Saipan & Japan

We all just returned from an amazing trip to Saipan & Japan! We moved to Saipan 17 years ago when Isaac was 6 months old. We had never heard of it until 2 weeks before we found ourselves suddenly living there. It was awesome to be able to take the kids back and show them around.

Matt and I were the single adult advisors in our branch and it was great to visit and see some of our singles and their families. They were surprised to see Isaac all grown up!

                        Then and now...

The kids loved the island. It was fun playing tourists. The favorite of the entire trip. Pictures don't do it justice. Its like a cave with water from the ocean. There were never very many people there when we lived here but its a tourist hot spot now.

                   
       We stopped by our old apartment above sugar dock market. We were sad to see the market had closed. We must have kept it in business because it closed the year we left.

 We also stopped by Matt's old school, Mt Carmel. Its a private Catholic school where he taught Japanese. Its across the street from our apartment.

I'm attempting this post on my phone and its giving me fits. Here's a few more pics of the island. Ill post about Japan another day hopefully. We had such an awesome time!  A few highlights...

We all got delta one (first class) on the way

We stayed with our friend Del Benson 

Matt and I got to speak in church

Olivia took Isaacs senior picture on Saipan

We feel very blessed that we got to take a quick trip. Lots of amazing memories on Saipan.

Happy Birthday Ike!

Isaac turned 17 on January 27th!

 This year the kids are all getting their Passports for their birthday. Isaac had one when he was a baby when we moved to Saipan but that expired 11 ago.

(So cute right?)

 He's been chomping at the bit to leave the country. He wanted to go to Iceland by himself but I talked him unto talking me a long on a short trip to Amsterdam instead. I wasn't quite ready to send my baby to a foreign country alone..maybe next year. We chose Amsterdam because we found a direct flight from Portland and were pretty sure we'd get first class!

We had a total of 25 hours in Amsterdam. Left Portland at 1:40pm arrived in Amsterdam at 8am (11 pm our time) and hit the ground running to fit in as much as we could. We checked into out motel room (a Hampton near the airport) and rode the train into Amsterdam. We were taken back immediately by the beautiful city.

 We walked to the Anne Frank house (dodging bikes and mopeds along the way) and stood in line in the cold rain for over an hour to get in but it was worth the wait! I had read the Diary of Anne Frank as a teenager. Their hideaway is basically untouched today and is the same as when it was the 2 years they were in hiding. The museum does a good job of depicting what it was like and sharing Annes thoughts from her diary. (They didn't allow pictures). Pretty tragic how the Jews were treated and crazy that it wasn't that long ago.

From there we took a canal ride through town and stopped at a street market where we found a little cafe for lunch. We hopped back on the canal ride and ended up back at the main part of town where we walked some more.

It was a pretty epic day! We loved listening to the Dutch lanuance and taking in all the different sights, smells and tastes. We were both pretty tired with the time change so by early evening we headed back to our hotel room to get ready for our flight back home the next morning. It was a whirlwind trip but a perfect little vacation with Isaac! I'm so proud of the amazing young man he is and feel lucky to be his mom. 

His face says it all. It was a perfect trip!

the Voice in Philly

I'm trying to play catch up today. I realized today I hadn't finished my post about disneyland (which happened in January) and since then I've traveled to Philadelphia, Amsterdam & Hawaii! ...more to come on all of that! In Feb mom and my sisters and I had a fun weekend in Philly where my sister Lisa auditioned for THE VOICE! She didn't get a call back (This time..it will happen sometime) but I'm so proud of her for trying and we had a lot of fun in the meantime!

                     
We visited the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and Christ's Church where a lot of the forefathers attended church. We found Elfreths Alley, the oldest neighborhood in America. Ate some amazing food at the Reading terminal market...we kept going back for more of the little lemon cakes. Took our first Uber ride and ran up the rocky steps. It was a great weekend with 3 of my favorite girls. I'm so blessed to call them mom and my sisters.

                      
                      

disneyland

We had a great time in California! 4 days of disneyland & California adventure, a day at the beach and grandpa and grandma Dawson joined us for our last 3 days. We flew (free) from PDX to LAX early Sunday am and made it to disneyland by noon.  Disneyland is as magical as I remember it from when I was 14. It's even better than I imagined it would be. I'm not a big roller coaster fan but I was brave and rode every crazy ride with Matt & the kids. The Pictures speak for themselves. So. Much. Fun. Instead of going home after we flew back to Portland for a 3 day soccer tournament. We were all pretty exhausted after 10 days on the road but we made some awesome memories. So grateful we were finally able to make it happen!

Christmas break

We hade a nice Christmas Break at home. We've been so busy lately that it was a much needed break to just veg. Not to mention, Matt & the kids have all been sick with a cold/nasty cough. Probably caught on one of their flights. We had 2 weeks of sleeping in, movies, board games and also some skiing once the kids felt up to getting back to ski practice (Isaac & Adam are on the high school ski team).

 We had a small new years eve party. Olivia had her friend Sammi over and Dawson had his buddy Nick. They all lasted til after midnight but I can't say the same for Matt or I.
                      

Kids started back to school yesterday and it's been tough on all of us to wake up early and get back in the swing of things. Good thing we're going on vacation next week! For Christmas this year we are going to Disneyland!! First time ever for our family. We are so excited! Future disneyland post to come!