Coooowaaaa (a.k.a. Toccoa)

Before we got in our car on Friday, Spencer informed Ella Ann that we were going to Toccoa again for the weekend so the entire ride she kept repeating "Cooowaaa!!!!" The three of us packed it up and made ourselves at home, once again, in Toccoa, Georgia for the weekend so that Spencer could work at the hospital. We stopped at the fantastic farmer's market again on our way and picked out some pumpkins for the house. Ella Ann loved picking out all 3 of her mini pumpkins and would drop them about every 2 minutes so we had to keep replacing them! We got lots of yummy veggies and I think Spencer was actually impressed with the "awesomeness" of the whole thing! :) He found some homemade apple butter and some strawberry preserves. I couldn't believe he had actually wanted to buy something! hahahaa! They also had a corn maze and festive barn decked out for the fall, but we didn't have time to venture around the entire farm.

We went to dinner at a great Mexican restaurant that evening and got settled in our hotel room, it's actually called a traveler's rest! ha! It is super nice, though, and we really enjoy our stays there. It's very homey! Spencer and I could barely keep out eyes open for the 2 hour premiere of "Las Vegas", but we were determined to watch the whole thing because we have been looking forward to it all summer! Good thing it did not disappoint! :)

While Spencer worked on Saturday morning/early afternoon, Ella Ann and I did some more exploring around town, again with a pit stop to the fabulous cafe so I could get my cappuccino! I took her to Toccoa Falls, which is a neat waterfall, obviously, that is on Toccoa College campus, yes they have a college so it's not too too small of a town. We had to pay a whopping $1 to get to the falls and spent about 20 minutes walking around the falls. Ella Ann kept saying "wat-tur waaallsss!!" The falls were very pretty, as you can see below. Next the 2 of us went on another tour of downtown and did some more browsing.

Spencer was able to stick around for the afternoon so we went to a park and did an early dinner because he had to go back to the hospital. Spencer swore to me that the night we had Saturday night was "an excellent night" on call, but I greatly beg to differ! He was able to sleep at the hotel with us, but got paged 4 times and went in once!! I was ready to chuck that stupid siren-like pager out the window at about 5 a.m.! Ohhh well, Ella Ann and I got up early anyway and hit the road in a hurry so we could get back to our church's early service at 9:15. Spencer had to stay and finish the weekend at the hospital, but at least we got to spend a few hours together on Saturday and both Friday and Saturday night!

Obviously this picture is not from this weekend, but I had to post it because it is so funny! Ella Ann got a felt board with all these felt people and things to make a beach scene on from her Mimi and Grandpa that she plays with every single day. She often carries around the felt boy and girl and gives them hugs and kisses! Last week, Spencer took this picture because she had propped up her felt boy on the chair beside her to chat with Daddy at the computer!

I bought some crayons and a coloring book before we left to keep her somewhat entertained while in the room. She thought either me coloring for her or her coloring on herself was more fun than the actual coloring book! Good thing they are washable!

Walking up to Toccoa Falls.

She was way more interested in the gravel than the Falls!

She was a little scared of all the big rocks so we couldn't stay too long.

Ella Ann fell on Thursday and scrapped her knees so I bought her "Dora the Explorer" band aids and she is EXTREMELY fond of them, which is what she is playing with in this picture! Dora must be on her boo boo or else a meltdown ensues!

She has no interest whatsoever in having her picture made lately and refuses with a big "NOO!" when I whip out the camera, so I had asked her where mommy's nose was in this picture so I could at least get her to look at me, which is why she is pointing.

One last picture before we left.

Ella Ann is starting to do some pretend play and yesterday she had put her animals in her high chair and started feeding them. Note the bib on the horse!!!!

Next she grabbed all her books and propped them up on the tray for her animals to read! The "Tails" book is her favorite because of the fluffy tail on the cover that she holds on to and sucks her thumb with (every single time) she is holding the book!

She refused to get out of the dolphin swing while at the playground and threw a big tantrum when I had to eventually yank her out because I was tired of being told to "push nose, push nose!!!!" Up until about 2 weeks ago Ella Ann refused to go near a swing, now it's all she wants to do!

