The first major thing to happen this past month was my sister, Debby's, wedding. It was a beautiful event, and I'm so very happy for her. She got married at a local park in the rose garden, had a small reception at an Italian restaurant the next town over, then had a picnic at her house the next day to celebrate with people near and far. The whole thing was a huge success, and we all had a lot of fun. Debby and Steve celebrated their honeymoon on a cruise to Mexico. Ooh la la!
Here are a few pics of the day:
The next weekend, Harry, Ellie, and I went to the Hamburg Fair for a couple of hours on a Saturday morning. The highlight of that day was Miss Ellie getting to go on her first pony ride. I wish I could post pics (no pics of Ellie on ye olde blog), but you'll just have to trust me on the fact that the girl is a natural. She freakin' loved it. She ended up riding on her own the last minute or two. She even had a little pink-trimmed cowboy hat to wear. She quietly whispered to Harry as the ride was over, "Daddy, I want a pony." I'll get right on that, Sweetie.
The next weekend was the weekend we've been waiting for all summer. We went to Sesame Place! We totally lucked out as the weather forecast said it was going to rain ALL DAMN DAY. I decided we'd go anyway since A) the hotel was already paid for and couldn't be cancelled and B) we were going to a water park, so we were going to be wet anyway. It rained the entire 3-hour drive down. It rained while we had breakfast. It rained as we all piled out of the car and tried to protect as much of our gear as possible. It rained as we upgraded to a 2-day pass. Then suddenly, at the last check-in checkpoint, the rain stopped. Just like that. Eventually, the sun even came out. And we had beautiful weather for our entire stay at the park.
We had an excellent time at Sesame Place, and we plan on going back either the end of this month or sometime in October. They'll be celebrating Zoe's birthday the last weekend of September, and there's also a Halloween shindig going on that same weekend through all of October. We can't miss that! Plus, we have the free pass for a second day. Woo hoo. The only thing we'll have to pay for this time is parking.
We spent the majority of the day in the tidal pool. Ellie loved it. I'm talking like 3 hours in this thing. And she still got upset when we had to leave. She also braved the Slimey Chutes with Daddy, went on the carousel, and a few other toddler-friendly rides throughout the park.
I had also booked the lunch with the characters for that afternoon. The food was atrocious, but it was a lot of fun to see the characters up close (for me and Harry anyway; Ellie didn't like them invading her personal space). Harry and I even got pics with Bert and Ernie!
Even Kaylee, my now 13-year-old niece (ahhhh! she's a teen!) had a great time with us. By 4pm, we were done. We drove to the hotel, checked in, ordered some dinner, and just relaxed until bedtime (8:30pm for all of us!). A little breakfast the next morning, and we hit the road back home. We decided to take I-95 back, and I'll say right now... that was an awful, awful choice. We won't do that again.
The next week, both Harry and I got to spend some quality one-on-one time with Ellie. Teri had the week off, so Harry and I divvied up the week. I got Monday, Thursday, and Friday, and Harry got Tuesday and Wednesday with our little one. We had an amazing week with her. We went to the park nearly every day, she went in the pool, Harry took her to the zoo, and we got to do a little shopping together, too (Ellie is SO my kid - she shopped for an hour and a half!). I'm actually thinking of taking another day off with her soon; that's how much fun we had. I love the age she's at right now, even with the attitude and tantrums. She's really coming into her own.
And last, but not least, I am edging my way towards the 30-lbs-lost milestone. I'm a half a pound shy right now and hope to get there by my weigh-in day, which is Friday. 30 freakin' pounds people! I am ecstatic to say the least.
And not to toot my own horn, but I'm looking pretty damn good.
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