5th Annual PNW Sweet Pea Reunion!

Wow! What a great weekend. We packed so many activities in one weekend, my head is still spinning.

We flew out Saturday morning to Seattle, landing at 9am. When we arrived at LAX to take our outbound flight, we were delighted to find out that Lori Williamson and her husband Pete and their girls, Chloe and Pearl http://chloeandpearl.blogspot.com/ were on our flight. Not only that, but they were in the row behind us so we were able to chat on the flight. After checking into our hotel and cleaning up a bit, we met some of the Sweet Peas at the Wallingford Playfield in Seattle and the kids had a great playdate. Now if you recall from my previous post, I did not dress Caroline warm enough and was terribly embarrassed. This year, I wasn't going to make that mistake again. So I checked the weather report. It was supposed to be in the 60's so I brought warm clothing for the kids. The weather at the park was 78. The local children were in shorts, mine were in long pants and fleece shirts. Ah the best laid plans...

Caroline and Chloe in a blurry picture, but they were having a lot of fun.

So after that outing, we all went to Tutta Bella Pizza where we set the kids at their own table. Bigger kids on one end, little kids on the other. The restaurant gave all the kids a handful of pizza dough to play with and was that a great idea! Busy hands kept chaos at bay. Then we set the dads on one end of another table and the moms at the other. Pizza, wine, dessert and 3 hours went by without a lull in conversation ever. Peter got to meet his "birthday twin" Julian. Two years ago, we were delighted to discover that they were born on the same day! They finally met for the first time and had a lot of fun together.

Kid's table with pizza dough.

Afterwards, a few of us got together in Sharon's suite at our hotel and talked until 10pm while our kids played in the bedroom part of the suite. They had a great time and 9 year old Peter and 10 year old Kendra were enjoying having someone their own age to play with. Kendra's sister, Mackenzie and Caroline were adopted from the same orphanage so it was great to see them meet again "after all these years". :)

Mackenzie and Caroline - Huaihua "sisters"

Kendra and Peter

Sunday morning we met at the 59th Street Park just outside of the Woodland Park Zoo and the kids again played. Peter asked Julian's mom, Laurie if Julian was there and she pointed him out and he didn't even say goodbye, he just ran to play with Julian. Lori and I gave each other a high-5 for the boys! With all the girls there, it was nice to have a boy their age to play with too. Fortunately, they included Kendra and since Julian lives next door to another of the Sweet Pea sisters, Julia they included her as well. The foursome had great adventures on the playground.

Sharyn, Laurie, Kristine, Lori, Tassie, Me

Paul, Kim, Sharyn, Sharon

Tassie arrived from Bellingham and brought Starbucks for all of us and we had a picnic before going into the zoo. Lots of pictures taken of all the kids and how they've grown. It was great.

All the kids.

Then we went into the zoo and while we were on the Carousel, Toni arrived with Millie and Ruby. The last time I saw Ruby, she was in a body cast from her waist down due to hip problems undiagnosed in China that required surgery. It was great to see her walking and enjoying the day. She still needs another surgery, but I have every confidence she will come through just fine.

Caroline, Ruby, Toni, Millie

We went into the aviary and Peter paid a dollar to feed the birds. As he was giving the dollar to the clerk, a bird landed on his shoulder waiting for the food to come out of the window so he could get to it before the other birds! Too funny.


Peter and "greedy" bird.

Tassie's daughter, Savannah and Caroline started to hit it off about an hour into walking the zoo and were holding hands and jumping up and down and playing the little games girls do. Tassie's son, Baden (the cutest little guy with the biggest personality!) wanted to see everything in the zoo that his little legs with take him to. He was not shy at all about taking my hand or Rick's hand and leading us off. At one point, he took my hand and told me to follow him. When I did, he turned around and said, "Pick me up" so he could see the rabbits above him. How cute!

Caroline and Savannah

After the zoo, 5 of the families met at Kristine and Mark's house (Julia and Mimi's parents) who just happen ;) to live next door to Laurie and Bruce (Julian and Mariah's parents). Lori and Pete came with their girls as well as Dominique and and her daughter. More wine, dinner, dessert and another 3 hours flew by as we enjoyed each other's company and watching our kids play together.

Mariah, Peter, Julian, Julia

Pearl, Caroline, Kaeli, Chloe

All too soon, we had to leave to catch our 9pm flight to LA, landing at 11:30, getting home at 1:45 and crashing into the mattress. Whew! We are tired, but have great memories of a fantastic weekend.