the queen is here. the queen is here.

The Queen and King of England arrived!

Kind of.

Basically, they are royalty...but really only in our family.

Basically, they're from Europe...so England is close enough.

And basically my mom curtsied to them for two weeks straight...so there's that.

Here's the story.

 When I was 8 or 9 my parents had an exchange student from Italy stay with us for a few months during the summer.  

(They always did weird stuff like that...having strangers stay with us...it was annoying).

But this stranger, Elena, who wasn't even 18 yet, we fell in love with.

Like major, head over heals, lurve.

She was fabulous, and adorable, and charming, and loving, and exactly like the child they never had...but always wanted.

(only because they really couldn't communicate with her, and she really couldn't ask for anything, or complain).

And we all sobbed when she left.

And then she came back again with her best friend.

And again with her brother.

And again with her boyfriend.

And then my folks went to visit her.

(only after my dad took Italian at a community college).

And then Kip went to visit her.

And this time she came back again with her entire family.

It was so much fun!

Hads and Martina (her daughter) hit it off...even though they had no idea what the other one was saying.

And Carson was head over heels for Mateo (her son) and Mossimo (her husband).

And my parents were thrilled to have their 'favorite' daughter back.

It was a whirlwind two and a half weeks of everything Seattle and everything family and everything happy.

And we'll need another three to five years to recover.

Ciao.

A little BBQ to welcome them 'home'.

And then Kip punched me in the gut...