Welcome Home Sister Stokes!

Part 3 of our California Trip!

Like I mentioned before, the whole reason we decided to go out to California was to be there when Bryant's sister Chantel came home from her LDS Mission  in the Philippines!

Chantel hadn't met Deagan before that day! I think Savannah remembered her. We kept a picture of Chantel on our fridge and talked a lot about her and what a missionary is to Savannah often, so I think she was able to remember a bit. 

Deagan is always barefoot. I've only recently started making him wear shoes in public places and he's not entirely loving it.

We were all there at the airport to welcome her home! 

Afterwards, we all went to lunch and met up with some more family!

Sharing food! Parenting WIN!

After lunch, we drove all the way back to Mt. Shasta (about a 3 hour drive). Want to know how bad the drought is in California right now? ^^ This is Lake Shasta. It's insanely low!

Welcome home Chantel! The people of the Philippines were very blessed to have you for the last 18 months. And I'm very blessed to have you as a sister-in-law!

And to send this blog post home, here are a few photos of the cousins together!

 Savannah was in heaven with all of Jayden's dress up clothes! It was so adorable!

 

She was particularly excited about dressing up as her best imaginary friend, Peter Pan

Mason and I got some one-on-one time too. It kind of stinks that my niece and nephew have to live so far away! If they lived close, I'd be the best, most child-spoiling, crazy aunt around!

 Aaaaand here's one of the Stokes brothers!

We loved our time in Sacramento! It's always great to see Jake and Sally and their kids. Savannah keeps asking me when we get to see her sister Jayden again. I try to explain that they are cousins, and what that means, but she keeps saying "No Mom, Jayden and me are sisters. Like how Ana and Elsa are sisters!"

I hope we get to see them again soon!

*Just a side note: Weed, California is a town about 10-15 minutes away from Mt. Shasta, where my in-laws live and where Bryant grew up. Right now, most of the town has been completely destroyed by a wildfire. Over 100 structures are destroyed or damaged, and 1500 people are evacuated. If you are in the NorCal area, please consider donating items to shelters and families. So many people have lost everything. For more info on the fire, go HERE.