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!