Our 1st trip home to USA after moving to HK

Our vacation back to USA was a quick one (10 days) and each day was packed with lots and lots of visits with relatives and friends.


The highlight of the entire trip for Mark was a surprise concert by a few members of Pearl Jam at the 100th anniversary celebration of the Pike Place Market in Seattle. Our 1st day in Seattle, Mark happened to see a rumor online that Pearl Jam would be appearing so we rushed downtown and ended up being front row center for a fun concert in the park. Here's Pearl Jam's guitarist Mike McCready.

Now that we're back home in Hong Kong, I'm ready for a real vacation doing nothing but sleeping, eating, drinking and getting lots of massages. The mid-Autumn festival is starting and we have a day off on October 1st, so I'm hoping maybe we can sneak in a 3 day weekend in the Philippines or something.

Doggy and Family Pictures
We did get lots of pictures on our USA trip and although I expected to come back with lots of pictures of me holding all the babies that have been born since we left, true to my nature, I mostly have pictures of me and all the dogs I left behind.

Here is me with my gorgeous nieces Katie and Elly and their dog Tally.

Then, here's me and Marvin (Mark's parent's dog which I helped them adopt from the Multnomah County Animal Shelter).

Then there's me with Dexter the Corgi (Mark's brother's dog).

Lastly, here's me and Abner the beagle (Abner is our friend's Ian and Tracy's dog)



Grandpa Roy
We did see some humans too. We saw Mark's grandpa Roy who's currently in a nursing home but doing amazing at 95 years old.






The Sovars
Of course, we got the whole Sovar clan together at my parent's house (Sovar is my maiden name).

Here's my parents and us 4 kids. And here's all the Sovar kids with their spouses and children.
That's right, 4 grown kids but only 2 grandchildren so far. Gene and Theresa better get busy...

However, the 2 grandchildren are pretty adorable so I don't think my parent's mourn the lack of grandchildren too much. Here's Katie and Elly at the mall after I convinced my sister to let us all have the incredibly sweet treat of a chocolate dipped twinkie on a stick. Yum!

The Petersons
After visiting the Sovar's in Seattle, we drove South to Kelso to see Mark's side of the family.

Here's Mark's parents in front of their smiley face basketball hoop and camping trailer.

Another highlight was being able to see Mark's friend Kim and his little baby boy Cade. Cade was born VERY premature and spent many months in the hospital, but he came home from the hospital just a little bit before we came for a visit so Kim and Mandy brought Cade to visit us.

We saw Mark's brother Craig, his wife Kristen and their kids Ella and Blake but somehow didn't get ANY pictures of them. Only their dog Dexter (above) which is very typical of me. Oh well.

After visiting family, we were able to catch up with some friends including Tracy and Ian who had their 2nd baby boy this past year.

We also caught up with old co-workers including Mark's old work buddy Michael.

We also saw a few of my co-workers Jody, Rachel and Jen who have been busy having babies since we left.

Rachel's pregnant and due around Dec 31st.

Jen just had her baby Gwenie just 1 week before we visited!

And here's Jody and Travis and almost 2 year old Ava.


Of course, we couldn't make a visit back to USA without driving past our old house. It looked the same and made me dream of all the luxurious space in that 2,500 sq ft house.

For me, the best part of any trip is coming home to my Bailey. Fortunately, we had a very good dog sitter taking care of her while we were gone. Chris is the husband of my boss's maid (complicated connection right?) and he came over from Manila to stay in our house and take care of Bailey. Bailey loved him.