Second stop - Pop's House

After a wonderful time in New Orleans, we packed up the van and headed to Fort Walton Beach to Pop's house. First order of business? To the beach, of course...

Katie and Ella loved the boat ride. Here, they are looking out over the water. Daddy and Uncle Andy are supposed to be keeping an eye on them!

Taking a ride on Uncle Andy's surf board.

Pop and Daddy helping to keep them afloat.

Katie was LOVING the water...

Playing in the sand (I STILL have sand in my van from this adventure!)

Pop holding Katie, checking out the waves. Ella can't stop digging...

Watch out for the waves! :-0

Beach combing

First Stop -- GiGi's house

On our trip from West Coast to East Coast, our first stop was Grandma (GiGi - to the girls) Black's house in New Orleans. The girls had a wonderful visit with their GiGi and met all their many cousins on Daddy's side of the family. Here's a few snapshots from our visit... To tell the truth, I almost can't tell the girls apart in this photo, but I believe Katie is on the left and Ella is sitting on the right. That's GiGi in the middle! I know that for certain. :-)

Now, add Daddy in the mix...
And a few kisses...
Every grandchild, great-grandchild, niece, nephew, grand-niece, grand nephew... you get the idea, pretty much ANY kid that has EVER been to GiGi's house LOVES those steep, steep stairs... much to the chagrin of all the moms and dads (and GiGi too). But, what can you do? Take an adorable pix and hope they don't fall!

Ella having a little crawfish and crabs with Daddy. Actually, she says, "Too spicy, Daddy!" Good! All the more for me and Daddy!

A wonderful treat while we were in New Orleans, Charmaine Neville played at the Belle Chasse library... now, that was fun! I'm holding Katie and Daddy is holding Ella... they are both very sleepy, as you can see, still getting adjusted to the new time zone. But, we couldn't sit still to 'Friday Night Fish Fry'!
Family photo with Charmaine Neville

Photo Day

Katie Bug

Ella Bella

Okay, so I haven't updated the blog in a while... I've been BUSY! Moving across country, getting unpacked, entertaining visitors, and oh, taking care of my kids. So, for those that have been waiting oh, so patiently, here's the first group of updates. Amber Theiss took these photos at the end of June while we were still in Los Angeles. Of course, I couldn't decide which ones to include here, so I'm putting up way too many. Sorry. But, you'll see they are really good. Katie has a blue bow in her hair and Ella has a pink bow... those of you who know the girls know that that was a major boo-boo on my part. Ella's favorite color is BLUE and Katie's is PINK -- My bad! -- but not the first of many mistakes this mom will invariably make. Oh well... the little boy in the photos is Will, Katie & Ella's cousin.

This is the shot immediately after we told them they were getting ICE CREAM!

I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM, WE ALL SCREAM FOR...

ICE CREAM!!!!!

Remember being THAT excited by ice cream...? Actually, having kids sort of makes you LOVE ice cream again. ... nice.

So, here are the ice cream shots...

I like that each kid sort of has their own unique way eating ice cream... Katie the 'licker', Ella the 'dipper', and Will...? Not sure what to call his technique.