Life With Ella

Doris was in town with her beautiful family this week and we got to see them tonight at the ballgame.  We all had a great time – especially Ella who got to see her buddies from NJ.  To top that, the Giants won!  Here are some pics.

 Ella waiting for her friends to come.

 Hanging with Willie.

 Ella seems to be watching something on the jumbotron.

 All the beautiful grandchildren…Kara the beautiful daughter and Doris, the beautiful grandma.

 All the kids loving Ella.

Ella started gymnastics camp this week.  Stella and Juliet are going also.  Ella has been having so much fun with the girls.  Being at camp with each other every day for the past 2 weeks has been a really special time for Ella.  I don’t have any pictures of Ella actually doing gymnastics but I do have some morning shots of Ella in her gymnastics get-ups.  On Friday, I’ll videotape the showcase.

 Beautiful sleepy faced gymnast!  Ella showed me a few flips on the bars today when I picked her up.  I was impressed.

I’m going back almost a week here.  On Saturday, we went to Julie and Justin’s wedding.  It was at the DeYoung Museum and it was a beautiful ceremony and party.  As we were getting ready for the wedding, Ella said a few funny things.  First, Sunny was getting ready and she was putting on mascara.  Ella told her not to put it on.  Then I was all dressed up and ready to go and Ella said, “Look at you Miss Fancypants”.  I asked her if she liked the way I looked and she said, “Not really”.  I told her to pretend that it was Halloween and that I am going as Miss Fancypants.  I guess Ella loves us just the way we are and she doesn’t like us to “change”.  We had a great time together.  Here are some pics from Saturday.

 Miss Fancypants and Ella.

 Mommy mascara, Ella and Miss Fancypants.

 Outside of the museum in Golden Gate Park.

 Beautiful backdrop.

 Here are Emily and sweet KJ.  He was the ring bearer.

 Stell and Juliet were beautiful flower girls.

 The happy couple.

 Ella and her flower girl sisters.

 Alexis and a bunch of beautiful girls.

 Ella busy working with glow necklaces.

 Some serious dancing.

 Olympic glow rings.

 Ella climbing the structure at the Friends school where she is at dance camp with Stella and Juliet.  They are working really hard this week and tomorrow they have a little performance.  Unfortunately, I have to miss it because I’ll be at work, but Sunny is going and filming it for me.  Can’t wait to post the movies.

A continuation from last night’s Hawaii blog…

 Our amazing snorkeler.

 The beach in Poipu.  Ella re-connected with a friend from San Francisco.

 I took Ella out to see these incredible fish  Ella wasn’t thrilled in the ocean here.  It was a little rough.

Mommy and Ella in and out of the water at Tunnels.

 Fun on the beach!

 Ella took this shot of us.

 More turtle fun.

Ella on her first big snorkeling excursion.

 Ella and mommy getting reach to check things out.

 What a beautiful snorkeling team!

The next several pictures are ones that I took with the underwater mask camera.

 Pretty cool huh?  As soon as I get it together, I’m going to post movies of me swimming with a turtle and Sunny swimming in the center of a school of thousands of fish.

 Another round of mini-golf…this time with Phyllis and Michael and at night.  There were frogs jumping all over the course!

 Look closely and you can see the rainbow.

 Michael shielding the girls from the rainbow rain.

 Another rainbow!

 So sweet at Hanalei Bay!

We had a wonderful time in Hawaii.  We had 2 weeks of total rest & relaxation in paradise.  We went to the beach, snorkeled, swam with turtles, swam in the pool, went to Hanalei Bay, played mini golf, kayaked, ate Bubba Burgers, hung out with friends and family and just had a fantastic time.  There are a lot of pictures to post so I’ll do a little narrative as we go along.

 This shot was taken about 4 hours after out plane landed.  We were ready for the pool!

 Aloha!

 Ella was having an olympic boogie board race with a friend in the pool.

 Miniature golf in Kauai.  It was a beautiful mini-golf course in a botanical garden.  This was Ella’s first time playing mini-golf and she loved it.

 Sweet family shot before dinner one night.

 Building a sand castle on Hanalei Bay.

 Our little mermaid with adult teeth coming in!

 This is a place called Lydgate Park where a man made lagoon was built.  You can see the waves crashing on the rocks.  There are some amazing fish in the lagoon and Ella was able to comfortably snorkel and see lots of fish.

 Beautiful child.

 Out one night for some shave ice.

 Here we are on our kayaking adventure.  We made it 2 miles this time!  It was much easier than last year and Ella even rowed a little bit.

We had a great dinner at the Hanalei Dolphin with Auntie Pie, Michael and Grandma Alice.  Phyllis and Michael were in Kauai for 2 weeks and grandma Alice was there for a week.  It was great to get to spend some time together.

Here are some great shots of Ella feeding the koi, hanging out on the beach, walking around Hanalei and just being beautiful Ella.

 Ella did a lit of snorkel practicing in the pool.

OK – I’m getting a little tired and have a lot more pictures to post.  Stay tuned for Hawaii 2012 Part 2 tomorrow.