Our Life: August, Part 1

Once again, almost a month has gone by where we’ve been so busy, I haven’t had time to post about it! So, here’s what we’ve been up to…

Brown Family Reunion

(Caution: a crazy amount of pictures below!)

My little brother got home from his mission Friday, July 30…by Monday, August 2, the entire family was reunited! It was amazing seeing what a man my little bro has become, and how much of an example he is to me. And, of course we had a ton of fun! Unfortunately, my sister, Shaina, was sick and prego the whole time, so she made limited appearances in pictures!

First we spent 2 days on a lake nearby. My dad borrowed a sweet boat from a family friend and we tubed and water skiied til our hearts were content!

Aunt Mel Me and Stevie goin down to the boat.
The boat…and the cool water slides in the background! Unfortunately, none of the kids were big enough to try them!
A little sand volleyball mixed in between…
until Mel figured out just how deep the sand actually was and banged her knee on concrete!Steve loved the boat
em 1 We used to do a lake vacation every year when I was growing up, and we did one last year in Idaho when I was pregnant with Dan…so it’s been almost 10 years since I water skiied last. But I got up on my FIRST TRY! Slalom, no less!
em 2

I was pretty excited!

Mel and I tried out the tubes after Brad and Kyle totally deflated them trying to body roll and all kinds of crazy stuff!

Jess rocked the wake board!

And Dan did a lot of waiting on the beach.

Jesse took Steve for a swim…the water was pretty cold.

Cheese!

Jesse, Kyle, Mel, Steve, Dan and I all took a trip to down town Seattle on a beautiful sunny day. We tried to brave Pikes Place, but it was WAY to crowded for a stroller and a toddler on foot! But it was still a cool place to see.

This happened a lot (surprising, I know!)

Then we took another trip downtown to take a ferry to this cool Indian show on an island off of Seattle. It was called Tillicum Village…

While we were waiting for the ferry we snapped a few photos…here’s my mom and dad.

And me and my not so little, little bro, Brad.

My love!

My men on the ferry…

It was FREEZING! Mel, Jeff, Kyle, Brad, Dad and Mom.

The view going away from Seattle…that’s the Space Needle. Wasn’t it such a nice day?! (typical Seattle!)

The siblings, minus Shaina :(

On the island eating the traditional welcome oysters…not my fave!

Dad like them! It was kind of cool, after you ate the oyster, you threw the shell on the ground and stomped on it and crushed into the millions of other oyster shells…Steve loved this part!

The fam!

Inside we watched our salmon being cooked on an open fire. Very cool, and very tasty! We ate while we watched a show. Steve LOVED it! There were people dressed up in cool costumes and drumming and dancing. He was too in to it to even eat!

This was one of the big masks they wore in the show…very neat.

Outside on the island waiting to get back on the ferry.

Little Dan did this a lot!

In between all of these fun things, we managed to go out to eat a lot at our favorite places, do some shopping, meet Brad’s girlfriend (Dani), hear Brad’s homecoming talk in church, have a homecoming lunch after church (where we got to see my Uncle Gary and Aunt Elizabeth and their kids1), and even take family pictures…

What a good looking group!
The siblings…reunited!
Aunt Mel Mel with the nephews.