Fun summer day

Today Ella and I went to Burdette Park with my parents, brother, and my niece, Autumn. I had not been to Burdette in years. We used to go every weekend when I was a kid. I have tons of memories of swimming there. We would spend the whole day swimming and soaking up the sun! My favorite part of the whole day was grilling hot dogs for lunch. We had a small charcoal grill that we would take with us and take a small break for lunch. I loved doing that, and I will never forget it. 

Today was Ella and Autumn's first time at Burdette. They had the best time. I loved watching both of them go down the water slides. They both did really good in the water too. I can't believe how far Ella has come in just a couple weeks. She didn't cling to me at all today. I am so glad she is overcoming her fear. 

We had such a fun day at Burdette! It brought back lots of childhood memories. I am glad Ella is able to enjoy some of the same things I did when I was a kid! 

We have been busy....

We have been so busy lately. We had something planned every day last week. This past Wednesday Ella and I met Erin and Bree at Holiday World. We had the best time! Ella loves Holiday World and has been talking about it ever since. We even went to the water park this time. Ella did really good in the water. She enjoyed the pool, because the water only went up to her chest. She also liked the water slides. I stumbled a little at the end of one and scraped my knee. I tried my best to keep Ella above water, but I think she went under a little bit. She was scared for a second but wanted to go down again. I am glad it didn't scar her for life. Ella and I stayed for awhile to ride rides after Erin and Bree left. The park had cleared out quite a bit so Ella was able to ride as many times as she wanted. After six and half hours I decided it was time to go home. We had such a fun day! 

This past Saturday I was lucky enough to get to spend the whole day laying out with Alison! Alison and I used to lay out all the time back in the day (back in the day = no husbands, no full time jobs, no children, no dogs, pretty much NO responsibilities). Now days, we have to plan this stuff way in advance. It was just like old times. We got lunch and then we did our usual yogurt run. It used to be TCBY, but now we have Sweet CeCe's. YUM! It was such a fun, relaxing day. I hope we can do it again soon. 

"The girls" kept watching us out the window!

Last night we went to Pike Co. to visit with Adam's family. We had a nice time eating and visiting with Ma and Papaw. Ella loves to ride the "horsie" at their house. It's one of the horses on springs. She gets on and says, "go horsie, go." She also had to ride the four-wheeler with Adam. She loves to ride with him. He took her around to some of the places he used to ride when he was a kid. After dinner we headed over to see Poppy and Nana. We had fun visiting all the animals. Ella had to ride the mower with Poppy down to the pond to feed the fish. It's always an adventure there;) 

Hopefully Ella isn't a dare devil like her daddy was! 

My first time driving a four-wheeler. I'm a natural;) 

Lacey was brave enough to hop on the back with me! 

Daddy and Ella doing the "daddy face." 

Major breakthrough

This picture has nothing to do with this post. I just think it's hilarious! Ella is wearing Adam's shoes making her "daddy face." Don't ask me where she got this, but I think it's so funny! It's especially funny when Adam and Ella do this face side by side, because they look like twins! 

Anyway, in my effort to get Ella used to swimming pools I took her to Hartke pool after nap today. I am bound and DETERMINED for her to enjoy swimming. We made some headway on Monday, but I wanted to make some more progress. When she woke up from her nap today I asked her if she wanted to go swimming, and she of course answered "yes". We got our suits on and headed out the door. 

Ella was really excited to see the pool and the water slide. We got in the pool, and at first she was scared. She clung to me, but she at least seemed to enjoy the water. After a while I gradually tried moving her away from me, and it worked. By the end I was only holding her underarms, and she was kicking her legs. She was actually enjoying the water! I feel like we made a major breakthrough tonight!

She wanted to go down the water slide so bad! She loves water slides, and I don't think she has ever seen one in person. I walked her over there, and she wanted to go up the steps. I asked the life guard to please be sure to be at the bottom waiting. Ella sat on my lap, and against my better judgement we went down. I don't think I have ever seen (or heard) her that excited. She was laughing and screaming with glee. She was not a fan once we hit the bottom, but I was able to keep her above the water. I can't believe what a big girl she is getting to be!

4th of July weekend

I have been so busy, and I am SO behind on this blog it's not even funny. One of my pet peeves is not keeping this up to date! Life gets in the way sometimes, but I am trying my best!

We had a fun, busy fourth of July weekend. Sunday we headed over to my mom and dad's to grill out and shoot off fireworks. To our surprise, they had gotten the girls a trampoline. Ella was so excited! She had never been on a trampoline, but she caught on very quickly. 

After tons of jumping we went in to eat. Unfortunately, it started pouring rain. I had my eye on the radar the whole time. I think it has rained on the fourth the past three years or so. I was hoping the rain would stop so we could shoot off some fireworks. Luckily, it stopped raining right around 8:00 so we were able to! Ella did pretty good with the fireworks. She was a little scared at first and wanted to go in. She came back out and sat with me for awhile though. She is not a fan of the boom! 

Monday, Ella and I went over to Alison's to swim. I don't know if you remember, but Ella HATED the water last year. I have slowly been trying to ease her into it this year. She did pretty good in the pool. She enjoyed sitting on a raft. She clung to me for awhile, but at least she didn't cry! 

Jazmine (Mingy) had to come out and see what we were up to!  She is Alison's mom's dog. Jazmine and Elliott are half brother and sister. If it wasn't for Jazmine I would have never have gotten Elliott or Brody, since they are all from the same breeder. Thank goodness for Jazmine:)  Ella calls her "Minnie."