Aunt Austin's Visit

Since Ron's family lives so far away from us, it is a rare treat to have a visit from one of them.  So we were so pleased to find out a few months ago that Austin would be coming out to Portland for a work conference and wanted to swing up to Seattle for the weekend before flying back home to South Carolina!  We welcomed her with open arms this past Friday morning and had a great weekend with her in the beautiful sunshine.  We were so sad to see her go this morning.  Thank you, Aunt Austin, for making the effort to come and see us.  We miss you already!

After a relaxing afternoon and dinner out on the deck on Friday, we headed out to the waterfront in Tacoma to walk along Ruston Way as the sun set.  It was a beautiful, warm evening and we had a great time...especially Lia on her bike with no training wheels!

My big girl and Commencement Bay.

Since there were no clouds in the sky all weekend long, we had nonstop, breathtaking views of Mt. Rainier.  Here is the view we could see from the water.

After Lia's swim lessons on Saturday morning, we headed downtown to wander through our farmer's market.  We ate some delicious food, marveled at the beautiful flowers and handmade wares, and finished up at our favorite Greek restaurant for some gyros for lunch!

We came back Saturday afternoon for nap time for the two babies.  While Ron and I got some things done, Austin treated Lia to over two hours of her undivided attention for some Barbie play.  Austin is an expert at hair styling, accessorizing, and dressing dolls...so Lia was in absolute heaven!!  Here is a picture of these two ladies hard at work in Lia's room.

We finished off Saturday by driving up to Lake Sammamish for an evening of swimming and a picnic dinner.  Although the water temperature has dipped to 69 degrees, it still felt great since it was in the mid 80s yesterday!  We were surprised to run into Eric and his family there and had a great time swimming and playing with everyone.

Logan and his newly discovered water toy of choice--the inner tube!

Aunt Austin held baby Ella for quite sometime which was wonderful as it allowed me to swim with the kiddos.

Aunt Austin even put on her suit and waded out with Lia for a bit.  This is a big deal for this Southern gal who is used to much warmer swimming temperatures.

We finished up Austin's visit this morning with a Filipino breakfast.  Here she is with Lia and Logan before heading to the airport.