Fixed Link

Sorry to those of you who clicked "Here" on my Hilton Head link below and were unable to view our pictures. I thought I set it up where you could view them without a password , but you couldn't! I now fixed the "Here" link so that anyone can view them without a password! Sorry about that! View on!

Relaxing In Hilton Head

This past Saturday, Ella Ann, Spencer, and I loaded up our car to the brim and headed to the beach! This was our second trip to Hilton Head with Spencer's immediate family. We had a huge house on the beach and stayed all week with the family. We had SO much fun and were so very sad to come home this morning. The weather was pretty good, despite the raging winds each day that made for a less than desirable trip to the beach, but we all packed it up each day that we could get out and did it anyway! It rained the last couple of days, but we were still able to go to the beach one last time when it cleared off Friday afternoon. We enjoyed awesome meals in Hilton Head and only stayed in to cook one night. We all had a good time catching up and just hanging out as a family because when we usually get together it's never any longer than a couple of days.

The kids were just great together! Seth tried his best to hang in there with Ella Ann and Carter and would love to sit and watch them play all the while injecting many squeals of glee! Ella Ann and Carter were inseparable all week; in fact, we rarely had to play with them except for maybe Aunt Kasey because both kids are completely enamored with her and want her around all the time and when she's not there they ask for her until she comes back! :) I think she's their favorite playmate, besides each other! Most of the time Carter and Ella Ann would just run around in circles, literally, chasing one another while screaming and laughing! Honestly they would just make us all dizzy!

Both Carter and Ella Ann were not too fond of the ocean, but loved the sand. Ella Ann took a little while to pick up a foot and move from one spot to the other, but she eventually got used to the sand and would play in it. She wouldn't really go without shoes and hated it when her hands got sand on them, which was every 5 seconds because she kept digging in it! Spencer and I finally got her close to the water and eventually in it on our second day, but she refused with a big "NO!!" any time after that. I guess we were just lucky that day. As I mentioned earlier, it was quite windy every day, so when you see our pictures all of us have horrible hair so please don't think that I actually styled Ella Ann's hair in a greasy mohawk! :)

It was much easier to upload all of the photos to my Facebook site, so please click HERE and you will get to view all of them instead of just a few. If you click on the first one, Dad, you can make it bigger and just hit the "next" button in the top right corner for the next picture. :) However, please look below at Ella Ann one year later.....

Ella Ann in Hilton Head last year at this time. She was 10 months old.

She kept wanting to eat the sand!

Then.....

and now at 22 months. Now she wouldn't even touch the sand OR water!

Just testing it!

Bargain Buy

Friday is my usual Wal-Mart morning and I recently spied a consignment store in the shopping district near it so I stopped in before I went grocery shopping this past Friday. Their clothing was not so hot, but they did have lots of good books, nick nacks, and a few toys. We have been planning on purchasing a wooden rocking horse for Ella Ann for her birthday because she never gets off of one when she spots one at a friend's house or at a toy store so when I saw a great one at this consignment store I let Ella Ann have her way and we, I say we because she wouldn't let it go, carried it out to the car. I bought it for $10!!! I was so happy because the one at IKEA that I was going to buy was $35! I also bought a great book that Ella Ann loves at the store for 50 cents! I love it when I find good bargains, I guess because I rarely do! The horse is so cute and better than the one from IKEA. Ella Ann had a fit when I told her it couldn't go in with us to Wal-Mart! I had to make it the fastest shopping trip ever so we could hurry up and get in the car so she could at least look at it! She rocks on it quite often and really has enjoyed it this weekend, along with her new book. Unfortunately she gets in trouble a lot because she tries to rock while holding her milk, blanket, cow, and two horses! This makes for a dangerous ride!

We didn't really do too much this weekend either. Spencer was either working, sleeping, or watching football so we just stayed around the house. I took Ella Ann to the great playground again on Saturday morning. She did scream and holler when I tried to get her back in the stroller to leave, but not like she did last weekend! Whew! We also went to the pool and played and all we talked about was playing in the pool next weekend/week with Carter and Seth! We are headed to the beach next week, so I will post pictures from our travels when we get back. Here are a few pics from our weekend.

