She shoulda been a cowgirl...

Last Saturday we got together with some of our friends and headed out to Piedmont, Oklahoma (about 30 minutes away) to get in the Fall spirit by going to a pumpkin patch/petting zoo.  Ella LOVED every minute of it. By the time we left, we both agreed that maybe Ella would have liked to have been born to parents who lived on a farm. Oh well. She got us instead. Anyway, from the goats, to the cows, to the ponies, even a lama, she just couldn't get enough!

Ella and her little friend Chad on a tractor

Running thru the corn maze

They had this big slide that went faster than what you would think.  Ella's never been one to turn down a slide and even though kids under six had to go down with an adult...

...she decided rules were made to be broken!

I think her favorite part of the day was riding the pony all by herself.  (How weird is it that I have a kid old enough to do that!!!)

Before we left, Ella got to pick out a pumpkin to take home.

After searching high and low...

...she found the perfect one!

Lions and Tigers and Bears...

A few weeks ago, we got our passes for the zoo here.  We've been a couple times since and so these pictures are from both of those trips.

Ella does really well with keeping her little sunglasses that her Grandma Harbertson got her. Even when they are almost falling off...

Can she at least fake that she wants to take a picture with her mom?

Scary...

The "eye of the tiger"

There's this cute little merry-go-round with all the endangered animals.  Ella would "roar" every time she went by me. 

Seattle for Ryan, California for us

Last weekend, Ryan had a Perio national meeting/convention out in Seattle.  He had been planning this for about a month and a half and when he made his final plans to go, I of course did a little planning of my own. I really wanted to go out to Seattle with him because Ryan's little sister, Debbie, lives out there and I've never been.  However, Debbie just had a baby a few weeks ago and I didn't think she'd be up to visitors just yet.  So I ended up finding a really cheap flight into San Diego and since Ella is still free to fly, we were able to be out in California for a week.  I have to admit, I was kinda nervous about flying all by myself with Ella for the first time, but thanks to a little DVD player and some YoGo's, it was a piece of cake. Well, maybe not a piece of cake, but not nearly the disaster I had pictured in my head!

We stayed most of the time with my sister in San Clemente because they are about to move out to AZ for Mike's job.  It's always nice to have extra helpers...especially at bath time!

On Saturday, we got to host a little baby shower for my cousin Julie. (I wish I had more pictures!)

Sunday we went over to my Aunt Mel's house for some family bonding...which mainly just consisted of eating and watching Brian Reagan. I wish I had my camera but since I was a single parent for a week, I'm chalking it up to the fact that at least I remembered diapers and wipes...and boy did I need them that night. 'Nuff said.

On Monday night, I took Ella, Kaitlyn, and Carson to meet up with my mom and Dave for dinner and a little walk on the pier in Oceanside.  When I was younger, this was the beach that our ward would meet at for FHE at the beach every other Monday night in the summer time. Such fun memories!

Watching the surfers...

Tuesday Lindsay and I took the kids to Disneyland. It was so fun to see how much more "into it" Ella was now that she is just a couple months older. She was so excited to see Mickey Mouse until we went up to see him...then she had to make sure I was with her.

Linds and the kids on Autopia

Ella's all time favorite ride is the Nemo Submarines...or as she would say "Memo!"

This was Ella's old favorite ride. She's not so impressed anymore.

My good friend Laura (or to those who know and love her most: L-train) and her little cutie, Kate, we able to come meet up with us for a few hours at Disneyland. We always had planned on doing a Disneyland day when I lived there, but leave it to us to wait until I move half way across the country to actually do it.

Linds and I with the kiddies

L-train and Kate on the new Toy Story ride at Cal Adventure

Ella totally kept her 3D glasses on the ride the whole time!

Later the day, my Aunties Jill and Melanie and two cousins, Hallie and Kylie came and met up with us. This is everyone watching the Pixar parade at Cal Adventure.

It was at this point that my battery in my camera died and I didn't bring the charger with me. It's okay though.  It probably would have just been more of the same pictures at Disneyland. Thanks to all my family for making our trip so much fun!  Also a big thank you to Debbie and Chris in Seattle for letting Ryan stay at your "extra place"!  

Goodbye Mullet...

...Hello short, trendy bob! Ok, so it's not exactly a "Posh Spice bob" but I don't have that much to work with.  Ella's hair is so thin and fine that I was just letting it grow out as long as possible to be able to do anything with it.  It just got to a point though that the only way to get rid of the mullet was to chop it all off and start fresh.  Now, hopefully, it will all grow in the same length and start to look a bit more full...we'll see.

Here's the before shot:

During: (thank heavens for the little DVD player and her beloved Elmo movie)

After:

Ryan thinks I cut it too short and now she has a boy haircut.  Looks like we're back to the days of not leaving the house without a hair accessory!

Dallas

Last weekend Ryan had a perio meeting down in Dallas that his program wanted him to go to and said they would pay for his expenses, so we loaded up the car and headed south. The drive really wasn't bad--about three hours--so it was perfect for just a quick little trip.  We stayed right down town so the first night we were there we just put Ella in the stroller and walked around to see the sights.  We saw some fountains so of course Ella had to do some running around in them.

We also walked by this memorial that was built where JFK was shot. Kinda simple but still pretty cool.

The heat was CRAZY hot so we had to do some swimming. (For such a nice hotel, the pool was kind of a let down...)

The next day Ryan had to be at his meeting from 8:00 until 4:00 so Ella and I just hung out at the hotel (after I stopped to buy Breaking Dawn of course! :) ) 

...and we did a little more swimming.

After we picked up Ryan, we went up to the Galleria Mall.  We found a little play area that was PACKED with kids and Ella loved it! She's such a people watcher! She can be all crazy and wild but then we get around other kids and she just wants to watch them. She also did some playing of her own...

This was from the first night we were there.  I guess Ella's only ever been in a hotel room once (when she was like 3 months old) and she was loving every minute of it! Anyway, I had to put this picture in there cuz she just started making this face lately and it cracks me up every time! She knows that's how to get me to let her do what she wants. I think in this picture she was wanting to jump on the bed...guess who got her way!

A shot of our hotel