Visitors...

About a month ago, we had visitors two different weekends.  More specifically, Elvin's brother and his family came to visit, and then two weeks latere, Elvin's parents came for the weekend as well.

 

Elvin's brother and sister-in-law have a son, Elliott, a few months younger than Karina.  So of course, we made the requisite visit to the local park.  Karina loves being on the swing.  Elliott, however, prefers to push the swing.

 

 

Elliott, maybe because he does not have any of his own sisters to play with (and pester), very quickly figured out how to play with (and pester) his girl cousins.  At the park, he snuck up behind the bench where the girls were eating snacks (and you can see in the photo that Eliana is making a pretend phone call to a pretend somebody), and with a huge grin on his face, pulled on Karina's hair.  She didn't really know what to make of it.   



  

Elliott also gave out many hugs during the weekend.

 

Portland is famous for its food carts so for dinner one night, we made our way down to explore.  Emily got some Greek food, the kids had pizza, and Elvin ordered lefse (Norwegian tortilla-like flatbread spread with butter and honey) and deep-fried and breaded anchovies.

Karina, ever the adventurous eater like her Daddy, thought the anchovies were quite tasty.  The aioli dipping sauce was not to bad either.  Daddy was very proud that night.

 

Gabriel, on the other hand, dozed off after a meal of milk.

 

The following weekend, Elvin's parents visited and got re-acquainted with Gabriel.  They hadn't seen him since he was 6 weeks old and he had literally doubled in size since then.

The girls also had a good time hanging out with Yeh-yeh and Nai-nai.  The weather was unseasonably warm and they enjoyed eating popsicles on the porch. 

We decided to go hiking at a local natural preserve.  We ended up hiking for a few miles.  Interestingly, Karina walked much of the way, while Eliana decided that she needed to lounge in the stroller.

Gabriel snoozed much of the way.  He likes being carried, but lugging around a 20 pound baby is quite a work-out.

And that weekend, we celebrated Yeh-yeh's birthday.  Eliana helped bake a cake, and we later sang Happy Birthday and Karina helped to blow out the candles.

 

Overall, the girls had lots of fun both weekends and got to spend quality time with their family!