ABOVE the 45th: the perrigos take seattle! and I was there, too

The mere fact that I managed to narrow this post down to even this many photos is quite the feat, I'll tell you that much, because I most definitely went overboard with the whole "don't mind Aunt Lauren, she'll just be sticking a camera in your face for the rest of your life but don't worry, you'll get used to it, I promise!" thing.

And to be fair, by the end of the day, the boys were totally used to it. Jack was even hamming it up a little by then ((still mastering the concept of "cheese", that one)).

But really... In the contest of "Who Has The Cutest Nephews", I win by a landslide. So you'll bear with me on this.

::waves hand - Jedi style::

When Laura and John were planning their trip back out here to the PNW, the original plan was for them to hit up his family reunion in Gig Harbor then buzz down to Portland for a few days and get all of the squealing, laughing, drinking, bouncing and baby-loving taken care of.

But then plans changed and all of a sudden it looked like Portland was off the table.

Boo.

There were a couple very unhappy campers.

((the boys, unaware of any of it, were still camping happy - mama and auntie on the other hand were a couple of sad macs))

BUT THEN!

Remember when I drove up to attack Jenn and the Gingers ((new band name? I think y'all would take Korea by storm!))? Well by some perfect will of God, it so happened that that was the very same weekend the Perrigos would be in Washington.

And so once I was done squealing, laughing, drinking and bouncing, I gathered my wits about me and prepared for an implosion of my heart.

After waving the Dignazios off into the Korean distance, and after a night of sleep that was like a little kid on Christmas Eve, I sped like a demon out of hell into Seattle ((not really, calm down Dad)) and found my wandering Perrigos at a little pub tucked inside Pike Place and proceeded to let my heart fall all to bits at seeing my girl and her boys after far too long.

I knew I was in for it meeting Tristen for the first time ((y'all already know how hard I fell for that little mister - good Lord, my heart can hardly take it)) but what I was totally unprepared for was JACK!

Not unlike when I saw Kamdyn again after so long, or especially when I hadn't seen Jack for the first year of his life and found him again at 14 months, I was totally unprepared for this little two year-old tornado.

That kid has been the light of my life since the day he was born and this auntie's heart could barely stand it seeing how big he'd grown in just one short year.

Why must they grow up so fast?!