Auntie Mary Turns 88!

On Valentines Day, my family took a trek up to Parkdale, OR. If you don't know where that is, you're missing out! It's just up the hill from Hood River. I have lots of extended family that live up there and own orchards of pears and apples.

Anyways, the whole reason for our trek was to celebrate my Great Auntie Mary's 88th birthday. In asian culture, the number 8 carries great significance. I guess it's supposed to be lucky. So an 88th birthday is quite the big deal.

It was a really fun day! I met distant cousins I'm pretty sure I've never seen before. And my extended family got to meet my children and husband!

When we got there they were making mochi. (A sweet rice cake.) This was something I've never participated in before, and it was SO much fun. I've eaten mochi my whole life, and heard lots of stories about making it. It was great to finally be able to get in there and learn to do it with everyone!

During a lul in the afternoon, I took the antzy boys out into the orchard so we could run off some energy. They had a great time running through the rows and rows of trees.

We came back inside just in time to see Auntie Mary blow out the candles on her cake! All in all, it was a really fun day and we had a great time catching up with family that we don't get to see that often.