Bellingham in the Summertime

So this has been one of our craziest summers ever! At the end of June we took a 2 and a half week trip to Washington. Jeff hadn't been home in a year and a half, so it was so great to be in Bellingham where we were both born and raised and to be with our families. I am such an idiot and forgot the memory card for our camera at home, so we only were able to take like five pictures. Luckily, some people sent me some that they took, but some are a little blurry. I feel bad because we did so much fun stuff that I wasn't able to get any pictures of. Oh well. This first picture is when we went with Jeff's family to Deception Pass. I guess they used to go there as a family sometimes when they were growing up. I had driven by Deception Pass, but don't remember ever stopping there. It was really pretty and the kids loved playing in the water.

Frank (Jeff's dad) had been telling us for a while about a guy at his work who owned his own lions and tigers. I totally did not believe him. I didn't think Frank was lying but I thought the guy at his work was lying. I didn't think there would be any way for it to be legal for a random guy to own tigers and lions in Bellingham. Well, he set up a time for us to go see him and it was totally real!!! All that was between us and the giant cats was a skinny chain link fence! He had 3 or 4 tigers and a lion. It was so awesome! It was right before feeding time, so these weren't the lazy cats you see at the zoo. They were pacing, and you had to be careful not to turn your back on them or they would pounce the fence. We were all a little nervous to say the least. The owner went in the cage with them and also fed them dead smelly calves with his bare hands. It was a pretty cool experience.

I also got to spend some time with my amazing grandma and her boyfriend, Howard. They are so cute and the sweetest people. Here is a picture with us and Cheyenne.

Jeff and I also ran the Seattle Rock and Roll Half Marathon. It was so much fun! The night before there was an expo with all these food samples which was pretty cool. Then we stayed the night and my brother Brian's house. It was his birthday so his wife, Dana, made an amazing spaghetti dinner (for us to have carbs before the race) along with a delicious ice cream cake- YUM! The next morning we woke up early only to get stuck in traffic. The freeway was stopped. We spent about an hour going only 2 miles and the race was starting in 10 minutes. Finally, Jeff and I got impatient and jumped out and started to jog to the start line. So we ended up running an extra 2 miles! Jeff and I ended up running the entire race side by side which was so much fun. It was Jeff's first half marathon and I ended up getting a Personal Record!! We ran it in 1 hour and 43 minutes and 25 seconds. It turned out to be 7:54 pace. My previous best had been 8:02 pace, so I beat it by 8 seconds per mile!! We were both very happy with the race and it was a really cool course with a band every mile and high school cheerleaders every mile. We ran on the freeway, through tunnels, along Lake Washington and downtown Seattle. It Rocked:) At the end my Dad, Jeff's sister, Jenny, Jeff's dad and Cheyenne were all there waiting for us with signs. Thanks guys!

We got to spend a lot of time at Frank and Connie's (Jeff's parents) just relaxing and enjoying the sun. I thought this picture was hilarious, Cheyenne's cousin Will doing a faceplant:) He's tough though, he didn't even cry. Cheyenne liked to ride on the slip n slide too.

Here is a cute picture of Cheyenne with her cousins Hannah and Tommy.

It was such a fun trip and went by too fast. We also got to spend some time at my Dad and Karen's house and we went camping at Sun Lakes with Jeff's family. I am really bummed I didn't get a picture with Jeff's grandparents! If anyone has one, send it my way! Jeff's uncle and aunt, Tim and Jill, have a jet ski and a boat so we had so much fun on Sun Lakes playing in the water all day! We had a great time and are hoping to be able to go back for Christmas.