Trip to WPB

Last week we drove to West Palm Beach, FL to visit Chet's family (we won't be able to make it down there this year for the holidays).  We left Saturday morning, October 20th, and drove from here to Jacksonville, FL, where we spent the night.

We arrived in Jacksonville around 6:30 p.m., checked into our hotel, and headed to St. John's Town Center for dinner (Chick-fil-a) and walking around.

It was nice and chilly, and Sydney insisted on holding Lorelei's hand the whole time (very sweet, but also a little unsettling since her grip can be vice-like).

All four of us sleeping in the same hotel room was interesting, especially since it was Sydney's first hotel stay not sleeping in the Pack 'n' Play.  She mistakenly thought we were having a slumber party.

We attended our old church in Jacksonville on Sunday morning (it was amazing to see our friends), and then continued our trip south to WPB.

We arrived in WPB around 5:00 p.m., and were greeted by Chet's parents, Chet's sister (Jenni) and her kiddos (Tyler, Jacob, and Hailey), and Chet's brother (Todd) and his wife (Raquel) and their little boy (Aubrey).  It was a lot of fun to have all of the cousins under one roof!  I feel like I have to mention the ages of all the cousins, since Chet's parents gained five grandchildren in a span of 29 months:

1. Tyler - 7
2. Jacob - 3.5 (8 months older than Sydney)
3. Sydney - 2.75
4. Hailey - 2 (8 months younger than Sydney)
5. Aubrey - 17 months (8 months younger than Hailey)
6. Lorelei - 12 months (5 months  younger than Aubrey)

Crazy, right?!

Cousin Bath Time

Jacob, Aubrey, Tyler, and Sydney

Tyler and Sydney

Hailey and Aunt Raquel

The three "straight hair-ed" granchildren playing...the other three have adorable curly hair!

Aunt Carol and Lorelei

(I just realized I have hardly any pictures of the adults!  Chet's mom and Jenni are much better about taking pictures than I am during these visits.)

The next day, Monday, was Lorelei's birthday party.  We ate fried chicken for dinner and had Publix cake (I miss shopping at Publix so much)!

Decorations:

My friend Emily handmade this gorgeous birthday banner for her daughter and let me borrow it!

I loved these pumpkin lanterns I found at Party City:

$1 bin plates from Target:

The balloons were a huge hit:

 

A couple of present-opening pictures:

Cake (I was going for a Fall theme):

Jenni and her three munchkins headed back home on Tuesday.  Sydney played in Grammy's beautiful backyard and fed the ducks before nap time, and Chet and I took the girls to the mall in the afternoon after nap time.  We only made it as far as the giant play area right outside JC Penny (where we parked), ha!

Chet took all of the outdoor pictures; I thought he did a great job!

Lor at the Mall

Wednesday, we visited Aunt Carol at her new house (Grandma Lois was there too).  Wednesday night, Grammy watched the girls and Chet and I went to dinner (Panera Bread) and a movie ("Taken 2").

Thursday we packed up and headed back west (well, north, then west).  We stayed in Tallahassee Thursday night (I had never been there, but would love to visit again someday!), and arrived back home Friday evening.

Florida's Capitol

***Sydney got sick while we were in Tallahassee, but more on that later.***

We had an amazing visit, and were a little sad to return to the real world this week!