No Shame...

Being that it was hot this weekend...FINALLY...not that it is now, mind you, but anyway we picked up a pool for our backyard for Miss Elena to cool off in. We blew it up while she napped (another rare thing) and then explained to her when she woke up we could try it, but the water might be too cold. Miss thing took a flying leap down the back porch steps, threw off her clothes and went bounding in without hesitation. 2 seconds later she was out of course..."Mommy! COOOOOOOOLLLDDDD!"...then proceeded to play with her lion bubble-maker.

Thank You, Lord

Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

Oscar Meyers

We have taken on a new venture this summer...babysitting a little dog named Oscar. He belongs to Jim and Lily (Jim is Eric's partner at work, and Lily is his new, lovely bride of almost a year), and due to their work schedule were needing a pet-sitter for Monday's. So we now have this four-legged friend keeping Elena company the first of every week. And it has been a hoot and a half! She chases him, holds him, takes him out ("Oscar! Les' go potties! You good boy! Das' it! YES, go potties!" Now if only we had that much enthusiasm in that department for her! Although, complete side note - we had 2 successful potties with a dry pull-up yesterday morning! I am TOO thrilled....uh-noh, my utter happiness now surrounds that of my 3 year old going to the bathroom! What do you suppose that says about me?!?!) The really sad part is when Mr. Jim comes to pick up Oscar as there are some tears shed. Elena really loves Oscar. Here's some shots: Elena walked Oscar around the house a bit, then she also decided he was tired and needed a ride around the living room on the ottoman. I am not sure that the walk around the house is what tired him out, more Elena, Elena chasing, Elena holding, Elena giving Oscar rides aound the living room, and did I mention Elena? :)

For Grandma Mares...

Grandma Marilyn loves Fresh Produce clothes (I swear it is the official uniform of The Villagers). All of the girls get Fresh Produce outfits for our birthdays and usually get some matching pieces for our little ones. So this is dedicated to that special part of Florida...Elena is posing (yes, again) in front of Turtle Bay where you can buy Fresh Produce clothing, and one of Elena and Grandma sitting out in front while mommy is shopping...

Just some more pics of FL

These are just more of the trip...sunset at Sumpter Landing in The Villages, shopping we did where Elena posed - YES, POSED - for pictures (for those of you that don't know how hard it has been to get pictures taken of her, well, let's just say this is a massive milestone for us!), Elena with Grandma and Grandpa at the square for vendor's night at Spanish Springs, and then of Elena walking with Grandma and Grandpa, turning around and seeing us come up on them in the golf cart. Her smile is not for us...it is for the golf cart...

Happy Birthday, Daddy!!!

Only 20 more years, and we qualify to be "Villagers", too...here's to many more beautiful years. Love you, Baby. ;)

"Oh, Wook! A Wizard!!!"

Last year, they were "zah-di-dids", this year they are "wizards", and they are the new-found love of Elena's. Lizards roam to and fro in FL, so to catch a little buddy was a treat and a constant request. Fortunately, we did manage to catch a couple slow ones and even managed to get one that was tolerant of Elena and stayed with her for a while. Now that we have returned, trying to convince Elena that there are no lizards in IL like there are in FL has been a bit daunting...that and explaining that we will not be going on the golf cart today, too...sheesh, I think we need to move!!! So here's one of our new friends...

And so begins the transition from vacation to trip...

Half way through our visit, we found out that our little girl is very allergic to medication taken for an ear infection she developed the day before we left. An explosion of swelling pink and purple hives sent us to the acute care, the ER the next day, and to Advanced Dermatology the third day. You know it's going to be an interesting turn out when doctor's are not used to seeing children...but, boy were they all excited to see a little person! Despite some concern and bewilderment, we were treated so kindly, and our final stop to the dermatologist gave ALL of us the relief we were needing. In their words, her reaction was "impressive"! I was impressed with the cure!!! Praise the Lord for a persistent mother-in-law who would not give up on getting the best treatment and would not rest until her grandaughter was better and her daughter-in-law was no longer in a state of worry, and especially when we had no idea where to go in a new place!!! By the way, the photo is from Day 1 of the ordeal. I will not post the others as they are just TOO sad!

More Birds, Dark Skies, and Elena chasing them...

Sarasota Beach

One of our favorite places to go while in Florida is Sarasota Beach. This year, it threatened rain storms, which Eric said the weatherman predicted to start after 1pm. So we loaded up early, enjoyed the beach, fed the sea gulls and ourselves, and low and behold 12:56pm and droplets start to fall...and then the floods unleashed. Now, that's weather reporting for ya!!!!

I'm a helper...

Elena received a sweet gift from "Aunt Jo", a lovely neighbor-lady of Marilyn and Bob's, who always has chocolate chip cookies for Eric and is secretly trying to steal him from me via cookie enticement...it might actually work! Anyway, she had a special watering can just Elena's size waiting for her so she could help Gramama and Grampapa water the plants.

More Florida...

These are some more. We love tooling around in a golf cart, since it is also a golf cart community (so to speak). Then there are pictures of us at the lake at Sumpter where we fed fish and turtles...and "Frogus" took a flying leap to his doom, and now literally is swimming with the fishes. Thank goodness for extra stuffed frogs that we've gotten for such emergencies (although Elena has never thrown a frog away before. We think she had such a good time throwing food, she didn't think about the actual loss of her stuffed best friend). So, to make her feel better about it until we got back for another replacement best friend, we made up a story of the lost Frogus, and how he made his way back to Elena by talking to fish, then turtles, then lizards (lots of those in FL!), then golfers, then cranes, then Dan the gate guy, and finally back home again to Elena and her grandparents. I think we will set it to paper and send it to Grandma and Grandpa. :)

It's time for Florida!

We've been out of town visiting Eric's parents in The Villages, FL for the last two weeks. This is supposedly a retirement community...I want to retire now, thank you so much! It is a beautiful place, with beautiful homes, shops and people. And palm trees...how we LOVE palm trees. So here's some shots of a great vacation. The first is of us at Lake Sumpter Square, which reminds us of being at the sea, and then some pictures on Gramama and Grampapa's porch...You can see Elena commandeered Gramama's "get well" balloon.