Trip to Arizona

We had another successful road trip to Arizona to visit parents and grandparents.  The long weekends aren't quite enough time but we cherish the time we do get to visit.  Elena is a great road tripper and I'm glad she finally mastered her "going potty in public restrooms" skill.  Elena has been day time potty trained for over a year but she doesn't like public restrooms--she'll hold it for the 7.5-8 hours it takes us to drive to Prescott.  Needless to say by the time we arrive she really has to go and arrives with a tummy ache.

 We took a walk around the Highland Center with docent Donna :)  Elena loved learning about the habitats and animals that live in them.

 We also spent some time at the park.  Above is Elena's first try at the monkey bars.  She held on well but that was about the extent of her monkeying around :)

 She still loves swings (bucket or sling)--can you tell?  And I love taking pictures of her swinging.

 Being goofy with Grandpa on the blue seal!

 Playing dinos on the rocks.  Elena built caves and homes for the dinos with Grandma and Daddy.  Check out Carl's shades, he's rocking Elena's Dora glasses.  Silly Daddy!

Grandparents and grandkids.  Saying good bye is always hard...but we're looking forward to seeing you again soon!

Our New Pool!

 We are the proud owners of a 5' pool, of kiddie proportions :)

 

 I was out running errands and ran into a hard plastic pool, I just couldn't resist.  I can not believe how much Elena is enjoying the pool.  We should have invested in one of these years ago.  Yesterday Elena splashed in the pool and today we hooked the pool up to the slide for even more fun.

In her dare devil attitude, Elena pushes her limits on the slide--she really wants to come down head first.  We're firm, slides are feet first always.

It's nice having the pool but now I'm wishing we had a big backyard pool. :)

Birthday at the Beach!

Happy Birthday, Carl!

 As a part of the birthday festivities, we went to the Coronado Beach.  No excursion to the beach is complete without a pit for Elena to jump into and sand castles.

 Aside from a few clouds that blocked the sun for 10 minutes, the weather was perfect.  I'm glad we had sweatshirts because when the clouds block the sun and the wind blows over the cold ocean, it gets chilly!

 On to wet/drippy sand castles.  I think these are Carl's favorite type of sand castle.  He's trying to teach Elena how to make them.

 It's time to be a kid again ;)  Carl's teaching Elena how to jump into the puddles. 

 I'm surprised this picture turned out.

 Just our little cutie playing in the shallow surf.

 Looks like Carl picked up the camera and snapped a shot of us checking out something.

The masterpiece.  Just moments after I captured this photo the tide knocked it down.