last night

We successfully took some pictures the last night at the beach without anyone getting stung by a jellyfish! 

 Isabella was super cooperative (rolls eyes), so we ended up with more pictures without her.

Thanks for a great trip Nana and Cappy! We had a great time!

More random pictures

Our first night on the beach.

Hanging out on the pier by Dewey Destin's.
We love that place and a perk of going in September is the wait was the shortest we've ever seen.

At the melt down in Seaside

I love the hawaiian shaved ice at frost bites in seaside!

Isabella did too

Michael and I went on a date night to Mitchell's Fish Market. My food was excellent!

Mostly we played on the beach, took naps, and ate yummy food. We also went to the outlet mall and checked out some the beach towns around us on a few days. And that's my kind of vacation! :)

Beach baby

Several things derailed me from blogging last week...so here is a late post-vacation post.

I am happy to say I think our girl loves the beach as much as we do. She had a blast digging in the sand and playing away and even swimming out deep in the ocean.

The water was super rough one day, but otherwise we had great beach days and great weather.

If she wasn't concentrating on her work she was in motion. Her movement and some tricky lighting situations made it difficult for me to get good shots as I am still learning to shoot in manual mode.

Lots of helicopters and planes flew overhead, which she loved watching.

We loved our week at the beach and all of the family time we had. The Florida coast is so beautiful! Michael left for a 4 day work trip early in the morning when we got home. Isabella and I were missing Daddy and the beach as soon as we got home. She asked  me several times that week if she could "go to florida later" and "go on trip to beach".

Home

We made it home from our trip this evening. As usual, there is much to do with getting settled back into home, but here are just a few favorite pictures from the week.

*pelican skimming the water

*light breaking through the clouds

If you don't care to see a hundred pictures of my kid playing at the beach, then don't bother checking my blog for a while. ;)

Lately

From the past couple of weeks:

Feeding the giraffes at the zoo. I wondered if it would scare her, as they come very close and stick their huge, long tongues out toward you...but she LOVED it. I can't wait to do it again some time.

POPS! We enjoyed Pops with our friends a couple Friday's ago along with a ridiculous dessert that looked like something Will Ferrel would conjure up in Elf!

My little baker helping me get daddy's birthday cake ready. 

Helping daddy blow out his candles. Happy birthday Michael! We love you so much!
(Picture ripped from my brother) 

Teddy bear hunt at Olivia's birthday party. 

 "Today's the day the teddy bears have their pic-nic!"

 Playing in the park in our neighborhood.

We leave for a week at the beach with Michael's parents tomorrow!

23 Months

 I decided I should post Isabella's 23 month update since we are 2 weeks away from the next one!

We've noticed this month she has started remembering things we have done even more and talking about them later. She has been singing more words to songs lately. She is getting better at getting her clothes off and on. This past month has been a little crazy with all of the packing and moving, and a rough 8 day stretch that I figured out after the fact was due to her cutting two of her two year molars. Without fail when she is getting teeth she becomes horribly congested...every time.  Before we moved, we went to frontier city and white water a couple more times to celebrate summer before it is gone. She also had her first night away from both of us when we celebrated our 10 yr anniversary. She enjoyed playing with my mom and shopping for a Thomas the train.

She still practices her "swimming" in the bathtub, and this month has started laying completely flat on her back, letting the water cover most of her face. The biggest change we notice seems to be the new words she is saying every day and how she is putting more phrases together.

...And the truth of how it is some times. It's tough being a toddler.


(A year ago at 11 months!)

Hmmm...some similarities here