On Vacation: Part one

Sorry for being MIA for over a week now, we've been travelin' fools over here. Last week the little and I flew home to the Pacific Northwest, Seattle, and enjoyed a long week visiting family and friends. I love going home, I truly miss living in the Seattle area, even though I know we love Boise, i'm always torn, especially when I visit, it's tough not to want to stay. We had so many fun things planned this trip, and to start us off I've posted a ton of pictures from a road trip we took to a friends wedding. Saturday morning we packed up my mom's car and headed to Vancouver, Washington. 

It was a long drive, I got kinda bored and took a couple selfies :)

After 2 hours of traffic through Tacoma and Fort Lewis, we pulled into an adorable little town, Dupont, for some leg stretching and naked time. Stella had a massive poo, so she got to air out for awhile and let the buns get some sun, while mom and I tried to set her GPS to figure out where the heck in Vancouver we were going. 

We made it to the church with a half hour to spare... whew!! Neither of us expected traffic to be so bad, so we were happy to just be out of the car after such a long drive. We changed in the parking lot... yup, we were those guests lol. But at least we had dresses to change out of our jeans into. It worked out well, Stella got some more naked time before the wedding, then she slipped into her adorable little dress and headband, isn't she cute!?! She also got a new toy to play with during the ceremony, which only kept her entertained for about 10 minutes before she was chucking the thing into the aisle, where it would land with a huge thump and rattle... great. So I wore her in the sling, and danced around the back of the chapel for most of the ceremony. Stella really was pretty awesome throughout the whole thing, much better than her first wedding earlier this summer. She loved watching all the people up on stage, and loved when they had music and people singing, that got her attention with the first notes of the piano. 

After the ceremony, the bride and groom, Laura and Andrew, rode off in this awesome Plymouth! It was such a beautiful car! I just had to snap a few pictures to show my dad and Brent. 

My sister (the blond) was one of the co-maid's of honor. Laura and her have pretty much been best friends since high school, where they were co-yearbook editors for 2 years. And their yearbook teacher? She came to the wedding too! Her and her husband flew all the way up from Arizona to attend Laura's big day, that's Ms. B below Pammy and Laura. She was actually my yearbook instructor in middle school, almost 15 years ago! She said that she will be back for Pam's wedding when it happens and she wouldn't miss it for the world. 

Stell was quite the grump during the reception. She would not smile for anyone... well, except for Ms. B's (or now Mrs. Rodriguez) husband, Freddie, he seemed smitten with Stella, and she reciprocated that affection right back. It was pretty cute, I think she thought he looked like her daddy, because they both had facial hair... she has a thing for men with facial hair... it's pretty cute.

miss grumpy pants hangin out with grandma

and gettin some snuggles from Auntie

See, still grumpy

not even kisses will cheer her up

Stell finally told auntie off a little, lol, which shocked all of us a lot.

finally a happy girl with her mama

and no, my hair did not look like this the whole time, it was cute and down with a slight curl, but it was super humid and hot, so up it went when we got to the reception and Stella started pulling it.

awww, smooshy face kisses from the little, a mama's favorite

I love me some little snuggles

We had a great time celebrating Laura and Andrew's wedding, and I'm so thankful I was able to make it over for the event! Cheers to them and many years of love and happiness to the newlyweds!!!

Camping on the Columbia River

This weekend we packed up the little and headed to the Columbia River for a little condo camping with Abuela Beth and Opa Jim. I say condo camping because we got to stay in their amazing 5th wheel, instead of our plain 'ol tent, we were pretty spoiled. We had an awesome trip, took several very long walks, a couple fun bike rides (my first in almost 2 years!) and played in the water a ton. Abby swam all over the place, even Beth and Jim's dog Mia went in the water past her paws, a big first for her! We stayed at the Boardman Marina Park, In Boardman Oregon, It was great! We lucked out by booking last minute and got an amazing spot right on the water, it was perfect. 

