4th of July

We celebrated the 4th of July this year with family, friends, and fireworks - what could be better?!  We started the day out by going to the local Issaquah parade with my parents.  Ella loved it, and would have joined the parade if we had let her.  Her favorite part was picking up the candy thrown out by the people in the parade!

A mini photo shoot before we left the house :).

 We finished the day with a BBQ at the Magnussons on Queen Anne.  Such an amazing view from their back porch!

 Nate, Sophie, and Ella with their firework straws

 Watching fireworks out the window as it started to get dark

 The kids were impressed with the fireworks!

Sea World

Finishing up my posts from San Diego, I wanted to include our fun day spent at Sea World.  Since we did the San Diego zoo last year and figured Ella was still too little to really enjoy Disneyland, we settled on going to Sea World and had a blast while we were there! The shows were age appropriate for Ella and she was captivated by watching the dolphins and whales splashing and doing their tricks.  It really is amazing how they train the animals to do what they do!  Ella was also thrilled with the Sesame Street area and loved going on the one ride she was big enough to go on.  We planned the day to make sure to see the Dolphin show, the Shamu show, the Elmo show, and the Sea Lion/Seal show.  Ella actually sat through all the shows (very rare for her!) and it was fun to watch her take it all in.

 It was pretty cool getting to touch the dolphins as they swam by!

Beach Day

I love the beach.  I love beach pictures.  I loved seeing my daughter love the beach on our vacation this year.  The one thing I wanted to do on our trip to San Diego was enjoy Coronado beach.  Our planned beach trip last year was cut a bit short by our broken down rental car.  But we made up for it this year with a beautiful day spent in the sand.  Being that Ella hates being sticky or having anything on her hands, we weren't too sure if she'd like the beach or not.  It turns out she loved it and didn't hesitate getting more than a little bit sandy!  Being our true northwest girl who's not used to seeing the sun all that much, she often freaked out any time the sun was remotely in her eyes and would yell, "Shades on!" until she had her sunglasses on her eyes.  Hence the shades on in almost all these pictures ;).

Sunscreen on her part + her throwing sand = very sandy toddler hair

 

San Diego

Cody has been traveling to San Diego for work about once a month these days.  So Ella and I figured we should keep him company on one of these trips and it worked out perfectly with me being on summer break now - yay!  We also thought we should take advantage of one last time not having to pay for a plane ticket for the munchkin before she turns two.  It really was a great trip...there's just something good about soaking up the sunshine, playing, swimming, relaxing, eating out, and just enjoying the three of us.  Ella did awesome on the plane rides and went with the flow of late bedtimes and sometimes no naps.  In true Lamens fashion we took a ton of pictures, of course.  This post will be long enough as it is, so I think I'll save our beach day and our trip to SeaWorld for separate posts.

The first day we got there, Ella and I met up with my friend/very-missed-teaching-partner Cherie, and her kids Fiona and Tate.  They moved down to SoCal last summer and it was so good to catch up with them!  We went to a great Kid's Museum and enjoyed lunch and ice cream at Seaport Village.

 Smooches from Tate at lunch ;).

 Our awesome hotel (thank you priceline!) had s'mores on the rooftop at sunset each night. 

 Ella in her jammies loving roasting marshmallows!

Ella and I enjoyed some pool time each day and Cody got to join us at the pool during the weekend.   

We had dinner at the beautiful Hotel del Coronado one evening.  Our friends Danny and Jess and their son Bennett happened to be vacationing with their family in Coronado at the same time as us so we met up after dinner!

Ella loves this cute little man, Bennett...

 ...and Bennett's mama Jess!

 Thanks Jess for snapping a few family photos for us!

Dinner and a walk around Seaport Village

 I had to include the below picture of our silly goofball for a couple of reasons - 1) I want to remember her crazy, adorable, gap-toothed smile (a few kids at the pool commented about how she had already lost her teeth!)

2) For Cody and I to remember how obsessed she became with this little North Face fleece, or as she affectionately calls it, her purple jacket.  She insisted on wearing it in 80 degree weather, to the pool (in the pool if we had let her), to bed at night, during naps, cuddling with it like a blanket, etc.  We would wake up to her little voice saying, "Purple jacket back on?" at 5:30 in the morning...oh the joys of sharing a hotel room with a toddler.

 

And this is what we did while Ella napped in the room - thank goodness for video monitors!

More pics coming soon ;).