Going to see the family

We arrived in Richmond on Thursday and once we got ourselves up and ready Friday morning we headed out to see the family.....um.......I mean the zoo :-) Emma was not quite up to her usual self, but I think she had a really good time. Luckily, the Richmond Zoo is fairly small, so it only took us a few hours to make it through the entire zoo.
One really nice thing about the zoo being small is we were able to get pretty close to some of them. Some of these animals I could have just reached out and touched (not that I would have wanted to mind you - but I could have).

Emma tried to feed whatever critter was in here her flower while Papa was feeding them "Zoo Food". Whatever Papa did, Emma had to do.

Emma & Mommy

Emma with her Papa and Mimi

Papa, Emmaline and Mommy

It was a good day at the zoo. Afterwards, we went to Friendly's and got some ice cream. They have the BEST black raspberry - Yum!!! I have more pictures from the trip to post, but they will have to wait for another day.

Flying the friendly skies

Emma was so excited to go on the airplane. I had to wake her up incredibly early so that we could get to the airport on time and we had a couple of stops to make before we left town. Luckily we timed it perfectly so that once we made it through security and got down to our gate, they were already preboarding, so we got to go right on.

Emma was so proud to have her own seat and her own seat belt.

View of Nashville from the airplane as we took off.

Emma thought that since everybody else was reading the magazines in the backs of the seat - she would too. She actually looked at this thing from cover to cover.

She did great on the first leg of the trip until about 10 minutes before we landed - then she was ready to get down. Then we had a two hour layover. That gave us enough time to get to the next county to find our gate (why do they have to make your connecting flights at different ends of the airport) and get some lunch. Unfortunately, the entire 2 hours, I got to hear Emma repeat over and over and over "I want to get on that plane" "Where is my plane" "I want to get on an airplane". I don't think I had ever been so thankful to get on an airplane in my life :-) But about 10 minutes after we got on the plane, she went to sleep. Since she was sleeping on me, I wasn't able to reach the camera and take a picture. But take my word for it - she looked really cute!

We haven't done much since we have been here. We did go to the zoo (I will post those pics probably after I get home), and of course we had church yesterday and a cookout after church last night. But I have been a little sick for the last couple of days, so I am trying to take it easy.

I hope everyone has a blessed Memorial Day!

Here we go...

Emma and I are leaving bright and early tomorrow morning for the airport. We are going to see my parents in Richmond, VA. Needless to say, she is beyond excited to go on an airplane. She started going around the house last night collecting things that she had to take to the airport...like her Cinderella dress, her Snow White shoes, her Bella Dancerella wand, a tiara (are you starting to see a theme?)...she then tells me that she is going to be a princess on the plane. Good grief! I am in so much trouble when she is a teenager :-)
Please pray for us that we have safe travels and all of our flights get where they are supposed to on time. And pray for me that I am able to keep my daughter occupied and happy during the flight and that I don't get airsick this time :-)

5 - 6 Pick up sticks... 7 - 8 Lay them straight

Emma LOVES to be outside. But really...what child doesn't. After seeing her Daddy work out in the yard this spring she has decided she can help. Of course, her Daddy LOVES that!! Right now her favorite thing to do is drag her wagon around the yard picking up sticks and then taking them out to the burn pile. She doesn't care if the stick is only a few inches long or 3 feet long - it goes in the wagon. Then she takes them out of the wagon one at a time and throws them on the burn pile. Of course if they don't land the way she wants them to - she then tries to move it and get it just so.

I think I can get just one more on here.

Here I go

This thing is getting hard to pull

As you can tell - Emma is very happy with her sticks

I don't want this one here.....I want it over there

Time to go get another load!

I think Emma is going to be a BIG help out in the yard this summer. And come Fall....she is going to have soooooo much fun raking up all those leaves and hauling them to the burn pile :-)

Flower Power

I finally got some flowers planted in my pots last night.  This year I had to replace all the soil that was still in them, so the process took a little longer than it usually does.   I also usually put either impatiens or geraniums in these pots every year, but I decided to plant Angel Wing Begonias this year.  My SIL plants them every year and they get huge.  So I thought I would give it a try.  I also managed to plant some coleus (did I spell that right?) in with my shrubs and holly trees.  They do pretty good there in the shade as long as the neighbors dogs stay out of them.  I still have more flowers to plant - but that will have to wait for another day. :-)

I also have some peonies that I just love.  Every year I wonder if they are going to come back.  They did!!!!  And I had the first bloom over the week-end.  For some reason the bigger of the two bushes has few blooms every year than the little one.  Here is a pic of the first bloom.  

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day.  We just about froze here in Kentucky.  But it was nice to spend the entire week-end with my girl.  I loved on her a lot :-)

Over the Rainbow

Driving into work on Wednesday morning it was dark, gray, gloomy and looked like it was going to pour at just any moment. Then I went around a curve and the clouds were breaking up and there coming down from the sky was a beautiful rainbow. Of course I had to take a picture.

And this is my crazy cheesehead of a daughter when I told her to smile for me. She was very proud of her new face and continued to do it....again.....and again.....and again. She must get that from her father's side of the family :-)

Can I please catch a break...please???

Emma's allergies are winning.  It is starting to completely wear me out.  Actually, I don't think they are winning (present tense)...I think they have already won!

I have tried to be diligent in giving her allergy meds to her every single day.  I have actually done pretty good with this.  But once spring finally sprung around here - it was bad!!!  Her nose has run non-stop for weeks now....starting last Tuesday, her eyes started running and oozing and by last Wednesday, she was running a low grade fever.  What does the doctor say....."It's just her allergies."  Well, duh, I knew that!  But can't we give her anything more?  Nope!  Well, the fever is finally gone, but the nose is still running and now she complains that her tummy hurts.  This only makes sense when you have had snot draining into it for two or three weeks now.  And since she doesn't feel the greatest, I have not been able to get anything accomplished.  She wants Mommy in her sight at all times.  And while I am an awesome procrastinator and would love NOT to do laundry, housework, yardwork and so on.........it is spring time and I so want to get everything aired out and clean and get outside to plant the flowers I actually have bought! 

OK.........that is enough complaining..........but thanks for letting me vent!  Saturday is National Scrapbook Day and I am supposed to get to go "play" all day.  But since nothing has gone the way it was supposed to this week, I have not been able to get my stuff together.  And Steven's brother is planning on coming to town to visit this weekend so I think I would feel a bit guilty if he was here and I was off someplace else, ya know!?!

Hope everyone else is having a great week!!!