From Okinawa to Washington

My sister Julie is married to the military - her husband Dave is in the Navy. As a result, they have been stationed in Okinawa South of Japan for the last 3 years or so. In this time we have had the privilege of seeing her only twice. That is, until she came and visited after Wyatt was born, making visit number 3. As you can imagine, I was STOKED!

By the way, as a random thought here, my sister also earned her Masters Degree this past spring and I couldn't be prouder of her.

Anyway, Julie came June 17th - July 4th. And here are a few of the fun times we got to have with her minus a few other blog posts to come.

We visited my Mom's father one day.
Here's a shot of 4 generations with my Grandfather George, my Mom Loretta, my sister Jennifer, and Wyatt.
Ellie overcame her disgust for grass and loved playing a lot in Grandpa and Grandma's backyard. Especially when Daddy took her for "nature walks" each night. He's amazing.I love that here you can see she has a flower he gave her while out on their walk. Seriously, such a great dad.
Julie was an awesome aunt. Period. Here she's showing Ellie pictures we just took of them together.
We watched Jennifer as a new mommy.
Wyatt looked cute. What else did you expect him to do?
Ellie looked extra cute for her aunt. Especially here in her Japanese outfit from Julie.
Then she showed us all the epitome of lazy.And what she would look like as a 40 year old beer drinking man who lives in a trailer watching NASCAR all day.. The idea obviously scared her as well.
We tried to prevent Ellie from mauling Wyatt since she was mobile and he was not. And for the most part, we kept him safe from our monkey. Only once did she grab the corner of his blanket and start dragging him across the room. That kid is one strong girl!
We tried to get good pictures of both new moms and babies. And even succeeded.... sort of.
We attended a family 4th of July BBQ on my Dad's side.There were a lot of babies - lined up oldest to youngest. Ellie, my cousin Chad and his daughter Grace, my cousin Summer and her daughter Angelia, and Jennifer and Wyatt.
As you can see, we cannot have too much fun when Julie is here. And there are still a couple of things we did that get their own posts! Needless to say, we can't see her again soon enough. And the exciting news is that she and her husband are due to be shipped back to Washington State in April of 2012! We love you Julie!