Ellie Explores St. Petersburg

We're finally back from all our travels! I have been trying to stay on top of the Florida recaps as our travel was still in progress, so I will continue on with that before telling you all about my family reunion in Cleveland this past weekend, in honor of my Gramps's 90th birthday. Both trips were fantastic and we had a wonderful time, although it does feel nice to be back home again. Judging by the five-hour nap Ellie took today, I'd say she was pretty ready for a more relaxed daily itinerary! And now we have nothing major on the agenda for about a month, so I can sit back, relax, sort through pictures, post recaps, and let my poor exhausted baby catch up on her rest.

On the Thursday of our Florida trip, Ellie was refusing to nap (that is so her style, hence that exhaustion I just mentioned), so Eric and I decided to take her for a nice long walk to get her to nap in her stroller. So, our little family plus my dad went to downtown St. Pete for a nice waterfront stroll.

We started out at the St. Petersburg Pier, possibly for the last time ever, as the Pier's days are numbered. I remember going down to the Pier often when we first moved to Florida (I even saw 'N Sync in concert there on the Fourth of July before they really hit it big), and Eric and I had our wedding rehearsal dinner there. I'll be sad to see it go, so I was glad we got to wander around one more time.

The St. Petersburg Pier

Ellie was still awake when we first started out, so she got to play tourist with us a bit and saw her first pelicans.

Pelicans on the Pier

Pier Bait House

Tourists!

"Whoa. Mom, are you seeing this thing?"

My pretty girl

Pelican!

My family

We wandered around the Pier for a while, and on our way out of there Ellie finally passed out.

Sleepy girl

Of course, being a sleeping baby does not make you exempt from posing with statues. Baby's first Fun With Statues experience! Hooray!

This is a big moment in a young girl's life.

From the Pier we walked along the waterfront over to the Mahaffey Theater, where Eric and I had our wedding reception almost five years ago. We had to stop for some poses in the same spots as some of our more notable wedding photos.

The Mahaffey Theater

Posing in front of the fountain outside

Dip! Five years and one baby later!

Honestly, we totally hadn't planned to do that - it was purely coincidence that I wore a white dress and Eric wore black!

After our Mahaffey fun we started to make our way back to the car. Ellie woke up en route, but hey, at least we were able to get her to nap for a little while, and took a little walk down wedding-memory lane in the process!

Sucking her thumb!