Family BBQ

I have a cousin that is on a mission for her church in Japan. Her mission is different from our church's missions in that she can stay for basically as long as she wants, she gets paid (monetarily) and she can take vacations. So its like a job, but she is serving God so its a mission. In August she came home for a couple of weeks to visit. Our family had a BBQ so everyone could come and see her all at once. There are a few kinds of foods she doesn't have over in Japan so we tried to accommodate that and give her something she'd have to wait to have again until she came home. :) We did the usual summer-time activities at my grandparents; swimming and hanging out outside, eating yummy food and dessert. Here are the pictures from her visit:

This is me and Amber.

 Alana in the pool sportin' her nose plug and goggles

 Brayden loved when the goggles would push his ears down like this...silly boy

 My cute kids

 Tim, Shannon, Alana, Ryan, Sileña and Brayden - aka, the fish of the family

 Sileña LOVES Ryan

 Me and my BEAUTIFUL Aunt Ginny...

 who always likes to ruin my pictures

 I made brownies and attempted to make soft baked cookies from scratch to put with ice cream but they all came out super flat (too much cornstarch) so we just used them as cookie crumbles. They were a big hit!

 umm, yeah. We like ice cream in my family

 Me, Amber and one of my other cousins, Laura

 And this was on the counter in my grandparent's kitchen. Anyone that knows my grandpa knows how much of a choc-o-holic he is.

We are all very proud of Amber and the sacrifices she is making being away from her family on her mission. I can't wait until she comes home sometime in 2014. Hopefully she will make another trip home between now and then!