Florida!

This past weekend, I went to FL to visit Erin. It was so much fun!! The weather was great. Erin and Mark took me on a tour of the Magic (one of the cruiseline ships) which was fabulous! It was so nice to see it. It was also so nice to meet Mark!! I also got to meet and hang out with two of Erin's good friends, Megan and Lindsay. Overall, it was a great weekend and hopefully I'll get to go again next year! Here are some pictures from my trip:
In addition to these pictures, I have a great one of Erin and I trying on (horrible spelling alert)Sombreros in Epcot, but I want to find and post the picture of us doing that like 15 years ago and post that with it to compare!

Erin and I at Epcot (there are supposed to be the most wonderful ice cream cones in the world in this picture with us, but we didn't hold them up):

Posing with Mickey:

Expose (they were at Epcot...we didn't actually pay to see them. There were some crazy fans there, though, that would probably have paid lots and lots of money...or maybe that girl was just really drunk. We all had one of their songs in our heads all day after seeing them. They were pretty awful, in case anyone was wondering):

Posing with the High School Musical cutouts:


Mark and Erin:

At Epcot:

Erin, me, Megan, and Lindsay:

Fall Fun

Today it was beautiful outside - very sunny and mild (it was so sunny that Lilly wanted sunglasses and she never keeps these on. As we were getting in the car, she said, "shoot, forgot my sunglasses"). We went to a pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins (although that was Lilly's least favorite part...this pumpkin patch also had a petting zoo, a cow train, and a play area). When we got home, Pete and I raked leaves and Lilly jumped in them. She did try raking, but couldn't figure out the rake. She kept saying she needed a rake of her own (smaller).

On a side note, Lilly now loves my parents even more than ever. My mom sent her a package in the mail for Halloween and it had a homemade goat book (see the blog post about the zoo), stickers, and candy corn. Whenever I mention my parents, Lilly talks about the candy corn, her (and my) absolute favorite!!

Picking a pumpkin:

eating kettle corn:

riding the cow train:

lilly the cat and pete the scarecrow:

sliding down into a pile of leaves:

super cute picture of daddy and daughter in the leaves:

North Carolina

Here are some pictures from our NC trip. Pete, Lilly, and I were there for a few days visiting friends (Pete's best friend is Dave and Dave's dad is president of Wake Forest, so we were able to stay with them for a few days) and going to football games (well, Pete was the only one that went to the Wake Forest game and the ND game).

Lilly walking on the wall


Celebrating Ellie Hatch's first birthday


Lilly sharing her stickers with Dave


Lilly feeding the fish

Lilly -isms

Okay, Lilly is a talker and a singer lately. She sings constantly and likes to make up her own songs. Here are some samples:

Actual song:................Lilly's version:

Mary had a little lamb ........Mary had a little veggie bite
God bless America .............God bless alligator ("ad-di-da-der")
This old man.............This snowman

She really does sing those songs the correct way, but occasionally will add her own verses as stated above. She also likes Pete and I to make up songs, so I've had to sing about a bandaid and also a song about her friends (very creative: I like ____, I like ____). She also knows the first 3 lines to the Notre Dame victory march and the first part of Go, Cubs, Go.

Here are some of her new phrases that she likes to use:

"hold on two seconds" (she gets this from me...I'm always telling her to hold on two seconds)
"yeah, let's do that" (usually referring to going to the park or going to eat cookies)
"a while" (as in "this shirt a while" which means "I haven't worn this shirt in a while")
"let's go lady" (this is definitely from me. She says this when we are in the car and we stop at a light)
"I need a scoot" (to move her closer to something)
"I like"...this song, this book, this baby, this shirt, these shoes, mommy, daddy, the park, etc.

Apple Picking

This morning, we went apple picking with Pete's parents and his sister, Liz. Lilly really enjoyed pulling the apple off of the tree. Of course, she then threw the apples into the bucket, so who knows how many of them are bruised! It was perfect weather for it, but the ground was a little wet. I took Lilly's socks off after we were done and I had to squeeze the water out of them!