Washington 2018 - Candice's reflections

During last year's Washington visit, it was the trees that spoke deeply to me. This year it was the mountains - another thing we miss about our corner of the world. And since it was our first visit to the PNW during the Spring in a few years, the crisp and defined peaks really stood out to us (during the few clear weather days, of course).

the view from Greenbank Farms

It was a great trip home this year. As Ben mentioned in his reflective blog post, visiting during a special event (Saralyn and Ryan's wedding) meant that scheduling was a lot more convenient on our end, as we didn't have to coordinate separate visits with extended members of the family. We saw almost everyone we wanted to see at least once, and all we had to do was show up to events! Along with the wedding ceremony, we were also in town for Saralyn's bridal shower and bachelorette party, the rehearsal dinner with Ryan's family, and our nephew Amare's 8th birthday party. We also threw Arden a half-birthday brunch the day after the wedding, as she doesn't usually get to celebrate her actual October birthday with extended family.

Amare's birthday party

dinner after a swim at the club

This year we held two friend-gathering events, which meant our local friends had a few options to catch us during our quick visit. We also made a few individual visits, including a meetup with my Canadian cousin Evett and her family at the Skagit Tulip Festival. It was fun to catch up with everyone and watch our kids grow, some of whom hadn't even existed during our visit last year.

our final friends-night

Arden and her cousin Hunter

my sisters-in-law at the bachelorette party

meeting my cousin Evett at the tulip festival

it was fun catching up with Kara in person, for once!

visiting the Broekuis family, who seem to have a new child every time we see them :)

Personally, I had a really wonderful visit. This was the most relaxing trip to Washington for me since before Arden was born, as I am no longer nursing and was able to spend larger stretches of time away from her, including an overnight trip during Saralyn's bridal shower/bachelorette party weekend. It was fun being home for a big event, as there was an overall air of excitement and celebration, and an excuse for things like a mani-pedi afternoon with my mother/sisters-in-law.

mani-pedi day!

Arden visited the castle playgroup multiple times

I also stepped up my videography game this year, filming footage for a "vlog" (which was so long I had to split it into two parts), one of my usual vacation highlight videos, and a wedding video which Saralyn had asked for as a wedding present. I had spent the prior two months researching amateur wedding videography, and I think the final result was pretty decent for my first ever wedding video. While I still don't have the fanciest video equipment in the world, I had recently upgraded my camera and was very pleased with the overall footage and new capabilities, like a better zoom and more visible night shots.

Thanks to our family and friends for hosting us and making time to see us! We had a wonderful trip this year, and can't wait to visit again in the near future.

-Candice

Washington 2018 - Ben's reflections

Ever since we moved to Australia I've managed to make a trip back to see family once a year, and we typically plan our trips for mid to late summer to escape the cold in Melbourne and soak up the sun in Washington.  This year we had the opportunity to come earlier for Saralyn & Ryan's wedding, and it was fun to visit during a different season (even if we missed the warm sunshine of the summer months).  We were able to visit the tulips and celebrate Arden's dutch heritage, see the changing weather on our various ferry voyages, and most importantly be a part of all of Saralyn & Ryan's wedding festivities.

our welcome crew at the airport!

at the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

with Dad and Sarri at the tulips

Saralyn and Ryan's rehearsal dinner

Amare's birthday party

Arden's half-birthday brunch

The wedding was such a fun experience.  It's always special seeing your sister get married, and I'm so thankful we could make the trip back and be involved.  We decided to stay 2 nights at the Inn where they got married, and I'm so glad we did.  It gave us a space to escape when we needed to give Arden a nap, gave us a place to put all our stuff and get all dressed up, and also meant that when the wedding was done we could just walk upstairs and go to sleep.  I loved seeing Arden dancing with Saralyn, helping Amare get dressed in his tux, and just generally hamming it up with everyone.  She did so well all weekend, and it allowed me to really enjoy and be present in the moment.

a wedding video by Candice

Arden loved dancing with her Auntie Saralyn!

(photo by Nicole Michael photography)

This visit was especially nice for us as there were already a lot of family gatherings planned around the wedding, so it allowed us to see all the family multiple times throughout our trip.  It was also the first trip where we felt like we were able to have some relaxing down time, and a lot of that was because of having events already planned and not having to do all the planning ourselves.  A big thanks to Mom for watching Arden and Amare so Candice and I could go see Avengers on opening weekend!

having dinner with Randall and Liz

catching up with some old friends and new babies!

One of my favourite moments of the trip was getting to spend some one-on-one time with Saralyn.  It might have been the first opportunity we've had to do that since I moved away, and it was something I've really been missing.  We went for a great little hike up near Deception Pass, and were able to talk about life and really connect without the (wonderful) distractions that kids bring.  We've always been close and used to spend a lot of time together when we were younger, so it was really special to be able to share that time with her this trip.

hiking with Saralyn

recreating an amazing old childhood photo...

