June 2010: Aniva Visits the USA

Someone is SO excited to have her BFF from New Zealand come to visit for a week that she forgot how to spell. And how to smile normal.We were ALL so excited to have Aniva come up to Seattle to stay with us for a week in June before we traveled down to Salt Lake City to meet up with her parents. She was the only one of her siblings to get to come. We sure do love that Aniva!

We also lucked out and had Jonah's older brother Josh come and visit for that week too. He took a lot of these photos, too.

The weather up here never really warmed up in June (we were glad we had an excuse to head south), but we still enjoyed all the natural beauty.





The girls frolicked in the seaweed.

Railroad Bridge Park. Best photo location around here.













Jonah and Josh took the kids to Forks and the rainforest after their last day of school (Aniva got to go to school with Ana for the last two days) so I could get the house cleaned up and out before our housesitter/pigsitter arrived.










The day after school got out, we loaded six people and our last remaining chicken (we started with 30 chickens last November and sold them all except our favorite four and we came home a on June 12th and they had all been eated by an eagle except one hen. It was heartbreaking. We ALL cried for about two days. They were pets... only Ponyo the hen survived) and all the luggage and camping gear into the station wagon. Wow. Luckily Cam wasn't coming with us because he wouldn't have fit. He flew to my dad's house int he San Juan Islands and then with my dad down to Las Vegas where we picked him up on our way to California.


We were on our way to Salt Lake City which is a 16 hour drive... but we do it in three days. Our first night, we camped in the Columbia River Gorge near Multnomah Falls. Here is Horse Tail Falls.






Multnomah Falls... we had fairly wet weather, but they were still gorgeous.

Jonah and Josh slept in the tent on the left and I slept with the three girls in the one on the right.


The next day we drove through the rest of the Gorge and over the Blue Mountains to Idaho. We pulled into the Bruneau Sand Dunes at 11 pm and got there just in time to make it to the Observatory Telescope night and got to see some good moon craters and Saturn's rings... which Elsie said, "looks kind of freaky!"The dunes were really fun and a novelty for Aniva. We also found her a big wild snake to hold... also something you don't find in New Zealand.


We finally made it to Salt Lake City and Jonah's dad, Jonah, Josh, Aniva and Ana went up to Bear Lake for a day so Aniva could show off and get up waterskiing on her first try. What an athlete. The lake was freezing, but that didn't stop the girls.

Josh also took some funny underwater photos.

Grandfather and the girls.


We luckily got to spend time with Aniva's parents Dean and Desiree who are some of our most favorite people in the whole world. How can you not like a family who picked you up at the airport your first time to a new country and let you move into your house and treated you like family ever since!?!

We were SO SO sad to lose Aniva, but I guess she had to get back to school and winter in New Zealand. Fun times.