Trip to Idaho and Washington

This last month we went on a huge trip to Idaho and Washington to see our Shoemaker and Mellin families. My mom came to Casper for about a week and drove out to Idaho with Alayna and I while Mike was off exploring for uranium in Nevada. We spent a week with Alayna's Great Grandma Shoemaker (or as Alayna calls her, G.G.) and saw a bunch of my family there. My Uncle Mike came by every day to see Alayna but she was going through some serious stranger anxiety and just would pretty much hide and call for mommy every time she saw him. Poor Uncle Mike! :)


When Mike came back from Nevada, we went to Boise and saw Grandpa Mellin and Grandma Lavona, who let Alayna ride on her horse Chiquita.



We also got to see our friends Brandi & Shylo, Darren, & little Eddie.



Then, it was off to Washington where we saw Aunt Christa, Uncle Eric, Andrew & Alyssa in Ridgecrest. It was really nice to see them and we got the wonderful news that we're going to have another little niece or nephew! They recently moved to a beautiful farm house and even have chickens, which of course Alayna loved. Alayna just loves being with her cousins. We really wish we lived closer to them.



Next we visited our friends the Morgans in Port Orchard, Washington. We remember when little Michelle was born when we were all in college, and now she's 9 years old! Oh my gosh, where does the time go? They also have two sons, Matthew, 7, and Ryan who is just one month older than Alayna. They took us to the beach and on a mini-train ride and the kids had so much fun playing together.




Then, we drove to Spokane to see Alayna's Uncle Jason. At his house, she had a temper tantrum and threw herself down when I was holding her hand, and she ended up throwing her elbow slightly out of socket. We could tell it was very painful because she couldn't move it without screaming. Thankfully, I remembered Christa saying the same thing had happened to Alayna's cousin Alyssa and it was called nursemaid's elbow. So, we looked it up and decided to take her into urgent care to get it "popped" back in. The doctor gave her a sling, which made her feel much better, and it was fine by the next morning.



Finally, we ended up having to go back down to Boise because we found out Mike's grandpa had passed away. By this time we were exhausted and ready to go home, but we are really glad we went because we got to see nearly all of Mike's cousins, Aunts and Uncles, plus all of our Mellin family again.