Washington (the kids' vacation)

I'm so lucky to have married into such an amazing family! Jeremiah's mom & sister Tabetha worked so hard to keep 5 children safe & happy for 9 days (my 3 plus Tabetha's 2). It's no small feat!

While I was off to Hawaii they did lots of activites & Jeremiah's mom & Tabetha made sure to take lots of pictures, as well as write down what they did for the day so that the kids would have a journal of their trip to Washington. Not only were Mom & Tabetha amazing, but Jeremiah's grandmas both spent special times with the kids as well as Aunts & Uncles. Jeremiah grew up surrounded by family & many of them are still there now. On Jeremiah's mom's side 2 aunts/uncles & one grandma live walking distance away (a 3rd aunt/uncle even if you like a LONG walk, or a very quick drive). Another aunt/uncle & set of grandparents live about 15 minutes away. I would seriously love to live by all of his family - they're incredible!

I don't have the pictures yet that Tabby & Mom took while I was gone, but I thought I'd share some that the kids took! :) These were taken before & after I went to Hawaii, since I spent a few days with Jeremiah's family at the beginning & end of the trip.

This is Jack's picture collage (did anyone watch The Bachelorette this season [not that I'm admitting that I did]? It's like Kirk's dad's house!):

Callie's & Emily's collage, although Callie tells me that she only took the pictures with people & that Emily took the others. Nice work Em! (Emily is one of Jeremiah's cousins. She's the same age as Callie & they were good friends while the kids were there)

Callie & Emily. I love the ones where they took pictures of each other making funny faces. Also the bottom ones of Callie are self-portraits! She's totally my kid - while we were on vacation it became a bit of a joke that I kept taking self portraits :) Mine weren't with such silly faces though!

Jack LOVED chasing birds out in the field!

It rained off & on most of the time the kids were there. That didn't stop them from having a great time!

Some of us went to Ronnie D's for lunch one day. That's Jeremiah's fav place to go when we visit his family since their fries & shakes are the best!!! I took this picture of us to send to Jeremiah :) So that's Jeremiah's Grandma McCombs on the front left. She's 81! Doesn't she look great?! And Jeremiah's mom has the dark hair on the right side. Can you believe how young she looks? Aunt Jacki is the front right & Callie just loved spending time with her!

Flying alone with 3 kids was definitely not easy, but the kids did great! We were extremely lucky blessed on both flights. On our way TO Washington Callie got to sit behind Jack, Ellie & me with a flight attendant named Shari who was off duty & on her way home. Callie talked her ear off for the first 45 minutes of the flight. They looked at magazines together, Shari some of Callie's books to her, and she even took Callie up front to the cockpit to meet the pilot when we got to Spokane! How awesome is that?! On our way FROM Washington Callie sat in front of Jack, Ellie & me with a flight attendant named Jeff who must have been on his way to another city to start a shift. He was off duty though & he let Callie play on his laptop, he got her a special coloring book, he got her drinks & snacks early & anytime she wanted, and he even gave her a whole little baggie full of the plastic wings they hand out to kids & told her she was an honorary flight attendant. She's Jeff's special assistant & she tells everyone about how she gets to help pass out drinks & snacks on the next flight she takes if Jeff's on it since she's a real flight attendant now! Even the other day she told me she already has a job & a boss (this is 2 months after we've been home)! I love Southwest & we had the absolute best experiences both ways!

We had just got our luggage back in Vegas & Ellie was so stinkin' cute with her little suitcase. She wanted to pull it along all by herself.

Ellie modeling one of the souvenirs we brought her from Hawaii. The thing they all have loved the most by far has been the ukuleles! We brought one for each of them & they have spent a lot of time playing them! What a wonderful vacation we had! Thanks again so much mom & Tabby for taking such wonderful care of our babies while we were away!