Vacation to Bellingham

I decided I needed to take one last trip to Washington before Cheyenne turned two and could still fly for free. It is going to start to get really expensive to go home, so who knows how often we will be able to from now on. I wanted to go in the middle of football season, since Jeff is never home. It was so much fun and time really flew by. It would be nice to live near family, especially during football season!!

We flew in to Seattle Saturday August 28th. The flight went pretty well and Cheyenne was good for an almost 2 year old on such a long flight. At one point she started this screeching thing she does in the car. There is no stopping her once that is started. Thankfully we sat by a very nice man with an iphone who had many applications for her to be entertained with.

Mom and Rachel (my sister-in-law) picked me up from the airport and we headed to Brian and Dana's (other brother and sister-in-law) house for the night. The next day, one of my best friends, Christine Dillon, met me at my brother's house. It was really so good to see her, it had been so long! We probably talked for a few hours but it only seemed like 15 minutes, until we had to go. She was so sweet to get little presents for Cheyenne that she LOVED! She got her the little elmo doll she is holding, some stickers, and bath toys which were much needed, since I had never really ever gotten any for Cheyenne. Christine is one of the best people I know, and such a good friend, I feel so lucky to have her as a part of my life... just wish we lived closer!!

Next, Mom and I ran off to Big Stacey's bridal shower. She is getting married this month and she is so excited. She looked so happy and excited, it was fun to be able to go to her shower. She is a good family friend and my parents even named me after her. So she has always been Big Stacey and I have been Little Stacey, although, now it seems the names should probably switch!!

Here is Cheyenne with some of her cousins. Brian and Dana's house was awesome!! There were so many toys to play with, I barely saw Cheyenne the whole time- she was in heaven!!

Sunday night some other good family friends, the Vaughns, came over for dinner. It was so much fun to see them and their kids are all getting so big and grown up. Lucy is a teenager now (or maybe almost one) and she is just gorgeous, Cheyenne adored their other daughter Ella who played with her the whole time, and Trevor, their son is such a good, sweet boy. It was so fun to catch up!

Monday we went to the park and I took a million pictures but didn't post any here because there were already too many, but they are all on facebook if you are interested. Then that afternoon, all the girls headed for Bellingham. This picture is great of my mom, Hannah and Cheyenne. Hannah is about 2 months younger than Cheyenne.

We went to Lynden City park and had a picnic and played on their awesome playground.

Here is the sunset by mom's pool.

Rachel and I with our pregnant bellies... I was about 32 weeks I think and she was probably about 23 weeks or so. Jared and Rachel have two girls and they will be having their first boy in January!!

Cheyenne and Aubrielle loved to hold hands everywhere they went. Aubrielle is about 2.5 months older than Cheyenne. This was taken in downtown Bellingham on the way to the Children's Museum.

We had a great time at Mom's house. Highlights were eating LOTS of blackberries straight off the bush (I had been missing those down south!), delicious BBQ salmon, corn and potato dinner, and going through endless boxes of my old stuff reminiscing. Rachel couldn't believe people would save any of it, haha, and a lot of it went to goodwill, but it was fun to search through the boxes and enjoy the memories.

Friday we headed over to Jeff's parents house. We went to the Meridian High School (where Jeff went to school) football game to watch Jeff's cousins Tait and Zach play. They beat the other team by a lot, but it was fun to get to see them play.

All of Jeff's family except one of his sisters still live in Bellingham, so they all came over to visit. It was so much fun to see them all and I just love this picture of Cheyenne with her Bennum cousins... there are only 3 missing: Will and Tommy (the Utah cousins) and Tatym who wasn't there that night.

We really wanted to make sure we spent some time with our grandparents since they aren't really able to come out and see us. I just LOVE Jeff's grandparents, I have known them my entire life. My mom worked for Jeff's grandpa for about 20 years, and I think they taught my brothers in Sunday School or something. I remember for my 17th birthday they bought me a cake and invited me to Jeff's uncle Tim's house for a little birthday party for me. They are such fun grandparents and I am so happy my daughter gets to call them her Great Grandparents! Such a lucky little girl!

They gave Cheyenne this little handmade purple sweater that they bought at the Washington Fair in Lynden. I LOVE it, it is so original and adorable. Hopefully it will ever get cold enough for her to wear it here in Georgia!!

Above is Jeff's sister Kristen, with her two daughters, Haley and Hannah. Cheyenne has a cousin on each side named Hannah! I can't believe how big they have gotten, such sweet and cute girls! First thing Haley and Kyla (Jeff's other sister's daughter) did was give Cheyenne a makeover, it was so cute, Cheyenne came back with flowers in her hair, a crown on her head, fingernails painted, and stickers all over her body. She is so lucky to have so many fun girl cousins!

Above is Jeff's brother Bobby, his wife Stephanie and Their two kids Tatym and Luke. Bobby just got his own insurance agency through American Family Insurance, we are so excited for him! Even though we were secretly hoping they would move to Georgia!!

Here is Jeff's sister Tanya and her two daughters, Madesyn and Kyla with Cheyenne and I. Kyla made this giant adorable scrapbook for Cheyenne with pictures from Jeff and her last trip. It was so sweet and thoughtful, you could tell she put a lot of time into it. Cheyenne loves it and looks at it all the time. I will have to add some more pictures from this trip.

Cheyenne loved to climb all over Grandpa Frank! Here he is taking her for a ride.

I had to post a picture of this freaky doll my Grandma has. Kids love it though, because it is just their size. Cheyenne kept holding her broken hand and saying "cheese." Then she would give her hugs and kisses.

Cheyenne with my dad, we got to spend a few days with him and had fun hitting all the bargain stores. I wish they had some of them in Georgia... I did buy some gum and cake frosting to take home with me, but I wanted more stuff that wouldn't fit in my bag.

Here is Cheyenne with my Grandma and her boyfriend Howard. She is my last living grandparent, it was so great to see her, I am lucky to have her as my grandma!

We had so much fun on our trip, thanks to everyone for hosting us! We really want to go back again next summer, when Jeff's sister Jenny goes, so at least his side of the family can all be together. I hope it works out!