The Country Cider Mill

Today we had a fun time at the Country Cider Mill.  If Ella would have been a year or two older she would have really enjoyed all of the fun things that they had there for kids.  Even though she wasn't interested in much, we still really enjoyed getting outside and enjoying the nice Michigan fall weather.  I think we all especially loved the pumpkin and buttermilk doughnuts.  Lately Ella has been loving to get out of her stroller and push it for me.  She holds onto the basket and pushes while I steer the stroller.  We have been doing this quite often and it is nice to let her use some energy when we go places.  It has been really nice, except for the one mishap when I wasn't paying attention and Ella pushed the stroller into an unsuspecting person in Target one day.  Anyways... here are a few nice pictures of our little adventure.

Ella's First Year Photo Book

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Look who's starting to walk!

Tigers Game

We wanted to do something fun before Liam went back to school, so we decided to go to a Detroit Tigers game.  We figured it might be our last opportunity to go before we move next summer and we are really glad we went.  Of course the whole time we were there, Liam kept talking about how much his brother, Abel, would love to be at the game. Even though you weren't there Abel, Liam was still thinking about you the whole time :). The day we went  was really hot, so unfortunately we weren't able to stay for the whole game because Ella was starting to turn red.  But we really enjoyed watching some baseball and walking around Comerica Park.

 

Ella loves to dance!

Ella looks like a homeless baby in this video so you know who was in charge of getting her ready that day :)

Ella's First Birthday!

We had an uneventful birthday for Ella.  Ella's birthday was last Monday, the day after we got home for our trip (although technically we got home on Ella's birthday).  We did not do anything but unpack.  Ella was really unsure about her room and crib.  In fact she hated it so much that she fell out of her crib twice that night.  Fortunately for us, Ella has not fallen out again and has now gotten used to her crib.  That same day was also mine and Liam's 5th anniversary.  Which we did not celebrate for the the second year in a row (unless you count our five night stay at the hospital).  Although we did not celebrate on the day we really feel blessed to be where we are in life.  Liam and I have a wonderful marriage and are still best friends five years later.  We also have Ella who brings joy and laughter (and some crying) into our home every day.  We are truly blessed!

Look at how much Ella has grown in the last year!  

Even though we didn't celebrate Ella's birthday on the actual day.  Ella is lucky enough to have family who love her and threw her two different birthday parties.  The first was with Liam's family.

The second was with my family.

Our trip home

We had a long trip home from Utah to Michigan.  It took us thirty hours of driving time all together.  Ella really did a great job considering her age.  She took quite a few naps which really made her mom and dad happy.  We stopped at a family reunion in the Big Horn Mountains on our way.  These are some pictures we took.

 In our first hotel we stayed at, Ella found the kleenex and decided to pull all of them out of the box.  She really had a good time.  Being the awesome mom that I am, I just let her do it.

A waterfall that we stopped at right before we got to the reunion.  I honestly have no idea what it was called, but it was pretty cool.  You can only see part of the fall in this picture.

 It was rainy and cold during most of the reunion, but we still decided to walk to the medicine wheel.  This is Liam and Tyler doing the karate kid pose.

 At the medicine wheel.  Nobody is really sure who made it or what its purpose was.

 We stopped somewhere after our walk to eat lunch.  We were all cold but still trying to be happy.  I think that Nathan is hilarious in this picture.

Making grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.

After two days spent with family in the Big Horns, we left to finish our trip home. We stopped at Mt. Rushmore on our way home.  Everyone told us that it was really small and lame.  But when we got there it looked pretty big to us.  We didn't think it was lame at all.

We finally made it home on a Sunday night at midnight.  We were all really exhausted and sick of the car.  We had a great summer with our family in Utah, but we are really glad to be home.