Wandering Browns

Birthday in September! In September, Grandma Ev and Grandpa Jim came to visit! It was wonderful to have them around as we recovered from jet lag, went to doctor's appointments, and settled back in to life in the States. Grandma Ev brought birthday presents for Landon, as we celebrated his birthday in China, and we were not sure we would receive an intact package in China in the time frame we were given, so we just had her wait. Landon loved opening his gifts and having more toys to play with. Going from only a few toys that we could fit into our luggage, to having all of his old toys in our storage unit + birthday gifts was a big deal for him! We also went to the zoo with Grandma, which I wrote about on our travel blog. It's a party! Cubs game with Grandpa! Wrigley field The boys at Wrigley field The next week, Grandpa Jim came to visit. We drove into the city to catch a Cub's game and eat some delicious Chicago deep dish pizza. The Cubs lost- I t...

I coordinated with my siblings so we all departed from northern California the Monday after Hannah's farewell celebration. Our flights left in the late afternoon, so we took a quick drive down to Morro Bay- specifically the beach by Morro Rock to enjoy the ocean one last time before returning to our land-locked lives in Utah and Chicago. When we got there, the beach had been all cut up by a recent storm, leaving an interesting pool of water left over from high tide. "Icebergs" made of foam were floating on top of the water, and it had been warmed by the sun, so the water was not too cold. Naturally, this became Landon's playground. Sand...foam...water...fun aunts and a crazy uncle... what else does a little boy need? Running through the foam The play quickly evolved into a giant foam fight, with Hannah, Claire, and Greg getting in on the fun. Landon held his own, but ended up with a ton of foam all over him! Action shot of the foam fight ...

My little fireman! We spent two weeks in California after returning from China. Landon thoroughly enjoyed doing all things little boy- tromping around the backyard digging in the dirt, dressing up in his new fireman costume, a birthday gift from Grandma and Grandpa, and trying his hand at riding a bike for the first time. It was wonderful to spend some time with my sister, Hannah, before she departed for her LDS church mission to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Spanish speaking. She is so awesome and is going to be the best missionary! Landon loves his Aunt Claire, who is still enough of a kid to have a ton of fun with Landon on the trampoline, on the swings, and playing pretend in the backyard! Of course, hanging out with grandparents and Aunt Net was also great.  In his truck Landon has been asking to get a bike/learn to ride a bike for months. I told him Grandpa was going to find him a bike that was his size (with five kids' worth of stuff at our house, I knew there must be...

Oh man, the past two months have certainly flown by and completely gotten away from me. I am planning a few posts on my travel blog, but here's the run down of the past two months for us: Grammy and Landon at Mariah's wedding reception I received word a week or so before flying back to the U.S. in September that my maternal Grammy had passed away. Grammy always lived closed to us and was actually living with my parents at the time of her passing. She struggled with an array of health problems over the past 25 years or so, but her passing was sudden. I was sad to not have been able to see her in person prior to her death, but she did hear from me the day of her passing in that I talked to my mom on speaker phone with Grammy in the room that afternoon. She was always our biggest cheerleader and had wanted to travel before her health became too poor to do so. She loved following our adventures, looking at the pictures and imagining herself in all the places we visited. As ...