Abuela with Stella Wrapped on her, I got tired on our long walk and passed her off for more snuggles.

Loving this cup, It entertained her for a good half hour or so.

checkin' out the river with opa

Lovin's

Apparently it's never too early to learn how to tie on a fish hook

The view from our camp. Stunning.

Flashback Friday

I'm so excited to be linking up to my first Flashback Friday this week! I've been wanting to do this for some time now, but just haven't taken the big step and done it, so here goes. 

Circa 2009. Pyramid Alehouse in downtown Seattle, my sister, Brent and I decided to stop for a Pyramid sampler on our way home from Brunch with our families.

I'm not really a beer drinker, so the below photo is totally staged, although I do think I had half the tiny glass just to see if I liked it. Nope. Still not a beer fan.

sorry its blurry... but I think this picture is pretty funny. Easter doesn't usually drive us to drink this much, promise.

Pammy gettin' her Curveball on.

and deciding what to drink next

And now to take you way back, to 2003. My first Easter brunch with Brent's family.It was raining at this moment, and Brent's mom was snapping candid photos of us. I love how young we look in this Picture, and how awkward we both are, ha ha ha.

Happy Friday! 

Yellowstone National Park

Last weekend Brent and I had the opportunity to take a long weekend trip to Yellowstone and Southwestern Montana. Brent had a job site he had to check on just outside of Cooke City, MT, so we jumped at the chance to take a road trip and venture someplace new. Brent had actually been to Yellowstone before, so it was just new to me, although he did see places he didn't go before, so it was still fun for both of us. We saw thousands of Bison, hundreds of Elk, 6 river Otters, 9 wolves, 3 large bears with 5 tiny cubs, one Kill where the above bears and wolves fought over the meat, and so many different birds I didn't even keep count. Below is our 5 day trip in just a few pictures. I'll keep the narration through the pictures as simple as possible.

(Below) This is Earthquake Lake, not located in Yellowstone, but on the way there. It was created when an Earthquake happened in the 60's and part of the mountain face fell, creating a huge crater from the force of the impact. 

(below and above) Brent and I with a waterfall that starts the Yellowstone Grand Canyon, we didnt follow the canyon very much, but this stop was neat.

(below) this Bison was just meandering along the road, not more than 10 feet from our car! about a minute after taking this picture, he walked between 2 thin trees and got stuck... no worries though, he just knocked the tree over and was ok. lol.

(below and above) These river otters were playing just below Fishing Bridge, they had about 5 huge trout on the logs (you can see the remains of one) that they were enjoying for lunch. I think there were 6 otters total.

(below) Brent and Abby playing in Yellowstone Lake... Abby has the leash attached because technically, she is not allowed out of our control at any time in the park. Poor girl had to stay in the kennel or on a leash the whole time. So, the first thing we did when we got out of the park, pulled over and just let her run like crazy! 

(below) Old Faithful!! I was excited to see it, but now that I have, I will admit it's totally overrated.

(below and above) so to make up for the unimpressive display of steam and water we had just witnessed, Brent made me do a hike to the top of a nearby hill, to check out the view of the valley. It was beautiful, and so much more exciting than the geyser lol.

(above and below) There is a Geyser named after us!! woo hoo! oh, and this was at 7:30am, and it was freezing!!! the temp dropped almost 40 degrees while we were there... so I am very much bundled up for warmth.

(above and below) these signs are all over the park, but we saw more of them in the Lamar Valley than anywhere else for the reason below... Bison. They just wandered along the roads, hundreds of them, weaving through stopped traffic, stopping to enjoy a good tasting plant, or say hello to a friend, with no concern for oncoming vehicles. Brent got pretty impatient at one point, and started weaving around the cars that were stopped strictly for pictures... those ones were annoying. 

So there is our trip! We had such a fun time on the road, it was one of the best road trips we've ever taken, and I cannot wait for another long adventure to be presented to us, we would be off in a heartbeat!