Who's happier?

My Aunt and Uncle bought a weekend house on the Eastern Shore about 2 years ago and I'm not sure who's happier about it-us or them!  It's only about 40 minutes from our house which is awesome. We've been there for countless weekends, day trips, and overnights at this point and it's such a relaxing place!  It's walking distance to the river and has a huge pool where we pretty much live when we're there.  It's been great to spend lots of time with my Aunt and Uncle too (and we're well matched in Wii games which is a nice perk for the rainy days too!)  We spent Memorial Day weekend there (and Father's Day weekend too!) and here are some of the pics.

My 92 year old grandmother LOVED getting to spend the weekend with Ella and Sadie and see them in action for much longer than our average visit.  She was in heaven (though their clutter stressed her out but she hid it well!)

Marissa's roommate came for the day too-we love Mr.Jason :-)

Aunt Barbara, the grill master :-)

Sadie tried asparagus for the first time and loved it!

I have a feeling I'm going to have lots of smirking, patronizing pictures like this in the years to come. Oy.

I love this picture!! My grandmother specifically requested S'mores because she hadn't had them in decades and it was so much fun to watch her indulge and enjoy them SO much!  She ate ate least 2 or 3 :-)

Sadie and my grandmother bonded big time.  Well, Sadie's always liked her quite a bit.  Maybe she senses that she's where she got her light hair and blue eyes!

Reading the paper in the morning

First REALLY Warm Day!

 We had an oddly warm day last week and I woke up feeling like we needed a baby pool.  A trip to Walmart with the girls (and then one to Target when I realized Sadie didn't have a bathing suit or swimming diapers) and we set it all up in the yard and had a blast!!! Seeing the girls interact is one of my favorite things.  I'm loving how many activities and even toys they both enjoy and can do together!

Father's Day 2009!

My dad and Chris are GREAT, GREAT dads and I'm so thankful for both of them. We had a fun day and Chris got some new garden gadgets, a gardening class, and I made some tear-jerker DVD slideshows for him and my dad. It feels great to have a day set aside to make sure they know they're doing a good job in an area that really counts for eternity-investing in the hearts of little (and big) girls.

Breakfast in bed :-)

Ella helped Chris open the Father's Day Present she made at school almost 2 months ago and left stapled closed in a bag and wouldn't tell ANYONE what was in it! She's a good secret keeper! (It was a cute baseball mitt picture frame she made with herself in the middle as the ball)

Church was awesome-it's hard to tell but I got bold and took a picture while they were praying-all of the dads left their seats to kneel and pray and commit themselves to honoring God with how they love their families. SO moving. You can see our pastor, DA kneeling in the screen in the upper left.

On to the pool! Another afternoon at Aunt Bobbi's house :-) This time with a BBQ

This is the only pic of my dad from the day so I had to include it! He was too busy taking his own pictures of all of us :-)

My 90 year old grandmother chillin by the pool :-)

Marissa and Stella her new puppy :-)

Post-burger nap


I love this one!

Day at the Pool!

I am THRILLED my Aunt and Uncle bought a house on the bay about 45 minutes from us! We went and spent the day lounging around their pool on Saturday and it was blissful. Ella LOVES the pool, the weather was great, company was great and it was more restful than any Saturday I've had in a long time. Thanks God for answering our very specific prayers for a fun, relaxing day!

Update and Pics from Dad

Not a whole lot to report about Ella, she vascillates constantly between super sweet and super disobedient. We had our best trip to the Mall ever, just the two of us on Monday-shopped, had lunch, played, and she was great the entire time. It was wonderful! It felt like a glimpse of the future-a child who I can take places without fear of her running away, whining, crying etc. Then, the next day she played with Aunt Amy while I did school work and proceeded to beat her cousins up and openly defy Amy a million times. AHHHHHHH! The roller coaster of behavior is draining-I never know which Ella I'll have moment to moment. Thank God for all of the good moments though...and that she's so darn cute.

The only other news is that Ella's chipped tooth that was bonded fell off again and we got it re-fixed at the dentist last Tuesday. That night Ella got pushed off a slide, fell on her face, got a HORRIBLE fat lip, and of course, knocked off the bonding in her tooth that was done that morning. Her lip is almost completely healed now and we're trying to decide what to do about her tooth. The dentist has assured us it will continue to fall off every few months. So do we let her have half a front tooth for the next 4 years until it falls out? Or do we keep getting it bonded so she doesn't look funny? I'm up for advice...

Anyway, on a good note, here are some pics my dad took and passed on to me recently :-)

At the pool with Popeye and Abuela



I love this picture of Ella and Aunt Marissa-they look like models!

I love how she's looking at my grandmother with such admiration and interest.

Showing Ella the locket Marissa made me with a picture of us as kids

Dr.Ella! In her words, she currently wants to be "a monkey doctor, so she can help animals to feel better."