Vacations

 

 

 

You might think that this picture is out of order but it's not!  This summer I took ice skating lessons. I was happy when my friend Brynn was there too!  The first lesson was a little rough with lots of time on the ice.  The next morning I was so sore I couldn't sit up straight at breakfast and Mom gave me some ibuprofen.  Over the course of 6 weeks I got much better!

By the end, I could skate across the ice without falling.  Yeah!

 

 

One week I got to bring Gerald (Elephant) and Piggie home from the library.  I got to keep a journal of all the fun things we did together.  It was a little sad to bring them back to the library on Saturday to go to their next adventure.

I participated in two theater camps this summer.  The first one was a Frozen theater camp.  It was very popular and there were 25 kids in the camp.  The week was full of drama as I had to learn many hard life lessons about taking opportunities when they come, about how I don't always get my own way, and that sometimes it's hard to be with older kids.  The next week I went to Sofia the First camp and that went much better.  I knew what to expect, and there were far less kids so we got to do a lot more and each of us got to create our own "scene" for the show.  On the last day of the camps we performed a short play for our parents.

I was part of many scenes at Sofia camp which made me very happy.

We got to sing and dance as well as do some acting.

I was playing a sea monster in this scene

 This was in the scene I created. My scene was about when James got turned into a baby.  I got to play Sofia in my own scene.  Imagine that.

 

One day we had a fun family date to Mall of America.  Mommy and I went mini golfing and Daddy and Andrew went to Nickelodeon Universe.

 

 The Children's Museum has a fun Thomas the Train exhibit right now.  I played at the train station for quite a long time.  I would get my luggage, board the train, disembark, and start the process all over again.

 

On the 4th of July weekend we went to the cabin as usual.  Daddy and I did some sailing.

 

We went to the parade.  Here I am giving some props to our vets.

Grandma and I at the parade.  Andrew took my chair so Grandma's lap was my spot!

Posing at the cabin

Andrew and I playing in the kayak.

More posing

Fun on the paddle boat. I'm now tall enough to help paddle!

 Uncle Steve brought out the old Nintendo system.  I played Duck Hunt for the first time.  It is tougher than it looks. 

 

 

On Sunday we went to the Shriners Belgian Waffle breakfast.  Mommy wished she took a "before" picture as my waffle was huge and I ate it all in record time.  They had all kinds of different syrup to put on waffles which was pretty fun too.  Daddy was sad he missed out.  He had to leave early to fly to Ireland. 

 

We stayed a couple extra days while Daddy was in Ireland so I got to spend some more quality time at the pool by Grandma's house.

 

 

After our extended stay at Grandma's house it was time for another camp.  This time it was "Little Miss America Camp" held at my dance studio.  One of the teachers there is a former Miss Minnesota International so she held a fun little camp for girls to learn about being a "pageant girl".  We learned about "pretty hands" and "pretty feet" and how to hold flowers like a baby.  It was a whole lot of fun and I came home and declared that I was going to be a pageant girl some day.  I wanted my mom to make me a "back stage" so I could practice.

 

Little Miss America

 

 

Then started traveling season!  We flew to Indianapolis to spend a weekend with some of Daddy's friends from college and their families.  There were lots of little girls to play with.  This is Clementine and me watching and acting out Frozen.  We acted out the whole movie.

Impromptu limbo contest outside.

We played hide and seek and all hid in the same spot.

 Indianapolis had an awesome Children's Museum.  We had lots of fun there.  The carousel was a hit.

 

 This webbed climbing thing was pretty cool too.  I love climbing and exploring.

 

We got home on a Tuesday and on Sunday went back to the airport and flew to Texas for a family reunion. All of my cousins came and it was great!

Cousin Lauren and I awaiting the cuckoo clock.

Girl cousin boat ride

Ellie, Lauren and Me

Driving the boat with Papa

We put on a talent show and a movie show

One day we traveled to Johnson Space Center. I was a little nervous the whole time that we would somehow blast off into space.

Astronaut Megan

Andrew and I lifting weights.  You could set it to feel like how it would feel based on the planet.

Daddy and me by a big rocket

The rockets were HUGE!

Lauren and me by the rocket

After the space center we went to Galveston.  After dinner we got ice cream! Yum!

 

At breakfast they had Texas waffles!

At Galveston we went to Moody Gardens which has a water park and also lots of other activities.

We went to Rainforest Café for dinner the second night. 

Hanging out on the beach after dinner

Weeee!  Some last moments of fun at the water park before we went back to Nana and Papa's.

 They had a kids ropes course too that I was able to try.  It was hot but fun.

 

Mom and I being silly

 

Just me being silly

 

Enjoying the sunset at Nana and Papa's house.

My first time in the tube!

I spent so much time in the pool that I became quite the little swimmer by the end of our time in Texas.  I am now an official swimmer. 

On our last night it was time for one last show.  It was a doll fashion show. 

 

 We tried to get a picture of all the cousins and Nana and Papa but Andrew and Chloe wanted no part of it.  So here are all the non-toddler cousins! 

 

Since this blog has gotten long enough, I will end it here and post another blog with all of my August happenings later. It has been one busy summer let me tell you!