Finally - PRESENT DAY!

These pictures were actually taken TODAY out here in Angels Camp, CA, where Will, Ella and I are visiting my folks and getting our share of vitamin D, golf, tennis, running, cycling and general play time... Ella has loved hanging out with "Papa" and "Gahma", taking walks on the golf course, throwing rocks in the lake and watching the splash, swinging and more. We are glad that Spring Break won't end here, though, because we will have a great adventure in NY and PA with "Gop" and "Gam", uncle David, aunt Deanne and aunt Cassidy. We are so grateful for the opportunities to spend QT with family that our teaching schedule affords.
xo to all,
H, W, E (+ B in absentia)

Around the house this winter...

Here are a couple more around the house shots... Ella horsing around with Bianca ("Beek" as she calls her now), who has been a REAL trooper. She is so patient and mellow that she will go for four or five minutes with a towel draped over her head before one of us realizes what Ella has done... It's pretty sweet.

Gifts, robes, etc.

Who would've thought that Ella's Grammie Sue would be the one to break the ban on Yankees/Red Sox paraphernalia? Well, here's proof that Ella can make ANYTHING look cute, right?
And then a look into her obsession with robes. This girl loves a good robe and if she's not ready to come out of it, well, good luck...

Christmas in California

We spent one week in Calaveras Country, California at Christmas time and had a wonderful visit with Ella's aunts, uncles, cousins and great-grandparents. We had beautiful weather for golf and tennis and then a couple days up in the snow for some skiing adventures and a memorable power-outage on New Year's Eve!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving up in the Adirondacks with the Morris clan and the addition of my parents, Ralph and Claudia, for the second year in a row - what a treat for little E to have all the grandparents assembled and adoring. Here are some pics of Ella playing with Uncle David and Aunt Cassidy and then on her first sled ride. She was quite a champ to ride alone and impressed us all with the "no hands" runs!

Fall leaves in our new back yard...

We had amazing leaves this fall. At one point our entire yard was covered by three patches of color - one yellow, from the Sweet Gum tree; one red, from the small-leafed maple; and one brown, from the oak tree. It was gorgeous and Ella had so much fun playing in the leaves, shuffling her feet through them and then messing up the piles that we raked. She loves our backyard as much as we do - we all feel so lucky to have that space.

Finally... an update!

Dear all,
I apologize for the GREAT delay in updating Ella's blog! All I can say is that she is really keeping us busy... She is changing every day - and, especially lately, adding new words by the minute. We are up to three-word sentences now and it is just so much fun to finally understand what she has been gabbing away about for so long... Another contributing factor in the radio silence was a major computer crash that wiped out all of your addresses, so there's yet another issue in our lives that I can blame on technology!
I am now going to attempt a summary of the last four months, so please bear with me!
Much love to all,
xo
H