Fast forward to June 9, and Ella has made quite a lot of progress in catching up to Max. There is only 5 weeks difference in their ages, and now it finally looks that way physically.
But once we got to our spot on the parade route, things began to turn around. Ellie loved the parade, collected lots of candy, and even got to ride in the parade for a little while with my cousin, Kathy, and her daughters Sophie and Anna Caroline...What Fun!
After the parade, we walked downtown to where the rides and games were. After grabbing a bite to eat, Ellie twisted Papi's arm to take her on the pony ride, and then next was the bungee trampoline.
Ellie was getting so excited just standing in line watching the other kids jump. We were a little surprised she was so enthused to jump, since it goes really high, but she had no fear and LOVED it!!!
I always seem to forget how Country Days brings out all of Farmington's finest (all of the Lead Belt area's finest for that matter). And I was a little scared to expose my children, but they had a good time, and I'm sure we'll be back again next year.
Ellie has finally gotten big enough to begin helping out with chores around the house and outside with Dad. And she actually thinks it's fun, so we're trying to take every opportunity to let her "help" while this stage lasts. She usually insists on "helping" me dust, and her "helping" usually puts more fingerprints on the freshly dusted furniture than were there before, but we've got to start somewhere, right?
cheesey picture 
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Cool dude, Max, ready for the hike.
The Garden of the Gods 
Max slept in the baby bjorn while we all walked around.
Another day while in Colorado, we headed down to Colorado Springs to visit the Garden of the Gods and the Broadmoor. The Garden of the Gods is awesome, with enormous rock formations in the middle of relatively flat land. Unfortunately they are too dangerous to climb on, but they've inspired an upcoming trip to Elephant Rocks.
While in Colorado, the guys played a "3 Club" Tournament. Which means that instead of everyone lugging their clubs out to Colorado, they all just picked 3 clubs out of the sets that Jason's uncle and cousins had, and then played the whole 18 holes with the same 3 clubs. Jason had a great day on the golf course and stomped the competition (or so he says). His reward was the lovely bunny trophy, which Ellie thought was hilarious...."Mom, did you see that bunny. It has a golf ball for a tail. It's not supposed to have a golf ball tail."
When we wake up in the morning, it sometimes takes a little while to get going, so many times I'll let Ellie watch tv in my room while I'm getting ready. She often asks to have Max lie on her arm in the bed, and they look so adorable together.
Ellie loves books, going to the library, and being read to. As soon as we get to the end of the story she says, "Again," so she knows many books by heart. We're trying to start Max young as well, and hopefully he'll have as big a love of books as his sister does.
Our cute little guy.
We built a flower bed under the deck last year, and have now finally gotten around to adding plantings in the bed. It stays shaded most of the day, so we picked out some lovely, shade loving plants. It was looking great and only lacked the top layer of mulch or rock, which we planned on adding the following weekend. Unfortunately, Lucy (our dog) did not agree with our selection of plants, so she did some editing. We had to replace some of the plants when we added the river rock layer on top, but since then Lucy has stayed out of the bed, and it looks great.
Ellie loved digging, watering, and getting dirty. She's usually a little OC when it comes to getting dirty (she probably gets that from me), but she had a ball this day. I think having her own Dora gardening gloves may have helped her feel comfortable getting her hands dirty.
This is what Max did while the rest of the family planted.
Lately, Ellie is constantly asking to take pictures with the digital camera. So after we finished planting in the back yard, I was in the front yard cleaning while Jason was mowing the lawn, and to appease Ellie I let her have the camera for a few minutes. She took lots of wonderful pictures of her shoes, the grass, the bushes, and this nice picture of Lucy through the fence.
I love this picture, though he looks so much bigger than he really is. And you've gotta love those blue eyes.
Jason likes this pic...What's up, Man?
Enjoying the floor and the attention.
Happy in his swing.
The happy family, minus the family photographer.
Congratulations Laura and Nathan!!! Baby Ella finally made her long awaited debut. We are so happy she is here and is healthy, and what a beautiful baby she is!!!
Max in his Easter attire, courtesy of Aunt Sherry. It was an adorable Winnie the Pooh outfit, though it looks like it is swallowing his small, little 2 1/2 week old body.
Ellie in her beautiful Easter dress. Here she is showing off her princess ballerina dance moves. This picture was also taken before she went outside and realized that Mommy wasn't fibbing when I said it was cold and she would need to wear tights or socks....the crisp, spring morning air helped her to make the decision to go with the socks.
A rather pitiful family portrait, but at least we're all together.
Ellie loves the egg hunting part of Easter the most. We hid and hunted out eggs over and over for the next week.
Ellie made quite the haul from the Easter bunny this year. Max was not forgotten either, but he was not as excited as his big sister was.
I bought these adorable headbands when Ellie was a baby, and subjected her to wearing them for pictures when she was about 7 months old. I think the headbands are just too cute to keep in a box, so today I pulled them out and got my camera ready.
