Since moving to Australia, I’ve taken a
trip home to Washington every summer to visit friends and family (and escape
Melbourne in the winter). This year, after
a long 8.5 months (especially long for all the family that was waiting to meet
her), we took another trip to Washington to introduce Arden to my family (and
also so Candice could enjoy her first trip back to Washington since we
moved). It was a long journey, but it
was worth it to see everyone light up when they first laid eyes on Arden.
We spent the first part of our trip on
Whidbey Island, where I grew up, and enjoyed our time there settling in,
relaxing with family, and enjoying some beautiful walks around Honeymoon Lake,
South Whidbey State Park and Langley. For
the second part of our visit we stayed with my sister Lindsay in town, which made
it easier to connect with friends and visit some of our favourite places likes
Edmonds and Kerry Park. We even walked
by The Loft, the bar where Candice and I first met.
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| hanging out at Dad's house. |
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| where it all began! |
It was a surreal experience seeing my
family interacting with Arden. Other
than my other sister Saralyn’s visit in May, all of my family’s relationship with Arden has
been through FaceTime and pictures. I
was really excited to see how they would interact with her, how she would react
to each of them, and how I would feel.
Unfortunately it took Arden quite a while to warm up to anyone, and
sadly it was laughter that would make her the most upset, so my parents had to
keep their distance at first otherwise Arden would burst into tears whenever
they laughed. It was the last thing I
wanted for our visit, especially as Arden is at such a fun age where she smiles
and laughs a lot, and I wanted my family to experience that side of Arden. Fortunately her nervousness wore off
eventually, and I was able to enjoy seeing my family bouncing her and kissing
her chubby cheeks!
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| family photoshoot! |
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| Arden and her cousins. |
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| me and my sisters, being awesome as usual. |
I think it was a pretty unique experience
for my family to see me as a father for the first time too. Like my Dad commenting on how strange it was to
hear the fun voice I used when talking or reading to Arden, and having to
remind myself that they hadn't seen me in this new role of parent before. One of the highlights of the trip for me was
seeing Arden take naps on both my Mom and Dad during our visit, as it was
something I hoped that they would get to experience. I also wanted the family to
get a sense for who Arden is and experience her personality first hand, just as
I wanted her to know about the rest of her family, and I felt throughout our
trip the love that they all have for Arden, and it was a wonderful feeling.
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| four generations, part 1 |
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| four generations, part 2 |
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| Arden snuggling with her Mimi after a nap. |
Our visit was over way too soon, but I’m so
grateful for all the memories and fun times we had with everyone. Whether it was taking time off work, driving
long distances or being in hundreds of pictures, our family and friends made us
feel special and showed Arden so much love.
I can’t wait until we are all together again.
-BK
Washington - July 2016 from
Candice Kortlever on
Vimeo.
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