Life With Ella

Ella and Sakura were able to spend Saturday – Sunday with each other.  Sakura is now on her way back to Japan.  They had such a wonderful time together.  Ella seems pretty sad that Sakura is back in Japan.  It’s pretty incredible to watch Ella and her very meaningful relationships with friends.  Here are a few pictures from their special day.

 Reading one of Ella’s favorite books…”Do Not Open This Book”.

 Sakura brought this book for Ella from Japan.  Ella took it and ran with it!

 Giving each other school work to do.

 Two of the original powerpuff girls.

 Sweetness.

Diary writing with Panda.

 One last goodbye.

Ella didn’t do any diving off the diving board this summer but she had so much fun jumping off the board.

Grandma, papa, Milo and Ella – they all love each other so much.  This was before a delicious dinner at Kiku.

 Croquet on the front lawn with Nikki B and Co.  I was of course joking around!

 Beautiful children.

Happpy swimmer.

We had a lovely day with Adam.

 Yoga family.

 Loved watching Ella and Adam get to know each other.

Love on the terrace with papa.

 Loving the monkey bars.

 Ella gave Tess some big girl support.

 Sweetness.

 New yogurt place in AJ’s hood.  Ella had watermelon cilantro yogurt!  YUCK!

 Grandma and Panda totally bonded.

 Ella does her best Scutaro.

Cutest cousins in the world.

 Sweetness.

 A happy girl and her dog.

 Posing in front of big things.

 Fun at Bloomingdales.

 Never saw so much love!

 Ella and Milo had so much fun with each other this summer.

This was the first summer that Ella was actually able to putt with papa.  They both loved doing this.Golf cart ride!

 Milo is a wild tester.

 Last Leonia photo shoot of the summer of 2013.

 Wonderful journey back home with Ella and Panda.

 Ella is reunited with Sakura.  The girls were so happy to be with each other.

We just came home from three beautiful weeks in NJ visiting grandma, papa, AJ, Milo and many wonderful friends and family.  We love you guys and miss you a lot.  I have a lot of pictures to post here we go!

 This was the first time that we traveled with Panda and he was an amazing traveler!  Can’t wait for more trips with Panda.

 Fun at the Liberty Science Center.

Grandma took Ella and I to see Matilda.  We all loved it.

 Having fun at a little kid’s park.

 We had a sweet afternoon with Jordin, AJ, Milo and Twyla.  Twyla really cracked Ella up.

 Beautiful cousins in Madison Square Park.

 Before Haircut…

 After haircut.

 Normyn and Panda were so sweet together.

 The kids had a great time at Overpeck Park.

 Shucking corn with grandma.

 One of many amazing jumps at the Leonia Pool.

 On top of the world!

Fun and love at papa’s club.

 Ella reading papa a Jack and Annie book.

 Panda loves a good bedtime story!

That’s it for tonight – I will try to finish this tomorrow night.

Today was the day of Ella’s group performance.  She was very excited.  Cousin Clara, Dan and Cindy are visiting SF for the weekend, so Clara came to the show.  Ella was so happy to have her there.  They played around in the playground before the performance.  Ella did a great job.  This year, she was a singer, not a drummer.  I think she may have had more fun playing drums, but she was so sweet singing.  The movie is at the end.  The camera is focused on Ella but there is very loud music coming from the whole group.  After the show, Dan, Clara and Cindy came back here and we ate a great meal at Koh Samui and The Monkey.  The food and company was great.  Tomorrow we head to the exploratorium.

Ella at the airport in Cabo with her Lauren and Sunny tattoo.

 Snack before the show.

Sweet, loving cousins.

 Ella in action.

 Getting ready for the song to begin.

 Oh yeah – rock on,

 And that’s the show!.

We have actually landed at home for more than a week!  Ella has been having fun catching up with Stella, Juliet, KJ and Isaac, seeing some other friends, visiting ACC, and this past week she has been at Rock Band Land at CDS.  The final performance is tomorrow (Friday).  Ella decided that she wanted to sing this time.  I will film the song and post it tomorrow.

Ella and her buddy pineapple.

 The perfect pyramid of love and friendship.

 Touching the rays at the Aquarium by the Bay.

Ella and a drop of water at the Exploratorium.

On Sunday, Ella and Sunny’s scooters were taken from our garbage chute room.  Here is Ella with her new scooter.

Here is a video of Ella making a basket this morning at camp…

We had a fun and relaxing week in Cabo this past week.  The trip was totally different than our amazing adventures in the Southwest the week before!  On this trip, we laid in the pool or next to the pool, went to the beach and swam in the ocean, ate some good meals and…Ella was able to live out a dream of hers.  Ella swam with dolphins.  She did a little class with about 7 other kids.  She was so excited and a little nervous.  While she was waiting for her class to start, she was standing in front of a  huge port hole looking for the dolphins.  She found a few and they swam right up to her beautiful face.  Ella was so focused as if she were communicating with them with her eyes and smile.  It was fantastic to watch Ella and her magic.

 Ella was so happy and excited.  She was so focused on getting to know the dolphins.

 Right before she got into the water.

 Having fun with the other kids.

 Look at Ella riding that dolphin like a pro!

 Shaking hands and kissing.

 The dolphin was super sweet.

 Relaxing in Cabo.

We just came back from Cabo San Lucas and I have some photos to post from that trip, but I don’t want to do that until I finish the Southwest trip.  I am still in awe of all that we did, all that we experienced together and how truly incredible that week was for all of us.  I left off in Bryce Canyon and will now continue in Bryce on our horse/mule ride down the canyon.  We were all a little nervous and hesitant to do this ride but we did it and conquered our fears and tried to let go of control…this can be pretty hard for this crew!

 Sisters!

 I love my peeps!

Me and the two loves of my life.

Enjoy the next several shots of our ride.  Ella was in the front with the cowboy – Ella’s mule was tied to the cowboy so that he could help the mule along and Ella didn’t have to do anything except focus on staying on the mule (which was tricky).

The evening in Bryce…

 Magnificent in every way!

 Love with the in-laws.

The next several shots are of the whole family in a hike in the Zion narrows.  Everyone did an amazing job staying safe, having fun, and being super adventurous.  We were the most impressed with grandma, papa and Milo.  This was an incredible day.

Thank you again, grandma and papa, for the experience of a lifetime.  We love you guys.

There are so many words to describe our week in the southwest…love, fun, adventure, risks, fear, conquering fear, laughter, happiness, closeness, wonder, pushing the limits and heat!  We had two guides, Eric and Heather and they were amazing.  They took great care of us, helped to keep us safe, made sure that we had a lot of fun and a lot of challenges, and became part of our family for the week.  I am going to put in around 93 pictures.  I am just going to name the place where we were and then put the pics.  If you have any questions, please ask me!  One thing that is missing is footage from the pink coral sand dunes where we boogie boarded and almost fell face down due to heat exhaustion.  Thank you mom and dad for them most loving and wonderful adventure.  I don’t think that any of us will ever forget this trip!

 Watching mom and dad watch their special happy anniversary video.

Our first lunch stop.

The experienced loving married couple sharing a chocolate shake!

These next several shots were taken at the GRAND CANYON

 Ella is becoming quite a photographer.

 Ella papa love.

 Climbing a very tall fire tower.

Now we’re on our way to  Willis Creek

At the Cowboy Cookout in Bryce

OK – I am fading.  That’s all for now.  Hopefully I can finish this in the morning. Otherwise, I will have it done by next week.