Ellie’s 2nd Birthday Photo Shoot

This year I thought it would be fun to take Ellie’s birthday pictures myself instead of having a professional do them. I asked Ruby to tag along and help with the photo shoot. We went down to the Gaylord Hotel in Grapvine and took some great pictures of Ellie in her Elmo birthday outfit. This place is awesome for pictures. You get the feel of being outside but you’re inside. I’m so glad that we decided to take her pictures here. Ellie was a great sport and let mommy take some really cute pictures. She just loves the camera and is such a ham. I’m not sure where she gets that from….hmmmm…Daddy I think. ;-)







XOXO
Michelle

Pack Your Bag…We’re Going 2 Grandma’s

Since Chris was going to be in India for a week on business, Ellie and I decided we would head to Phoenix, AZ. to visit daddy’s family. We also figured that this would be the last time that Ellie would get to fly as a “lap child” and we didn’t have to pay for another ticket. YEA! Everyone in Phoenix is so excited to see us (well, Ellie really) because we haven’t been there since last Thanksgiving. That is just way too long.



Day 1
So we’re all packed and ready to board the plane. Since daddy isn’t flying with us, Ellie and I fly coach. She was a little confused and disappointed about the seating arrangements this time because the last couple of times she’s been on a plane she has gotten to fly first class. Poor thing, huh? Here’s how I know…so we board the plane and she goes straight to the first row on the plane with the big plush leather seat. I tell her, “no, keep walking” so she goes to the next empty row with the big plush leather seat and tries to climb on and I tell her “no keep walking. We then get to about half way down the plane and she stops, turns to look at me and I say, “keep walking”. She looks around and says, “dad?”. As if dad would never make me sit back here. Anyway, we finally found our way towards our seat in the back of the plane and get settled. She managed to get through her flight in coach okay.

The weather in Phoenix was supposed to be a warm 104 degrees. Nice! Can’t wait!! But, it’s dry heat!!! Whatever, it’s still HOT! Anyway, when Ellie gets off the plane she stops, looks around and says “Whew, it’s hot!” Needless to say, everyone that heard hear laughed and her observation and simply agreed.

We kicked off what I knew would be a great trip by Ellie helping grandma in the kitchen with dinner. She did a fabulous job adding the tomatoes to the salad and snapping the string beans. Oh what fun!


Day 2
The 2 hour difference sure stirs things up. Ellie was wide awake and ready to start her day at about 6:15ish AM. Are you kidding me? There was no convincing her that we should get a few more minutes of shut eye. Oh well, who really needs sleep right? We lounged around and then headed for church with Papa and Gmmama. It was nice to see them show off their grand-daughter with such pride. Ellie did really well in Mass too which is always a plus.

Then, everyone came over for dinner. Ellie got to see her great grandma (she’s almost 90 years old), Uncle Tom, Aunt Paula & Uncle Jim, and her cousin Caleb. She had so much fun playing with Caleb. Although he is almost six, he did a great job entertaining Ellie. Aunt Michelle (Chris’ sister) and soon to be Uncle Jason came over with Ellie’s new cousin to be Lauren. Lauren too did an amazing job playing with Ellie. It’s great to be able to have her visit with family!

Day 3
We got to see a lot more of the dessert than I had hoped for. The plan was to take Ellie to McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale but I took a wrong turn. After an hour of trying to get back on track we were ready to hop on the train….but wait….the park closed for the morning! Yep, no luck! I was sooo irritated. So instead we went shopping. That made me feel a whole lot better about the ordeal.

Day 4
My sister in law, Michelle, is getting married this November so we had to find the perfect dress for Ellie to wear. We looked in several stores and finally found something at Mervin’s. I was shocked!! I know…I sound like a little bit of a snob but I am one! The dress is perfect for a casual beach wedding. Ellie is usually not a fan of trying clothes on but she loved this dress. Michelle and I had a great time laughing at her while she twirled around in her white and blue dress. She’s gonna look adorable!

After a busy day of shopping Ellie, Lauren & Michelle relaxed in the pool. Ellie is absolutely fearless which scares the heck out of us. She jumped into the pool and was having a good ‘ol time.

Day 5

Great-Grandma Boylan is 89 years old and lives alone in her apartment. I thought it would be good for Ellie to spend some time with her great-grandmother and hopefully brighten her day. It worked! Ellie had a great time playing pick-a-boo with her great-grandma and also playing with her grandma’s old doll. It was really neat to see the interaction of the 3 generations! We are truly blessed to have shared these special moments with Great-Grandma Boylan. I know that Ellie’s Great-Grandpa is watching his Bride from heaven enjoy the time she shares with her first Great-Granddaughter.

Day 6
Well, it was time to head back home after a wonderful week in Arizona. Ellie and I had an awesome time with Chris’ family. Although we missed having Daddy around for this trip, I am so glad that we decided to do this.

XOXO

Michelle

Bubbles Galore!

It was Ellie’s bath time and I had to get ready for “date night” so I decided to put Ellie in our bath for a little bubble bath fun. She had so much fun playing in our bath tub. I put plenty of bubbles in the bath to make sure she had a blast…and it worked. Ellie played in the bath for about 30 min. which gave me plenty of time to freshen up. OOOooo what fun was that bath!