I think Candice has talked about this in a previous blog, but it is really striking the difference between the trees and nature in western Washington compared with the parts of Australia we have visited.  In Washington the trees are so tall, dense and there is an ancient feeling to them, and there's just something that feels right about seeing snow-capped mountains on the horizon.  Don't get me wrong, Australia is beautiful and has some incredible landscapes, I guess it's just that Washington is where I grew up and the landscapes there are comforting in a way I didn't really realise until we moved away.  Besides family and friends, the mountains and the trees are what I miss the most.

As Arden gets older, the visits with family become more and more rewarding.  This trip she was genuinely excited to see and spend time with family, and it was so nice for us to not have to worry about her bursting into tears every time someone else tried to hold her.  From tea time and playing cars with Mimi, to dancing and being silly with Grandad, and story time and hugs with her cousins, Arden seemed to be in her element and truly enjoying every experience.

hanging out with some of my cousins and their kids

Amare is always wonderful with Arden.

visiting Grandma Sally's resting place

I'm so thankful for all the wonderful memories and for the effort that everyone put in to spending time with us during the trip.  Thank you to all our family and friends for making this such a memorable and enjoyable trip!

-Ben

summer 2018.

It's been a pretty fun summer, and as usual I'm sad to see it go.

our first Australia Day as permanent residents. p.s. Australia, change the date!

My mom came to visit in late December to early January, while Ben and I took a few days to visit the Gold Coast for our first child-free vacation in a few years. The trip was awesome, and it was also very generous of my mom to come all the way to Melbourne to babysit Arden. Our little girl was on her very best behaviour the whole time - going to sleep without a two-hour bedtime routine, eating well, riding in her stroller, no-fuss napping in her crib (!!)... and after Ben and I returned, she's been sleeping pretty poorly ever since. Serves us right, I guess! We got to spend some quality time with my mom in Melbourne as well, including our usual tradition of enjoying high tea.

my mom's 5th trip to Melbourne!

Sadly, my maternal grandmother passed away at the beginning of the year. I'm so glad that Arden was able to meet her Thai-ma last May, when we visited Manila for my grandma's 100th Chinese birthday celebration, and also that Ben was able to see her in 2014 as well. She leaves behind nine children, 26 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren. We are forever grateful for the time we had with her, and for the stories of her courage and faithfulness that we will be sure to share with the next generations.

Manila in May 2017

This summer's weather was all over the place. Melbourne weather is generally pretty crazy, but this season it felt like the changes were more drastic than usual - 107 degrees (Fahrenheit) one day, and in the 60's the next day.

watching helicopters along the water.

Every year we like to get a membership to something cool - a few years ago it was the Eureka Skydeck (the tallest building in Melbourne), and last year we got an annual pass to the zoo, which we definitely got our money's worth by visiting "sister zoos" during our trips to Perth and Sydney. This year we decided to get an aquarium membership, which we've already gotten our money's worth by visiting every week (at least, Arden and I). It's very close to our apartment, plus it's indoors so we can visit rain or shine! It's a pretty nice aquarium - there's a really breathtaking exhibit in the basement where you can watch sharks and stingrays through huge windows and clear tunnels. Arden likes the frogs, lizards, the clownfish, penguins, and of course the huge saltwater crocodile.

these green screen photographs are amazing.

Arden enjoys her swim and music classes more and more every month, and her teachers are all in love with her. It's a joy to witness her development through these activities, and to see her skills develop in a learning environment. This year we decided to add toddler ballet class to her weekly schedule! Dance class was never an activity I did as a child, but Arden loves anything to do with twirling and tutus. So, whatever makes her happy...

Arden wears her favourite "ballet outfit" everywhere.

White Night is probably my favourite Melbourne festival. I've written more about it in previous blog entries (here's our archive for past White Night events: 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017), but basically: it's a festival celebrating light and art installations, for one night only and from the hours of 7pm to 7am. It's creative, fun, unique... and at times suffocatingly crowded, so it's a bit challenging to navigate especially with a young child. Arden decided to nap until 8pm for this year's event, so we were actually able to experience the event a bit later at night. We weren't able to see everything we wanted, but the exhibits we did see were pretty awesome.

there were a bunch of these things around the city.

Chinese New Year was in mid-February this year. We dressed Arden in a traditional Chinese outfit given to her by my aunt, and enjoyed wandering around Chinatown observing dragon and lion dances and Chinese stringed instrument concerts. We got to see Sun Loong, the world's longest dragon, paraded around the city in celebration. 

it's the year of the puppy!

Arden loved wearing her traditional Chinese outfit

the head of Sun Loong, apparently the world's longest dragon.

The whole city gets decked out for the Lunar New Year holiday, which is pretty cool. Melbourne definitely embraces multicultural holidays more and more each year. Crown casino had a really beautiful display of the Chinese zodiac animals, as well as a really cool show featuring its flame towers (which are normally there), temporarily decorated as dragons by local artists. We were pretty impressed, except for the night we tried to watch the show from a nearby bridge and absolutely nothing happened, for an hour.

the Chinese zodiac on display

fire-breathing dragons!

We're looking forward to a few fun things on the horizon - upcoming visits to Washington and Michigan, and a little getaway to Singapore later this year! We're always excited for the opportunity to travel. Even though Arden no longer gets to fly for free...

CK