November 2015

I figured I'd kick off my triumphant return to the blog with one of those more general recaps I was talking about because, hey. We had a really great holiday season!

Spoiler alert: the kids were adorable in November. E.J. melted my heart into a giant puddle when he wanted to wear his Mickey in Ellie's ring sling, and somehow he is turning into quite a little boy (no longer a baby)!

Babywearing E.J.

LOOK AT HIM.

As for Ellie, she continued to rock her trademark fashion sense in her free time, when she wasn't busy taking painfully sweet school pictures.

Looking amazing, as always.

Ellie's first school picture!

Our month got off to a great start with a day spent in Gainesville for the UF Homecoming Parade. We had a great time taking the kids around campus to all our old haunts!

W. Family in Gainesville - Go Gators!

Heather came to visit and she and I got to have lunch out, just the two of us! We even had some margaritas. Heeeey.

Just living the dream.

We finally made it out to the St. Johns Town Center for their Christmas tree lighting! They had live music, an appearance by Santa and fireworks, which Ellie handled quite well thanks to her "ear mouse."

Let's light up that Christmas tree!

Eric and I got to have a date night to see the new Hunger Games movie, thanks to a visit from my mom!

Also, we found a movie theater with a bar and recliners. So. LET'S DO THIS.

While my mom was in town, we also had a little "girls' night out" for movie night at the zoo. We got to ride the carousel, pet the stingrays, enjoy a BBQ dinner and watch Finding Nemo on the Great Lawn. Ellie was quite tickled about being out at the zoo after dark!

Girls' night!

Ellie had her first school program! She played the part of the turkey in the school Thanksgiving skit (while dressed as a pilgrim), and afterwards we were able to stay for a "feast" in her classroom. It was adorable and she did great!

Ellie's Thanksgiving program, including her list of things she's thankful for. Don't mind my weeping over here.

We went down to St. Petersburg for Thanksgiving, where we enjoyed a tasty feast at my dad's house followed by dessert at Kelley's house with Eric's family, including new baby Summer.

Top: Dinner with my dad and Heather, including Ellie pointing at the one thing on that whole table she would willingly eat: rolls.

Bottom: E.J. meeting new cousin Summer, and Ellie loving on cousin Colton.

After all our feasting, we helped my dad trim his Christmas tree. It was nice to have Heather here for all of that this year, and it was E.J.'s first true exposure to the wonder of the Miss Piggy ornament.

Papa's house is ready for Christmas!

The day after Thanksgiving, Heather treated us to a day at Busch Gardens (via some free passes she had), and we had a great day there.

Busch Gardens!

Busch Gardens highlights included meeting Elmo...

The kids are SO HAPPY right now.

...Ellie actually going on stage (by herself!) during the Christmas show...

You might look at this photo and think she's a natural at being on stage, but just you wait. I have more recaps to come.

...and taking in another (excellent!) show in the company of Tony Dungy.

E.J. just kicking it with Tony

And of course, we wrapped up November by dusting off our Christmas spirit! Bring it on, December!

These festive children are ready for some more holiday fun!

Christmas Eve at Busch Gardens

As you may recall, we went down to St. Petersburg for actual Christmas. We ended up driving down on December 23rd, stopping for donuts and a swing for E.J. to nap in along the way. Priorities!

E.J. in the driver's seat! This was the happiest he was for the entire trip. Good times.

We didn't do much on the 23rd; mostly just hang out at my dad's house and tried to get the kids settled in. On the morning of Christmas Eve, however, we were looking for something to do. We decided to head out to Busch Gardens for a couple of hours. Our annual passes from my sister expired at the end of the year, so we wanted to get in one last free visit - and, it was E.J.'s first!

We didn't do a whole lot while we were there, but it was nice to get out and enjoy the (overcast but hot) day. We looked at the animals, and saw the elephants putting on a bit of a show...

Spitting at us!

Elephants

...we admired the Christmas Town decorations...

Festive

Topiary nativity

...and we rode the train around to check out the animals up close and personal.

On the train

Rhinos

Zebras and rhinos

The most exciting event of the day was Ellie's first roller coaster ride! She was JUST BARELY tall enough to ride the Grover roller coaster in the Sesame Street area of the park. She did great! She did complain that it was loud, but seemed unfazed by the actual speed, drops and twisting (for the record, although this was a kids' coaster, it was the most serious kids' coaster I've personally ever seen!). Way to go, Ellie!

Is she tall enough?

