Family Roots :: Happy Holidays!

Definitely looking forward to the holidays this weekend! We'll be spending time with Matt's immediate family and my family this year. We feel so lucky to live relatively close to all our immediate family so we can spend all the special holidays together. I was looking through some OLD photos and found a few I thought I'd share with the rest of you. :)

A little family history...
My parents immigrated to Portland, OR in the 1970s from South Korea. Prior to moving to the states, my dad was an army ranger & trainer and then worked on building a construction business in Korea. When he moved to Oregon, he basically had to start over from nothing since at the time, the Korean government wouldn't allow people to take more than a very small amount of money out of the country. He held many odd ball jobs (strawberry picking for one) and eventually settled into the manufacturing industry as a CNC programmer. My mom worked for many years in technology manufacturing/assembly.
My sister and I grew up in Portland and then Milwaukie (SE Portland). My parents still live in the same house we grew up in so it's fun to go back there during the holidays.

It's also funny how Portland has become the trendy/artsy/hipster city over the last few years. Quite a bit has changed! I remember my grandmother living literally across the river from the downtown and when she babysat my sister and I, she'd take us to Pioneer Courthouse Square and neighboring parks. It was always such an adventure! Good times. Any other people who grew up in Portland finding it funny (not necessarily in a bad way) how all of a sudden, it's such a "cool" place to be? :P I feel like, "Hey! We knew it was cool a long time ago." I even met my husband for the first time in Portland. It's really a great place.
While growing up in the Pacific Northwest, we had many family excursions across the state. I think we've camped and had a picnic at nearly every single state park in the state.

I especially LOVED going to the beach - Cannon Beach and Ecola State Park (think Goonies and Kindergarten Cop).

Long story short, family time is the best. I hope that everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend no matter where you will be spending it!!

With my sista.