Trip to California to Celebrate Grandpa Noel

On July 15th Chad's Grandpa Noel lost his fight with Leukemia. He was a wonderful, kind, loving person and very influential in Chad's life. He will be greatly missed. I'm glad that we were able to go to California and celebrate Noel's long, full life with all of his friends and family. <3

To remember Noel, the family took a sailboat out to put his ashes in the ocean in front of his old home in Laguna.

It was really beautiful and very fitting. We love you and will miss you Noel!

The sailboat ride was nice, and the babies fell asleep right away due to the rocking.

While in California we were able to visit with lots of family and spend some time on the beach. Ella and her cousin Salvador had lots of fun playing in the water and sand!

 

The weather was so nice and we tried to enjoy the beach as much as we could :)

We also celebrated Chad's mom's birthday while we were there. We went to the Sawdust Festival and had a great time looking at all the art and jewelry.

We also went to the Orange County Fair and Ella got to play with some Monarch butterflies!

We stopped by Grandma Sylvia's and Grandpa Don's for dinner one night and had a wonderful time visiting with them.

Trip to Paris...Texas

This weekend we went to Paris, TX to meet up with my grandparents and celebrate my Grandpa's 80th birthday! The drive was great, my parents rode with us and kept Ella entertained in the backseat. Paris is a cute town and we got to see all the sites, including a mini Eiffel tower with a cowboy hat!!

Ella got to check out a grasshopper at Dan's house, she was very interested, but got a little freaked out when it jumped on her!

There was one confusing intersection in town where we kept getting turned around. The sign wasn't too helpful...

Happy Fourth of July!

We went down to Port Aransas this weekend with my parents to celebrate the Fourth of July. We had a great time and got in a bunch of fishing and beach time. Ella also discovered her love of watermelon, she had a blast eating it off the rind!

Beach Trip with the Cousins

This weekend we went down to Port Aransas with our cousins for some much-needed beach time. The kids had a great time playing in the sand together!

Ella's First Steps

Ella started walking today! We are so proud of our big girl :D

Climbing on the Table

Ella has figured out how to climb on the coffee table. We are trying to discourage it and have been telling her no, but she keeps sneaking back on when we aren't looking. She knows she's not supposed to get up there, and when we tell her no she'll look over and raise that little leg to climb up and then laugh and laugh. She is definitely starting to test her limits!

Ski Shores

Today we went to Ski Shores with my parents for some burgers on the lake to celebrate my Mom's birthday. It was a gorgeous sunny day and it was so nice to eat outside with that wonderful view! Happy birthday Mom!!