a little visit to peoria

Last week we took a little trip to Auntie Lauren's house. 

Her neighborhood has a park and Elise had so much fun.  

She was "pretty tired" so she wanted to be carried home. 

And Lauren made - from scratch - the best cinnamon rolls we'd ever had. 

They were so amazing and I had way too many of them. 

We took Elise bowling for the first time.  She thought it was awesome.  

le swingset

We've been talking about it for months. 

Waiting for it to stop snowing. 

Then waiting for it to stop raining. 

The time has come.  

Swingset time!

Elise is SO excited. 

Our dads came over last night and got started, and then worked all day today and finished it by 3:30.  Amazing!  It's SO fun.  

Elise and I helped with construction.

I mostly tried to keep her from dumping out all of the carefully labeled parts. 

The crew.  Thanks so much for helping us put this together. 

And thank you to Great Grandpa & Grandma whos birthday and Christmas checks since Elise was born funded this whole operation.    She LOVES it!

Everybody come over and play!

alabama {phone pics}

I promise I'm done after this.  

 I was reminded that I missed a few - and they're pretty cute so here ya go.  

We went to this restaurant straight from the airport.  

Elise was SO happy to see her Auntie.

She would kind of space out by the pool.  She was BUSY. 

A little morning snack before hitting the beach. 

Uncle Carl (who she now calls Uncle Frog??) dug a super huge hole. 

They had a craft almost every day.  
This one was candy sand.  She said it tasted like smarties. 

Instagram pictures of the week:

Sheesh.  I'm done now.  

alabama {part three}

We're home now.  We had such a fun week.  

Vacations go too fast!

This kid was in sandcastle heaven.  She had sand everywhere.  

She kept pushing my hands off the paddle so she could do it by herself.  

We didn't get very far.  

The resort had tons of stuff to do all the time.

Someone discovered she loves swimming.  

The even had tattoos and popsicles by the pool one day.  

Elise got the biggest ice cream sandwich ever. 
She loved it and could hardly talk.  And she ate the whole thing. 

I've made the mistake before of not getting a single group shot on vacation.  So this time I made everyone pose before we left for the airport. 
(They'll thank me later.)  :-)

Thanks for a great vacation Mom & Dad!

alabama {part two}

We're having such a good time.  

The weather is perfect!

No rain or flooding or anything.  

(That's a little joke since GR is currently underwater.)

Yesterday while the boys were golfing we went and walked around Fairhope. 

It's the cutest little town with lots of cute shops.  

We love cute shops.  

Elise likes to "water the flowers" around the pool.  

The pool is freezing!  Elise doesn't really care though.  

Okay this video is hilarious but kind of makes us look like alcoholics.  Haha - just kidding - but we had just ordered a beer by the pool and Elise decided she was going to get us more.  In blue solo cups.  From the "water mountains" at the pool.  


We went to a restaurant in the middle of a pier. 

Our kinda place.  SO delicious and fun.  

Oh hi.  This kid is the cutest.  

They look alike.  Wowie. 

There ya go guys!  Today we're taking a bike ride to a little candy shop and playing by the pool.   There may or may not be bloody mary's involved.   After the bike ride, that is.  :-)