out, out, damn spot...

Ella woke up on the next to last day of vacation with a small red spot on her hand which looked like a bug bite...no big deal until we saw them all over her body. A quick call to the pediatrician's office told us to watch her and if they got worse to get her seen by a local doctor...

So, here we are at the doctors office...

Needless to say, it got way worse before it got better. At the end of the day(s), she had a reaction to the antibiotic she was on for an ear infection and then got a viral infection that resulted in hives...it looks really bad. We have the BEST doctor in the universe who even let us come to her house Friday night instead of taking her to the emergency room ( mom and dad freaked out!!!) and all was well by the end of the weekend. Ella is a trooper and was amazing while she felt so bad.

Trip to the Aquarium

Bonnie graciously gave us her aquarium passes one day and we took Ella to the Monterey Aquarium. It is huge and one of the best in the country. We headed to "Splash Zone" which is an entire wing dedicated to kid-friendly activities and such.

Ella had a blast on the "wave machine" which is meant to mimic the feeling of waves for the little one's.

Daddy teaching Ella all about the fish!

You can sort of see 2 sharks ( big ones!) in the "Outer Banks" tank. There were sharks, sting rays, see turtles, all kinds of fish, and an octopus. Ella liked it for about 30 seconds and was then more interested in Bert's hat!

Big Sur

We spent one morning exploring Big Sur and stopped to take a hike in Pfiffier State Park.

Ella has so excited that she fell asleep.

Top of the hike!

Ella and Daddy...

Got some great pics of Ella and her daddy...

Tastes like chicken...

I think it is a Toucan, but whatever it is, Ella loved it. You can begin to see the fact that she is not feeliing so great...the great spots began the next morning.

tail feathers!

Yummy in my tummy!

New toys

It is always fun to go to other people's homes because everything seems so new!
Ella played with blocks!

She loved Jaden's giant Panda bear

Nothing better than a globe and a shark!

Trip to Carmel

We took Ella to Carmel, CA to see Bonnie and have a week of vacation. She did great on the plane and we had a ton of fun. The weather was cool in the evenings so we bundled up to go out!

We spent Father's Day at Kim and Mark's ( Bonnie's parents) and had a great brunch. Ella played with Jaden, Molly, and Will. I think she has a crush on Will!

Ella and Kim...everybody loves Nana!!!

Work with Mommy

I took Ella to work with me for 2 days when the sitter was off. We had a blast and she LOVES Tammer!

Working hard on the computer!

A little light reading...have to keep up to date in the recovery world!

Happy, happy girl when Uncle Tammer is around!

Eight months...and crawling

Ella is sitting up, crawling, clapping, and laughing all of the time!

And there she goes...

"Fish Store"

Bert has been wanting to check out the new Bass Pro Shop in Pearland, so last Sunday we called over to the Stricklin's to see if Sam wanted to go with us. He was super excited to go to the "Fish Store". I have never been, nor really had any desire to go, to a store dedicated to fishing and boating...but let me tell you, it was unreal. It is as big as 2 SAMS Clubs put together.

I'm fairly certain that Sam got in every boat possible.

Captain Sam Stricklin

A little kayak action...

After 2 hours, Ella was ready to go ( much to Sam's dismay). On the way out, we bought Sam a hot dog and sat down. He looked at me and said "do you remember when we were inside and you said that when we leave the inside that we could get on all the boats that were on the outside?" We left an hour later.