She is! Eric and Ellie are ready to ride!

Here they come!

Two thumbs up after the ride!

Her brother, on the other hand, took a more subdued approach and opted to snooze in my wrap for a bit.

Look at those sleepy cheeks!

And that was really it! A quick visit, to be sure, but a nice way to spend the morning. Thanks again for those passes, Heather!

We love Busch Gardens!

Our Spring Break Visit to Busch Gardens

Before I get into the "main events" of our spring break (namely, Ellie's birthday party and our babymoon), I wanted to briefly recap some of our other spring break fun.

Our biggest outing of the week was to Busch Gardens, where we spent some time on Wednesday. It was strange going to Busch Gardens without my sister being there performing (and when we passed the Madagascar show theater I half expected Ellie to ask for Aunt Heather), but we had a great time anyway and are so grateful to Heather for the passes, even in her absence!

Taking Ellie to Busch Gardens has gotten more and more fun each time we've gone, as she has gotten older and able to enjoy more of the experience. This time, given her recent excitement over the zoo, I knew she would be really into seeing the animals. Sure enough, we mentioned the animals to her when we left the house and she barely stopped talking about seeing the "amimals" for the entire way there. Her little voice would just pipe up from the backseat of the car, "See lions? See elephant? See zebra?" So cute.

Checking out the park map, and plotting the best course of action for maximum animal observation

And who are we to let down an excited toddler? So, animals were the main item on our agenda. We started with the gorillas and chimpanzees...

This guy looks like a wise old man

And this one is just relaxing, all super casual, enjoy his tasty leaf snack

...then we took the train (which Ellie was psyched about in itself) to see some more animals.

Clockwise from top left: Ellie and me on the train; some critters whose name I can't remember but they were posing really well; giraffes; ostrich eggs

After the train, we went on a search for even more animals.

She's loving it.

Crocodiles and hyenas and lions and hippos, oh my!

By that point, we were just in time for the elephant interaction demonstration, so we spent some time observing some pachyderms. Ellie later informed us that the elephants were her favorite animal of the whole day.

Ellie and Eric enjoying the elephants (alliteration!)

She just stood and watched.

Yawning?

I feel that his eyes are really tiny for such a large animal.

Then, we went over to the tiger exhibit. We made sure to stop at the tiger pop-up feature, which gave quite an unusual and up-close-and-personal view of one of the tigers!

He's laying on top of the pop-up window!

Ellie was a little unsure.

Really, the tigers were feeling quite sociable in general and we got some great face time with a couple of them.

Pretty

Posing

Watching him pace

More posing

That concluded the animal portion of the day. We stopped to get some lunch and then went over to the Sesame Street area for some more "right up Ellie's alley" kind of fun. We were just in time to catch sight of a few characters out amongst the crowd, although we were just too late for posed pictures. We did manage to catch one of Ellie and Grover, however, during a very brief encounter. That encounter, brief as it may have been, made such an impression on Ellie that she spent the next couple of days pretending to be Grover.

She's starstruck. I can just hear her thinking, "he's touching me! He's touching me!"

Then, we rode some rides. Ellie really wanted to ride the carousel, so I took her on that, and it was a much bigger hit than last time. Remembering her love of the Dumbo ride at Disney, Eric took her on the flying elephants (she requested to ride the yellow one), and it was also a success.

She chose a lion to ride and kept saying, "I ride lion! I ride lion!" She even gave him a hug and a kiss, because she is the coolest.

Ellie and Eric on the yellow elephant

Then, we went for another character encounter, this time with Abby Cadabby. As usual, Ellie loved it. She ran right up to give Abby a hug, then plopped down with her as if they were just two gal pals about to spend a girls' afternoon together. You know, mani/pedis, gossip mags, coffee, that kind of thing. That kid, man. She's too much.

Ellie + Abby = BFFs

We really wanted to stick around for the next Sesame Street show, but unfortunately, we still just had too much time to kill and we needed to get Ellie down for a nap. (Well, we wanted to offer a nap. She very politely declined and opted to instead sing "Let It Go" from Frozen aloud to herself in her crib instead.) Regardless of actual nap occurrence, we wanted to at least give Ellie the option, so we made our way to the exit. Ellie wanted to finally pull her weight and carry some of our (read: her) stuff. If only she could really carry it, am I right?

Finally, she's transitioning from being just cute to being cute and useful!

We really had a great day and I was glad we were able to make that trip as a family. It was a great "last day" together before we separated for our babymoon!