The rest of the weekend.

Umpah's 95th Birthday celebration was on Friday so we had the rest of the weekend in Florida.  Saturday morning we headed out the beach with my brother Pete, his family, my cousin Christy, and her family.  Again, no camera = no pictures.  But both Christy and Jen had cameras at the beach so pictures might show up :)

We met the rest of the family for lunch at a local restaurant, then headed back to Umpah and Jan's for the rest of the day.  Like I mentioned in my last post, his retirement community has a lovely pool, and we always had it completely to ourselves (all 17-21 of us).

Ellie doesn't LOVE the beach.  She likes it once we get past the crashing waves, but the noisy white crests scare her.  I cannot say that any part of the pool scares her.  She loves it - can't wait to get in!!

She wanted ALL the noodles.  Especially any that Cloudy had been holding.

whee!

cousin love

greeting Umpah once she was good and wet

On Sunday we drove down to Venice to spend the morning with Grandma Prann and take her to Sharky's for lunch.

And THEN, finally, before we drove back to Tampa for the night, we drove up to Sarasota to have dinner with Pete's dad and Estelle.

 

So ended our whirlwind weekend with family.  Monday morning we got up super-early and drove to Orlando to catch our flight home.  It was so good to see everyone, I wish our visits could have been longer, but c'est la vie!

Happy Birthday, Umpah!!

Today is my grandfather's 95th birthday.  Yes, you read that right, he's NINETY-FIVE.  Last weekend a large portion of the family gathered to celebrate this momentous occasion. 

The retirement community where he and Jan live regularly puts on a little celebration in the breezeway between the dining room and the elevators for resident birthdays.  So all we had to do was show up and eat cake!*  We also brought some sheet music and had the organist from Umpah's church came so that we could sing some of Umpah's favorite songs.  I gathered photographs from everyone in the family and displayed them in chronological order on the cake table so family and residents could reminisce about days gone by.

*we had nothing to do with the color of the table cloth

7 of Umpah's 8 great-grandchildren.  (2 of my cousins, Doug and Karen, were unable to attend so young Drew is the missing great.)

Our little family.  I don't think we took a single picture of me with my brothers all weekend, though.  Bummer.

I hadn't seen my brothers in almost two years.  Most everyone else, except my father, I hadn't seen in a much longer amount of time (I last met my cousin Christy's husband, Rich, at their wedding - 20 years ago!!) SOOO - Ellie finally got to meet her Aunts and Uncles, and most importantly, COUSINS!!!

Aunt Jenni didn't like Ellie at all.

Ellie and Uncle Pete

Ellie and Ryan

But the one that stole her heart, from the very beginning, Cloudy Bear!! 

 

As soon as Ellie spotted Cloudy in a room, she would run toward him, arms stretched over her head in excitement.

After the party we cooled off and relaxed in the giant pool!

Umpah had reserved the private dining room for us for dinner.  All 21 of us were wearing our Umpah shirts - pretty funny to see us walking around!  More group photos ensued after that, but again, not on my camera.

Christy finishes the toasting.

Aunt Phyllis starts the roasting!!  She'll be 90 in two years and we're already talking about that celebration.

Ellie entertained herself with her quiet book.

Later, Ben read Pete the Cat and his White Shoes for the littles.

Ellie playing with Aunt Tammy's bracelets - the girl loves jewelry!

Up Next:  the rest of the weekend!

Friday phone dump.

1. have you seen the new Jumbo marshmallows?!?  they're crazy huge!!
2. speaking of huge - hello Mr. Beetle
3. pete won his age group at the BG 10K
4. starting her obsession a little early if you ask me
5. road-trip reading
6. the makings of a quiet book
7. no.  not ever.
8. is daddy home yet?
9. I want to show him my new crocs!

Ellie Oakley

Yep.  It's still really hot here.  It was 105 on Saturday and 103 yesterday.  We had plans for Saturday afternoon, but we were pretty spent after going to a birthday party at 9am.

After morning nap we just stayed in our air-conditioned house for the rest of the day and made the best of it. 

I have no idea if Annie Oakley was also a talented horseman, that was just the name that came to mind when I thought female cowgirl.  Here's something that surprised me when I googled Annie Oakley (to make sure her name was spelled correctly) - her first name was Phoebe.  You learn something every day :)

The Coon Pit GROWS!!!!!

