Lovely Labor Day Weekend!

The weekend started a little early for us as Phoebe went to YiaYia's Thursday to spend the night. This meant Ryan and I could actually behave like adults and go see a movie.  It's funny how much you long for some time away and then as soon as you get it, you miss your kid like crazy!  Friday after MOPS, I went to pick up Phoebe.  It was YiaYia's birthday, so we went out to lunch with her and Papou.  After we came home, we headed out to the backyard and had a lovely blow out - those rarely happen so when they do, they're always awful.  Luckily, YiaYia had these overalls on hand and never got around to the project they were for.  Phoebe thought they were perfect for eating jell-o jigglers in...

...and raking up the yard in...

She had fun sleeping with YiaYia and Kali in Auntie Kate's bed Thursday night, but didn't get her normal 11 1/2 hours of sleep.  After a fifty minute nap that I had to fight to get on Friday afternoon, we were back at it.  We took YiaYia out to dinner after running around a few shops and then headed home.

Saturday,  Phoebe slept in till 10:00 (that's TWO weekends in a row!).  I had a much-needed hair appointment  in the afternoon, so Phoebe took Daddy to a park.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous all weekend and perfect to be outside in.  Phoebe had a great time running around and exploring.

The girl loves her slides!

And she loves to run (not sure where that came from)!?

After I was done, because they'd had so much fun at that park, we headed to one of my all-time favorites.  It was jam-packed but we managed to burn off lots of energy.  There's a tall slide that you have to climb up a silo to get to.  Here we are at the top.

Here we are trying to decide which one to attempt.

And here we are at the bottom.  If you'll note her face, it's not one of sheer joy.  And I've got a lovely burn on my elbow from just trying to slow us down - needless to say, we stuck with the wavy slide that slowed things down a bit for us from that moment on!

It took Phoebe a while to even want to go down the slides again, so we stuck to things a bit closer to the ground...

And of course had to go check out the water, feed the ducks and see if we could find any fish or turtles.

Sunday, after church and lunch out, we ran a few errands.  I'm sure I'm not the only one in the Midwest who is dealing with an onslaught of fall allergies but this weekend, even as beautiful as it was, my head was a miserable wreck!  So...Ryan decided to take Phoebe to the river while I took a short snooze in the car.  After about 30 minutes, I gave up since I couldn't breathe, and went to find out what these two were up to.

I have no doubt that this one got her love of water from her daddy!

Monday, we were up by 8:00 but just lounged around for a few hours before heading BACK to the river, this time wearing appropriate clothing. 

We decided to bring Coco along so she could hang out with us at YiaYia and Papou's later in the day.

Here she is with me on the rocky shore enjoying a dog biscuit.  She got a bit too close to the water and I ended up having to tie her leash to a nearby root.  She just got a bath on Saturday so I didn't want all my hard work to be in vain.

These two had a blast - looking for shells and chasing ducks.  The lack of rain around here has made the water pretty shallow which worked out well for them!

She wanted to go stand on this rock out in the middle and all by herself! 

Afterwards. we headed out to celebrate YiaYia's birthday and were excited to see Uncle Steve for the day as well.  We got in a quick bath and then got to play outside till it was time to eat Papou's famous steaks!

We ate outside but spent most of our time swatting away bees (and there wasn't a thing sweet on the table!) so we quickly came in before cake and presents.  Here's a shot of Phoebe's perfectly manicured nails (courtesy of YiaYia) while she concentrates on a video Uncle Steve had us all watch. 

Then it was time for the traditional Dairy Queen cake.  Thank the Lord for birthdays!

After cake, Phoebe showed off her artwork to YiaYia.  She's very serious about her coloring.

Some YiaYia lovin'.

After a quick Skype call to Auntie Kate, we headed out.  Phoebe didn't nap ALL weekend long and finally crashed today at 6:00 when we left - and we hadn't even made it to the interstate yet.  We let her sleep 30 minutes and then got home and played outside and worked on getting her to pedal herself on her tricycle.  She went to sleep tonight without asking for her wa-wa -  that's definitely a first.  We'll see if she makes it all night without it.  She's getting to be such a big girl!