Meeting a Swede and Pulling Some Weeds

Last weekend we went up to my parent's house to meet Tomas, our visiting relative relative from Sweden. Tomas' grandfather and my great grandfather were brother's. I have no idea what that is in terms of second cousins, etc. but we've been Facebook friends for a while now and it was great to finally meet him.

A lot of the family came out for dinner, to celebrate Mother's day, and to meet Tomas. Here's my cousin Heidi and Aunt Joanne.
This is Luis, Dan, and Tomas on the left. Amazingly, in addition to speaking Swedish and English, he spoke Spanish with Luis and German with Joanne and Doug.
My dad's cousin David (see Roslyn blogs) and his wife Anne came out from Walla Walla to meet Tomas. Here's (from left) Anne, Mary Lou, and mom. Poor mom has the remains of a black eye courtesy of a fight with her exercise bike while painting a chair in the garage.

Tomas, my dad, and David check out some of the family records and documents Tomas brought from Sweden.

The evening started out nice. Then as NW weather is want to do, the clouds and rain came. The girls, Ellia and Siena, enjoy the outdoors while its still nice. Ellia might be closer to Mason in age but those little girls sure have a good time playing together.

Me and auntie Jo. Do we look like a couple of Scandanavians or what.

Group photo. Many thanks to auntie Mary Lou for sharing her pictures with me after I forgot to stick in my memory card. All the good pictures are her's. Okay, here's my attempt at labeling.

Back row from left: Dan (cousin Heidi's husband), Mary Lou, David Bullock (dad's cousin), mom, dad, Tomas, David Bullock (dad's cousin), Anne (David's wife), Jay B with daughter Jocelyn on shoulders, me, Siena, Joanne, Uncle Doug

Front row from left: Uncle Bruce, Baby Rory (Jay B and Chandra's), Heidi w/ son Berren on lap, Ellia, Chandra, Luis, Mason, Amanda, and Travis.

Tomas brought over a beer brewed in our family's hometown of Mariestads. I enjoyed it Friday night after another hard work week. And it was gooooood.

The big excitement of this weekend was pulling weeds in the backyard. I'm bound and determined to gain control of the wild kingdom, otherwise known as our backyard. This is some genetic predisposition I get from each of my parents. No weed shall go unpulled. However, we have A LOT in our yard so this pile only represents a small section, though 2 days of work.

I am sore and tired.

We did a walk this evening and met a neighbor/professional Elvis impersonator. Who knew.

Since we didn't get home until late last Sunday, I didn't get a chance to give a proper Happy Mother's day blog shout out. I had hopes of something more formal but wanted to say a very very happy Mother's day and thank you to my mother. I couldn't have asked for a better mom in the world. Not only did she teach me all the necessary life lessons growing up: how to shave my legs, blue eyeshadow is not becoming, how to properly load a dishwasher but I know it's directly from her that I got my sense of humor. We both always laugh at the same silly spots in the same movies. She is also my favorite shopping partner and always just fun to hang out with. Thanks mom!!!