Her fabulous new horse! She calls it her "rocking horsey" and when she sits on it she'll say "rock, rock, rock, rock"!

Notice her white bear that is sitting on the school bus beside her. She has recently started propping up her animals so they can "watch her" play and eat! I guess it's because we have told her so many times that they can't rock or eat with her but they can sit and watch.

She climbed up on the couch, rolled herself up in her bobbie and laid down with Spencer while he was resting on the couch. She laid there for like 15 minutes, which is unheard of for her to either lay or sit still for that long!

Lazy Labor Day

This Labor Day was kinda boring, I have to say. Spencer worked for most of it and when he was here we just hung out and played. I got my hair chopped off on Friday and posted a couple of pictures below of my new doo so my Mom and Jana, who is in Kansas City, can see it. I do really like it, but it will take some getting used to. It's not this straight usually, but the stylist flat-ironed it and it looks much better when I wear it flipped up. Okay, enough about my hair! ha!

Much to my dismay, Spencer has taught Ella Ann what a football is and how to play with it. Spencer drug out a Nerf football this weekend and Ella Ann has yet to stop walking around with it and saying "football." She also throws it, catches it (not too often), and will "spike" it and say "touchdown!" No, I am not happy AT ALL! :)

This weekend the largest sci-fi convention was held downtown for 3 full days. Let me tell you of the sights we saw on our way to play in the park! I saw Snow White carrying around an apple, a man walking around with a huge albino boa around his neck, people spray painted head-to-toe in bronze holding shields and swords, ferries (very large ferries smoking cigarettes), men in kilts with helmets on, men wearing fur-trimmed knee-high boots, teeny tiny leather shorts and no shirt but with a cape mind you, and horns on their heads, and lots and lots of other crazies painted head-to-toe and carrying around fake (I hope) weapons! Spencer and I had to conceal our laughter many, many times as we walked to the park!!! This is one of the many reasons I love living downtown because I get to be entertained for free!! Once we got to the park, we went both Saturday and Sunday afternoon, we watched the dancing fountains at Centennial and then we walked down to the playgrounds. I haven't taken Ella Ann to a playground in a couple of months because the weather has been too unbearable. The last time we took her I had to follow her around so she wouldn't fall and hold her while she went down the slides. Well, this weekend she proved to be quite a little monkey! She did everything all by herself, including climbing the steps AND going down all the slides!! I swear, the kid would get on and get off that slide over and over and would probably stay there all day and night if we'd let her! On Saturday, I walked over with her to the new Coca-Cola and we played on their grounds (they have gigantic balls and games for the kids to play with so it's pretty fun).

I have now taken Ella Ann to a playground 4 days in a row and I think we have created a monster! Yesterday, the 3 of us went walking in a large park close to us that recently renovated their entire playground area and it opened this weekend. Once we got Ella Ann near the play area, there was no turning back! Spencer and I were completely blown away by the crazed child that appeared when we tried to take her off the bouncing firetruck so that another child could steer it!! Ella Ann has never entered into such a demon-like state before! People were starring at us as we dragged our enraged child to her stroller so we could promptly get to our car!!! Yes, we are hitting the terrible twos a little early it looks like!!!

Ella Ann's new Mommy!

Are you ready for some football?!?!????!!!!!

Spencer, the proud papa!

This is what was in front of me as I walked to the park on Saturday! In case you were wondering, it is a man!

Dancing along with the dancing fountains!

Ella Ann's ready to hit the slide as the grand finale ends.

The big girl playing with all the big kids!

"Look what I can do all by myself!"

So proud!

This is the biggest slide and Ella Ann had no fear! She still is scared to death of the swings, though! We'll just take her straight to the coasters and skip Dumbo when it's time to take her to Disney! :)

This is the grounds down at Coca-Cola. Ella Ann is SO hot, but is definitly NOT ready to go home!

A quick water break before we headed home. I had to bribe her with Goldfish to get her back in the stroller!