Week at Grandma's

Last Sunday after our college reunion, Ella hitched a ride with some friends and headed out to Central PA to spend a week with my parents. Just to be clear, the hitching part did not involve her standing along side the road with a backpack or anything.

She spent the week going to my parent's church's Vacation Bible School.

While Ella spent time with her grandparents, I spent a few days just with Catherine. She seemed to enjoy being the only child and played quite well on her own. As a result, I enjoyed a relaxing few days until Catherine and I left on Thursday to join Ella at my parents. Ella was having a great time, but by this point she was feeling homesick at night so it was good timing for me to get there.

On Friday Catherine and got to go to VBS to see Ella sing up front in the end of the week program.

This was one of the few pictures I got where she was actually doing the motions. She was supposed to be in front of the older kids but somehow shuffled back and was distracted by the enthusiastic singers on her left and right.

One of the highlights of our trip was a bike ride around the neighborhood block -just under a mile. Catherine rode on the bike seat with her PapPap, Ella on her little bike with training wheels and me in the back, giving Ella directions, such as, "look straight ahead, look straight ahead, keep going, keep peddling!!"

They both enjoyed their ride (although it seems like Catherine didn't have the best view) and Ella was so proud of herself.

My dad decided to take another lap with Catherine and I didn't want Ella to go for fear that she'd tire out half way and get discouraged. She was so upset that she laid down in the driveway and cried.

While there we also enjoyed spending time at a nearby lake. It cost us a whopping $2/car (gotta love central PA prices) and we had an afternoon of fun. This summer the girls are having so much fun in the water - which makes it much easier to deal with the heat. The lake is so much fun for them because it's similar to being at the beach with the sand, but it's fresh water with very little waves so they can float and splash and walk out pretty far without any fear of being knocked over.

Don't you love the look of joy on her face?!

Ella loves her little tube from the dollar store. She can still touch -

I try not to let her use it as a real flotation device

A sweet picture with Nama, but in a few minutes they were about to have way too much fun trying to tip Nama over. I kept snapping in hopes of getting a shot of it, but she was able to fend them off!

Both Ella and Catherine loved the time they got to spend with both grandparents. I always laugh at the sort of activities Ella ends up doing with my dad. This week, she enjoyed helping him scoop up dog poop from the backyard. She was so excited to tell me how many piles they found - thankfully I've been able to erase the exact amount from my memory.

On Saturday afternoon we hoped to make it too the lake again, but the soccer game my dad was referreing ended up running late, so we settled for play time in the baby pool instead.

Looks like they made the most of it!

I came home with them Saturday night, thinking that they would be exhausted and either nap, or fall asleep as it got closer to their bed time. While the trip down with just Catherine was easy and peaceful (I actually listened to an audio book while she watched Maisy and then napped), adding Ella to the mix meant that it was anything but! We had to stop once for gas, once because she claimed the sound on the dvd player wasn't working and a final time to pee and then fill their bellies. A couple of times I thought they were close to sleep, but the next second I would hear them giggling. They made the four hour trip without sleepinga bit - so much for my plans!

Now life is back to normal and we're trying to stay cool during this heat wave. Tonight went over to friend's house swimming on the spur of the moment and ended up staying until after 8pm. The girls were floating and playing in the pool long after we were out and dried off. I think my children have had their fair share of water play these last few days!