Conner, my 2 year old nephew, as usual was a stinking crack up. He alone made the trip a blast! On Monday we were making home made pizza so my mom, sisters (chelsey and emma) and I were getting ingredients ready. Conner felt very left out and discovered that where the spices were kept, went and grabbed a pan and some seasonings and took them over to his little play kitchen and began pretending to dump ingredients in the pan and stir them. He then called each of us over individually at different times during the evening, held the pan in our face and said enthusiastically, "I cook! Smell!" We were dying, it was so funny! 
Another fun part of the trip (although I don't know how much Chelsey enjoyed this) was being awakened by Conner every morning. He was always in such an excited mood to wake everyone up, and it was quite a fight for Chels to get him not to. I don't think that anyone minded, though. One morning we were in Emma's bedroom and he came in to wake us up. My mom, Emma, Chelsey and I were all visiting for a while when Conner picked up a statue Emma had of the Seattle LDS Temple. He held it up and said, "Temple! Nenus (which is Jesus in conner language) house!" and we all praised him for knowing that the temple his Jesus' house. Then he put it down, knocked on it three times and said, "HELLO NENUS!!" hahaha! I think that it was one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen a kid do in my life! Another funny thing about Conner is that he has an infatuation with belly buttons and thinks that they are hilarious. Much of the trip was spent with Conner seizing opportunities of lifting up mine and Emma's shirts to rub our belly buttons and say, "nice." and the he would laugh. What a goof! I love that kid!
Wednesday, I met my mother-in-law in Seattle to pick up Katie. Kay, my mother-in-law was pretty much beside herself with excitement. We arrived at the airport 40 minutes early and then the plane was delayed for about an hour. So, we went to Starbucks and got a salted carmel hot cocoa. Although it sounds crazy, it was so good! I don't like very sweet drinks, and I HATE carmel in drinks, but it was divine. I would definitely recommend it! Anyway, we spent the rest of the day with Katie and the next day went shopping for normal, non missionary clothes for Katie. That night Katie came over to spend the night at my family's house in Poulsbo, and she pretty much instantly won Conner over. He adored her. For the next two days he ONLY wanted Katie to sit by him in the car and wanted her to do everything that he did. It was pretty adorable. Friday we all went to a pumpkin patch and corn maze. It was really fun, especially for Conner. 
There were goats, sheep, llamas and cows for him to look at and pet. There was a pumpkin patch, an small enclosed area to ride little kid bikes (I'm pretty sure it was only meant for little kids, but we "adults" got on the bikes too) and there was also a little kid maze made out of hay bales. We thought Conner would like that, but we were wrong. He liked everything else, though :) 
Saturday we went to Seattle and walked around Pike Place, which is always a fave of mine. It always just turns into a way to eat a lot of interesting stuff, and I had my first piroshkys which are AWESOME! At pike place I held a craw fish which was kind of nasty, and it almost pinched me. 
Fortunately, I moved my fingers quick enough to avoid it, though. Then, it was time to take Katie back to the ferry to go back to meet up with the rest of the fam, which was sad :( 
Later that night my mom, dad, Emma, Jordan (emma's b/f) and I went to a corn maze. First of all, I have to say that my parents rock at reading maps and having a good sense of direction. I was rediculously lost pretty much the whole time, but it was so much fun. My parents and I went together and after we had made it through we decided to hide in the corn and scare people. I know it sounds really sinister, but it was SOOO MUCH FUN! I loved seeing my parents act like teenagers! we were laughing so hard. It was awesome! 
Then, after we got home we carved pumpkins. I was exausted and didn't want to participate, but my parent's coerced me into it. My pumpkin turned out pretty ugly, though. 
The next day, Sunday, was my grandpa's 70th birthday party so we headed down to Belfair and had a BBQ on the beach with my 2 uncles and their wives and my grandparents. There were tons of smelt swimming by in schools and so we decided to start catching them. It was so much fun! We just starting pulling in net fulls of them. My dad had started it from a platform above the water, but without luck and before long we had his shoes off and was wading in to his shins. Still without luck he waded in about to his knees. Then, after some success and still with fish in his net he lost his footing and was completely submersed in the water. I'm sure it was freezing for him, but it was pretty histerical to the rest of us! I'm pretty sure that I'll always remember that. Then, Jordan, Emma and I got started, and it was a blast and we had ton of luck. Jordan caught tons of them! Unfortunately, though, there was a miscommunication and nobody had actually wanted to take the smelt home so we released them. It was a blast catching them, though. 
Then, Monday was spent shopping and relaxing and Tuesday I came back home to a spotless apartment. (Way to go Aaron!) I have felt so blessed to have such wonderful family on both sides! I'll try to upload pictures of the trip :)
