Trip to Tennessee & Alayna's birthday

We've been in Tennessee for a few weeks and I've been unable to upload videos or update my blog, so I'm really behind... but I got an awesome new laptop today and am excited to let y'all know what we've been up to.

On September 24, we were planning on driving down to Denver early in the day, hopefully having plenty of time to go swimming at the hotel and have a nice dinner, and then we were flying to Nashville in morning. As we were doing some last-minute packing and were just about to load up in the car and leave, Alayna tripped in the bedroom and hit her face on Mike's night stand. She bit a huge gap into her bottom lip and it was just gushing blood. It was so scary! The hole in her lip was so big and deep, we were afraid she might have to get stitches so I called the doctor and we went in to get it checked out. Thankfully, the doctor said she didn't need stitches, but we ended up getting a really late start and had a very unhappy baby for the whole trip, poor thing! We didn't get to the hotel until way after her bedtime. Here is a picture of her sleeping in the car holding a balloon that we got her to cheer her up.

She was much happier the next day (which happened to be her birthday, Sep 25!) and thankfully was very good on the plane and drive from Nashville to Knoxville. Here we are playing on the airplane.

That weekend, we had a birthday party for Alayna. Besides Mike and me, Grandma and Grandpa Simpson, Great Grandma Simpson, Uncle Jon and Aunt Donna, Aunt Patsy, Cousins Kenny and Natasha, Cousin Jessica and her fiance Seth, and Mike's friend Caitlyn were all in attendance. She had so much fun playing with the balloons!

For the party, Alayna wore her pretty princess dress (given to her by her cousin Alyssa) and I made her a Princess in the Pea cake. It was so much fun to make, and pretty tasty too! She got lots of nice gifts and had a great birthday. I still can't believe she's a whole year old already!

A Visit From Grandpa Mellin

Mike's dad came to visit us this weekend and it was really nice. Alayna absolutely loves her grandpa! Every time she saw him she would just smile like crazy. She asked him to read lots of books to her (by throwing the books at him, ha ha!) and he read them happily, much to her delight. He didn't show up the last time he was supposed to come, when he was on his way to California for several weeks, so we were happy that he was able to see us after his trip.

Toddler Story Time at the Library

Alayna and I went to the library for Toddler Story Time today. She totally loved it and was so good. Her friends Brekken and Alek were there too (sitting in front of her in the first picture). I wish I had gotten some better pictures, but I didn't want to disrupt the storyteller. They have these story times every Tuesday morning during the school year, so we'll probably make it a weekly event.

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Alayna's first meeting with her cousins

Mike's brother Eric and his wife Christa, four-year-old son Andrew, and two-year-old daughter Alyssa came to visit us this week. We had so much fun with them and Alayna absolutely loved playing with her cousins. We spent a lot of time visiting outside in our back yard while the kids played in the sandbox.

We drove up to Casper Mountain and took a trip to the nearby waterfall, which was a perfect short hike for little kids and lots of fun. (BTW, in that first picture, Andrew is just making a silly face, not screaming.)

Christa read books to the kids and Alayna was fascinated.

They live all the way on the west coast of Washington state, so we don't get to see them very often, but it was wonderful to get the chance to hang out with them for a few days. Alayna was so sad when they left and has been fussy for days afterwards! Hopefully they will come back again soon. :)

Videos on Snapfish

I took some great videos of Alayna walking and playing and babbling today and was hoping to post them on this blog, but for some reason they are not uploading. Alayna took her first couple of steps a month ago and she's getting better and better at walking every day. If you would like to see some of our videos, including the new ones from today, you can go to my Snapfish Album and check them out. Click here for the link.