves. The food was really good too!

That morning (Friday) we took family pictures with Alan's immediate family so that's why we are matching in a few of the pictures. One of Alan's cousin is a professional photographer (Donette Studios) up there and so we were able to get him to take some pictures for us at another one of his Aunt's houses.

On Saturday we were able to see some friends of ours, Adam and Amy Ford and their daughter, Tatum. They used to lived in California a few years back and we built a good friendship with them from church. They moved to Washington and we've been planning to come up and see them ever since. We went to breakfast first and the we went to Deception Pass, which is the only bridge that connects to the San Juan Islands. It was a beautiful day and fun to catch up with them. We also got to meet Tatum too.

Saturday afternoon Alan's parents had an Open House for friends and family to come and visit. I met a whole new bunch of people that have known Alan's parents for years.

Sunday night we ordered pizza and and hung out with A. Jeri and U. Duane's kids (around our age) and their spouses for the evening. Caitlin (2 1/2) , our niece, gave everyone quite a show with all her singing.

Sunday we went to church in Lynden with A. Jeri and U. Duane and kids and then went out to lunch. In between church services Colleen and Todd (Alan's cousin and husband) made us expresso's at their place which was 2 minutes from the church. Those Washintonians (my made-up word) sure know how to make some good coffee drinks. Then after lunch it was back to the airport to fly home.

All in all, the trip went by way too fast! We had so much fun and loved being up there. It was nice to get away from the LA smog. We can't wait to visit again.

I can't seem to format the picture like I'd like too so below are some pictures of the trip.

One of the rooms at the Tea House. This one is for little girls because the tables are so low. The girls can dress up in the hats and boas that are hung on the side of the room.

This is Mount Baker, a mountain that Alan's dad was so persistant on us seeing while we were there. Saturday the weather cleared up so we could see it. The picture is from A. Jeri and U. Duane's house.

Alan and Caitlin goofing around in the airport.

Alan, Caitlin and Me after family pictures at Aunt Janet's house. They have a huge pond in their backyard along with a golf couse.

Adam, Amy and Tatum at Deception Pass.

Aunt Jeri and some of the tea pots for sale at the tea house

Alan and Me in front of Lynden's Cup of Tea

The Fords and Us in front of the Deception Pass Bridge. Tatum is being carried by Adam.