Ella Kate's 2nd Birthday Party

Ella Kate's Birthday at Pride & Joy

Ella Kate's class enjoying some lady bug cupcakes on her 2nd birthday

This girl's not afraid- she bit right in, didn't even wait for all the cupcakes to be served!

Fenn sitting between his ladies, Anabelle and Ariyanna

Ariyanna

Ty, Sidney, Charlotte

Noah, Ty, and Sidney

Trunk or Treat

Boo at the Zoo

Our little lady bug took a little time to warm up, but she had a great time at Boo at the Zoo. Glad we went- she got to say "trick or treat" for the first time! I was proud, she said "thank you" more consistently than the "trick or treat!"

A little family shot with tigers and giraffes

So she's blocking the ghost, but this particular ghost reminded me of Mr. Peanut, so it's ok that she's blocking him!

There was a little kids area with a DJ so we did a little dancing

Learning to "raise the roof"

Well, this is really the "freeze" move from Little Gym, but it doubles as a dance move when needed!

Doing my own thing!

Doing the "cha cha slide"

Watching from the side lines with Daddy

Posing with the Oz cast!

Tried to take this pumpkin home with me, but it was not for the taking.

All good things come to an end, bye bye Zoo!

Corn Maze

13.1 Atlanta

I had the ultimate pleasure of joining two of my circles of friends when I ran the 13.1 Atlanta 1/2 marathon with my high school friends, Jaime and Lara, and my post college girls, Lauran and Kristi. It was so much fun (except the running part!) to see my worlds collide :)

My girls: Lara, Jaime, me, Lauran, and Kristi

Me, Kristi, and Lauran all sweaty after the race.

Lara breathing a sigh of relief after it was all over

Lara, me, and Jaime. Jaime is one of my oldest friends (no, not in age!)- the only one I actually keep up with from elementary school. We've known each other since 5th grade, can you believe that?

Kristi, Lauran, and me before the race. Funny, we don't look all fresh and bouncy-- guess it was too early in the morning!

Me, Lauran, and Kristi the night before the race goofing off in Target.

Chris' first game at Sanford Stadium

We went to the UGA v Arizona St game for Chris' first trip to Sanford Stadium. It was a great day, until the rain set in, then it became super soggy. It was clear until about an hour before kickoff then it POURED. It let up a little at kickoff and rained some on and off for the first half. We couldn't take it any more and left at half time, good thing, too b/c the second half of the game was miserable to listen to on the radio, it would've been much worse in person. But they did pull it out and won, literally in the last seconds, with a field goal. We're crossing our fingers for next season at for our dawgs at this point....

Can you say soggy?

Blurry shot of UGA, but we saw him live and in action!

In front of the infamous UGA arch. Being on the campus made me wish I had gone there, but I would never have met my best girlfriends and may never have met my Mr. Wonderful, so I will settle for going there for the games!

The last time we were at Mimi & Pop's house we went to check out their new splash park. Ella Kate loved it, can you tell? And of course, her favorite, the swings just made it even better :)

Random picture of Ella Kate exploring Charleston- she loved the old doors and tried to open every one up and down King street.

Labor Day at the Zoo

chillin' in my ride!

Checking out the HUGE black bear

riding the carousel

Miss Independent

rare white tiger

chimps

checking out the camels

toucan

flamingos

we love those elephants

Standing in the elephant box

Red Panda

Rhinos

Camping at the beach and new adventures

I grew up camping- camping all the time everywhere: the beach, lakes, the mountains- my parents were experts at packing it all up and setting up our home in the woods for a week or so. I haven't been camping like that in probably 15 years. Chris and I took a weekend trip backpack hiking camping a few years ago, but that's as close as we've been. So, after almost 10 years together, I finally convinced him to try tent camping at the beach. We packed up everything we could think of (including Ella Kate, her pack-n-play, and more toys than she could use) and headed down to South Carolina- Edisto Beach State Park. We anticipated an adventure, but really it was a wonderful trip! While the rest of the south was flooding we were enjoying beautiful weather.

Our home away from home

Our idea of "roughing it" included the DVD player for Ella Kate, my coffee maker, an oscillating fan in the tent, 2 laptops (one with internet access), 4 cell phones, and one electric mosquito zapper. We also had our stove and another tent for the "dining room" aka picnic table.

Making smores, Ella Kate was a big fan, especially of the marshmallows which she squished and got everywhere!

We did have some nightly visitors; 3 raccoons! We hid everything edible in the car so there wasn't anything for them to eat, but that didn't stop them from looking!

The beautiful view from our tent. It was so nice to sleep in the open air with the stars above and the sound of the waves crashing just over the sand dune.

EK pushed her little wagon of beach toys all over the campsite. Loading and unloading it and making quite a mess out of the sand and dirt. Then she'd take off her shoes to clean her little feet, only to make things worse! We did a lot of rinsing off this past week!

And, of course, there was the beach. Ella Kate was in love- a definite water baby! She wanted to run into the waves and as they washed back out she laughed and let them pull her feet out from under. Then she'd jump up and do it all over again. We had to keep a constant hand on her or she would have tried to run out much further. She's such a dare devil! A wave would knock her down and we though for sure she'd be wary of the next one, but no, she just jumped right back at it! She also loved looking for sea shells and digging her toes in the sand. We had such a wonderful time playing, I wish we lived closer to the beach so she could enjoy it all the time!

We made some nice new friends, Eric, Karen, and Marylyn, who have been camping for several years and had great pointers and tips for our future camping adventures! Karen had a whole set of bubble wands and kept Ella Kate entertained while we were packing up the car on the last day.