First, my mom and I met up at the Gourd Festival in Casa Grande and I took a couple classes and made these gourds! The geometric one is painted, the flower one is wood burned and painted.
My mom stayed an extra week after the festival and since it was her first time in Tucson, we did a few touristy activities! We drove through downtown, went out to eat for Mexican and Sonoran dogs and visited a cool plant store. One of the first things we where we took pictures was did was go to Gates Pass for sunset.
We went to the Desert Museum, which is kind of like a mix between zoo (with all animals native to this area) and a botanical garden. We loved looking at all the cactus varieties!
We also walked around Sweetwater Natural Preserve. It was so fun to have my mom visit!
Slightly unfortunately, I was in full first trimester/morning sickness mode by the time Lou and I flew into Seattle in April, and stayed that way for the whole trip. Fortunately, I had some good days and we were able to get out and have fun! Unfortunately again, Lou caught some nasty stomach bug and spent a day puking and being sad and successfully passed it on to multiple family members. Fortunately, the stomach bug seemed to only be terrible for a day or so. All in all, a bit of a sick filled trip interspersed with some fun activities!
One of the first things we did while we were there was go to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival! I was so glad I was able to come down before the tulips were done blooming. I think they only lasted about another week after we went. The trip was actually a bit of a struggle, because Lou was sooo grumpy. I thought she just had a slight cold, but as you now know, she was actually sick with something legit. But even with the grumpy girl, it was a fun little day trip with my mom and bestie Kayla and her two girls.
That night, all the sickness hit. Soon, everyone in the family (thankfully Kayla escaped it) was sick, some of them even worse than my pregnancy sickness! Lou was puking more than she ever has, and could barely keep any liquid down and she was cuddling with me. All abnormal signs. She got lots of snuggles and pedialyte and sleep over the next couple days and was soon back to her normal self. It was pretty bad for my mom and brother too, and the rest had slightly more mild symptoms. Somehow, Eloise always seems to get sick when we travel and this time she passed it on.
Thankfully, all the sickness seemed to have passed over the next few days before my old roommate Summer flew in! Kayla came over and spent the night with her girls as well. All three freshman roommates were together again! That night we ate a yummy dinner with my family and stayed up way too late chatting (like 2 or 3 am late). I haven't stayed up that late in ages.
The next day we made the trek into Seattle and did all the wonderful, touristy things! First, we hit up Pike Place and walked around the shops. We bought some kumquats and grapes from the farmer's market and some of my favorite pastries from Pirosky Pirosky. We found a nice place to sit in the sunshine overlooking the Sound and ate our snacks while Lou ran around like crazy.
Us girls also had to recreate a photo that we took when we were freshman. We laugh every time because one of us is always in leggings with no back pocket to put a hand in haha.
Then we headed over to the Nielsen bakery (a Nielson family favorite) and picked up some more pastries and cake to enjoy. On the way home, we made a quick stop at Kerry Park that has incredible views of the Seattle skyline.
That night, we had a homemade pizza night. Unfortunately, I was feeling so yucky that I didn't really enjoy the pizza until the next day. But man, my mom makes some dang good pizza! And Summer had to leave super early the next morning, so we stayed up slightly less late the second night haha. It was so fun to be able to chat with girls for hours about the most random stuff, it had been so long!
The rest of the week was fairly low key. Lou and I really enjoyed just spending time with family. We went out to eat, did some shopping, and visited my Grandma's grave. The weather stayed beautiful the entire time, which is crazy for Seattle in April! All in all, it was a wonderful visit to Washington!