XOXO
Michelle

Baking for Daddy

Today we celebrated Daddy’s 34th birthday by baking daddy his favorite dessert: key lime pie. YUMMY! Ellie was a great helper. She handed me all of the key limes and helped me squeeze the lime juice. She also helped with the measuring cups and did manage to spill some on the floor but that’s what baking is all about. Who can really bake without making a little bit of a mess? We had so much fun. Her favorite was licking the batter off of the mixing beaters. She was a little apprehensive about trying the creamy key lime mix at first but after a small taste she was hooked. Do you blame her?

It was so much fun to bake with my little girl. When we were baking and chatting I was thinking about when she was a baby and I wondered how it would be when we could do these types of activities together. Wow, it is everything I thought it would be and more. She is already such a great helper and loves standing on the stool step to help with everything.













After dinner, we opened daddy’s small birthday gift and sang “Happy Birthday to Daddy” and ate some delicious key lime pie that mommy and Ellie baked for Daddy. Although we did not have an elaborate birthday celebration for Chris, it was very special because his little girl baked her very first delicious pie for his birthday.



















XOXO
Michelle

Trip to San Diego, CA

Chris had a week long meeting planned to San Diego and invited us to tag along. It didn’t take too much convincing considering the average temperature in Dallas for the week was supposed to be a “warm” 100 degrees and San Diego’s average temperature for the week was sunny and 75 degrees. Who wouldn’t take up the offer? So we packed our bags, headed to the airport and were on our way for a fun filled week in San Diego. Chris was going to be busy most of the week in meetings but still planned on getting away few days for some good o’l family fun.

Day 1, Sunday-La Jolla

The flight was pretty painless. Ellie watched a few movies with Daddy in first class while mommy took a middle seat in coach and read a couple of juicy gossip magazines. What a treat! We checked into our home for the week: Hilton Torrey Pines. I don’t know too much about hotels with nice golf courses but I will say that any hotel overlooking the ocean and a golf course isn’t too shabby. The view was incredible and we were very excited to call it home for the week.

View of pool from the lobby

Once we found our way around, we headed to La Jolla for a late lunch. It was a busy afternoon in La Jolla. There was some sort of hippie music festival going on in the park and people hanging out listening to music.

We ended up at this great little restaurant called Cody's and had the most amazing fish. Ellie slept right through lunch so it gave Chris and I a little quiet time to enjoy the view and our meal. Then we walked over to the park and walked around for a bit, stopped to see about 20 seals that were swimming in the cove, and shopped around some great boutiques in the downtown area.

Seals swimming in the cove

It was about time for the sun to set and Chris found this great restarunt called Jack’s that had sunset drink specials so we popped in to take in the view. Gorgeous!!!

Ellie & Daddy dancing at Jack's

Mommy & Ellie

Day 2, Monday Sea World

I’m not sure if it’s because both Chris and I are both a kid at heart but we were so excited to take Ellie to Sea World. Because she is a huge Sesame Street fan, we booked a “Breakfast with Elmo” show so that she could meet the characters up close and personal. She even has a special Elmo outfit that we found for the date. Well, it turned out not to be the highlight of the week. Let’s just say that she is NOT a fan of any of the Sesame Street characters live. I don’t think she has ever been more frightened than when the 9 feet tall Big Bird walked in the breakfast area. Unfortunately, it didn’t get any better when Elmo and the rest of the gang made it around the tables.

Oh well, we tried. Since Chris had an early afternoon meeting, we walked over to the Sesame Street kiddie ride area and rode a few rides. That was a much better experience.

Later that afternoon, Ellie and I returned to Sea World and watched a few more shows and waited for daddy to meet up with us after his meetings.

It was finally time for the best part of Sea World…the Shamu show “Believe”. After sitting through a few shows with Ellie, we soon realized that the only real show she was excited about was Shamu. Chris said it best when he said that she is only interested in the headliner. During the sea lion show she was ready to leave 5 min. into the show, same thing with the dolphin show but the Shamu show was a whole other story. The excitement she showed in anticipation of Shamu’s grand entrance was indescribable. Ellie would scream out “Shamu” hoping that he might hear her over the sea of voices in the stadium. She would look into our eyes and pinch (gently) our cheeks screeching “Amu”. When Shamu finally made his appearance her face lit up like a Christmas tree, her mouth opened wide with a big “O”, and she jumped up and down because she could not contain her excitement. Both Chris and I cannot tell you how good it made us feel to see so much joy and excitement in our child’s face. This alone made the whole trip worth it.

Day 3, Tuesday-Balboa Park

After the action packed day the day before, I decided to take it easy and do something somewhat low key plus Chris was going to be in meetings all day. We spent most of the morning walking around the hotel’s beautiful gardens and pool area. I was able to get some great pictures of Ellie and enjoy the beautiful view the hotel had to offer. Everything was so lush and green. It was a great relaxing morning.




















I decided to take Ellie to Balboa Park for the afternoon. Balboa Park is a gorgeous park with several different museums around the park. We walked through the Botanical Gardens, the Science Museum and then ran around the playground in the park. They had a huge water fountain in the center of the park but Ellie wasn’t interested in going for a dip-thank God! On one side of the park they have a carousel and train ride that was a fun little treat.





















Later that evening, “Uncle Dan” (Chris’ counter part at IBM) had us over for a fantastic dinner. He shared some of his amazing wine from his wine collection and was a wonderful host. Chris and I talked about how nice it is to have a work family that you can enjoy having such good rapport with. Thanks Dan & Liz for having us over for dinner!