A little backstory:  Pete, Matt, Mike, and Adam were college roommates in a little apartment on S. Limestone ave.  Matt had a raccoon puppet that sat on top of the television.  One evening, as I've heard the story told, the boys were flicking bottle caps (in that snap your fingers and they'll fly across the room way that I really hate) and the Coon caught one - The Coon Pit was born!!  The boys started graduating from college, Adam moved back to Ohio, and the remaining Coon Pit-ers rented a house on University Ave until the fist one got married and bought a house.  A few months later another one got married, three years after that, another - you get the idea.

In 2010, Matt and Jen had the idea that we all get together for a reunion in Charleston - Coon Pit South was born!!

the boys were a few days in to their mustache growing competition when this pic was taken

Coon Pit wives - me, Jen, and Sarah

Coon Pit Reunion 2010 - complete with the Coon!

Mini Coon Pit 2012

We visited Matt & Jen in South Carolina when Ellie was 3 months old.  Jen had gotten her a gift - a raccoon lovey for the newest member of the Coon Pit!

 

She had purchased two of them because Sarah was expecting as well - Laing was born in November 2011 and the Coon Pit had another member!!

Anyone see where I'm going with this??  .....Anyone?  ....Bueller?

JEN IS PREGNANT!!!  Baby Wheeler will arrive early January 2013!  We couldn't be more happy or overjoyed for our friends.

Matt and Jen have always been so great with Ellie, we know they will be the best parents.  Hop on over to Jen's blog, From Bluegrass to Palmtrees, to read the official announcement and see how she is progressing so far.  Can't wait to meet the third baby Coon - now our reunions will be even MORE fun!

Our Yankee Doodle

As it has no doubt been where you live, it has been H-O-T hot here for about a week.  Over 100 degrees in Lexington, KY is not the norm.  We keep breaking the records set in the 1930s and are doing our best to keep cool.  I have been dressing Ellie in pretty much the least amount of clothing that is socially acceptable. 

 

She has recently found the air vent in our living room and stands there all the time and lets it blow her hair.

Last night was the annual patriotic concert on the lawn at Transy.  We had just set up our chairs, blanket, food, cooler, etc.  Then the rains came!!  Which was great - we're in a drought, and we really needed the rain - but the timing wasn't the best.  We huddled under a building's entryway for 10-15 minutes, then ventured back out to check on our things.  As usual, it was a great concert, and Ellie managed to soldier through until the end, which came a good two hours past her regular bedtime.

This morning we were up bright and early to watch Pete run the Bluegrass 10K.  Some girls I know from the neighborhood were kind enough to join me - along with their babies - and we had a great time watching the runners and drinking mimosas.

We had a great day hanging around the house together.  Pete discovered that when Ellie wears her fruit basket on her head she looks like our state's founder, Daniel Boone!

In the late afternoon, we made a water blob!!  I highly recommend making one if you need some backyard fun and would like to cool off without going to the pool.  There's a tutorial on apartmenttherapy.com, but all you do is take a drop cloth, fold it in half, and duct tape the three sides closed, leaving an opening for the hose.  Fill it with water, and tape the hole closed.  Then you can sit, stand, and generally frolic on the blob!

Pete and I made ours while Ellie was napping, and we laid on it ourselves for about 20 minutes before Baby Girl woke up - it was nice and cool - felt like floating in a pool but without all the hassle.  Ellie wasn't sure what to think of it at first, but came around to it pretty quickly.  Eventually Pete brought the hose back over and turned it on a very small trickle and then she was in love!!  She held on to the hose, flinging water on the blob, and splashing in her little paddle pool.  We all three thoroughly enjoyed our little slip n slide.

 

So that was our family fourth of July!  We had a great day and wouldn't change a thing.

14 months

I'm not feeling super narrative this month.  I'm not sure if I'll keep doing these monthly updates now that Ellie is over one year old.  I guess I do them mostly as an on-line baby book, something for me to be able to look back on, but now her changes are not as huge.  They seem big to me and Pete, but it is hard to describe them.  Her walking has improved to the point that she can now jog a little bit if she's excited.  Her speech has grown tremendously, but that's in the sense that she babbles in jargon with adult inflection, she doesn't have a ton of words.  Here's the list of things I recorded for her 14th month.

5.27.12 dropped ellie off in the church nursery for the first time, when we came back she jumped up and said "Da-da!"

6.13.12 'sang' along with ABCs and did hand motions to 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' while riding in car
6.18.12 pointed to head, nose, feet, ears when asked "where's your….?"
6.23.12 repeated bye-bye with a wave, said chair, beach

-Climbing on everything!  Up on coffee tables, on and off the round and round chair
-Started using sign for all done
-words:  cheese, dog, dada, shoes, chair, beach, baby, Jack, T, TC (all repetitions - and approximations)
-Sits on her bottom when told to (for snack)