VACATION!!!

Ahhh...vacation! Cold, clear water. Cold beer. Happy kids. Family. Friends. Grilling. Don't you just LOVE being on vacation? It's like you get to completely step out of your "real" life for a while.
Last weekend we went to Leakey, TX with my parents along with some of their friends and stayed in a beautiful cabin right on the Frio River. Neal and I had never met most of the people there, so it was a lot of fun to get to know everyone. Ella had a blast and also made new friends. There were 5 other kiddos there that kept her occupied and wore her out - and boy did they.

The river was low in most areas, so we did a lot of this

But there was a deep swimming hole just a few feet down where we were sitting where we did a lot of this

Yep...that's me jumping off the cliff! From the ground it doesn't look so bad, but once you climb all the way to the top and look over OMG! I stood there for about 30 minutes trying to make myself jump. I finally got the nerve and just went for it, then did it again and again...and you get the idea. There was also a rope swing that got a lot of use this weekend.

The guys all acted like teenagers again, drinking more than their weight in alcohol and doing a little of this

and this

We ate alot, drank a lot, visited a lot, and relaxed a lot...it was wonderful!
Now back to reality!

I O U

I just figured y'all were as tired as I am of looking at the same ol' pictures from my last post, so here are a few I snapped of Ella during our fun, relaxing, & wonderfully wet weekend with my friend Cassidie.

I promise I will be updating soon...just give me some time!

So consider this an I O U!

In the meantime you can look at more new pictures on My Other Blog!

About the trip...

So I'm finally getting the chance to update y'all on our little trip to Ohio. First of all, let me say this; I feel so bad for doubting and having completely no faith in my daughter when it came to her behavior on the airplane. She was an absolute angel!!! Not once did she fuss - not so much as a little whimper! She was completely happy just sitting on our laps looking out the window, reading the paper that shows you the steps to follow if your plane crashes, and just soaking up our undivided attention.While Neal was in class Ella and I didn't really do much besides hang around the hotel. I was a little uncomfortable driving around that city alone considering there were 2 cars broken into at our hotel and that there were more stories on the Columbus News about homicides or missing children than you would see here in a year. We did go to a park on the "nice" side of town and played for a couple of hours. We met a real live Nanny who was taking care of 2 kids there at the park so we joined with them and played, played, played!
We went to a water park one afternoon after Neal's class and went round and round the lazy river and played in the wave pool. And the next evening Neal took us to "America's Favorite Zoo" so they say. It really was the nicest zoo I have ever been to. All the animals were out and interacting with each other, or in the gorilla's case, the people sitting around staring at them. They had the best Monkey exhibit! Monkeys everywhere...and Ella LOVED it!!! She calls them monkoos, it's pretty darn cute! The other thing I thought was so cool about that zoo was that there were a couple exhibits that you could actually walk around with the animals, like the kangaroos...see: They of course had a petting zoo, which I was surprised Ella actually wanted to pet the goats.
We really had to rush through since we got there so late in the day, but we did stop to ride the carousel. I know this picture, along with all the rest are pretty terrible, but I didn't feel like packing along my "big" camera so it is what it is!!!I think what we all enjoyed the most about the entire trip was just the time we got to spend with each other. Its such a shame all the crap we have to do when we're at home! We should just get to play all the time! I will leave you with a few pictures of us just hanging out lovin life! OK...so maybe not so much lovin life in this one, but hey we can't be happy ALL the time!

I Finally Took The Time...

...to take some pictures of my own child!!!!

After we got home from work today I decided to let Ella play in her little pool in the back yard while Neal and I sat and had a beer (ahem...I mean tea.) While we were sitting there I was just noticing how beautiful it was out and how blue the sky was - it was gorgeous!!! So I thought it would be the perfect day to finally grab my camera, get Ella all dolled up and get some cute pictures of her. I guess all the stars and moon and whatever else were aligned just right, because we had a perfect day and Ella was in a perfect mood - or I guess it could have had something to do with the giant lollipop I gave her to eat...who knows! So anyways, Neal left to work on some stuff at my parents house so it was just me and her. I must say, I think they turned out pretty darn cute! I have more posted on My Other Blog and on our Shutterfly Website if your interested...
Well, that's all I have for now...we're off to Ohio Monday morning for a little "work/family vacation" so everybody PLEASE pray for us that Ella doesn't scream the entire flight!