4th In Florida

Alright folks, we are back from our 8 days in Florida. the first half of the trip was spent in a condo by the beach in Destin. The sand was white and clean and the water was blue and beautiful. this is the view from our balcony. There were two swimming pools and a private beach.
Nellie much preferred the pool. Something about the sand and the waves really freaked her out.
Our first time wading in. She especially like the pool because it was so shallow she could sit and play right at the entrance.

See the difference? You'll see later later down the post we tried to take her back to the beach and she still didn't like it. I waded in with her past the waves and she didn't mind that too much.
Beach baby!
So on 4th of July we went to my Grandparent's house and had a family reunion. Nellie changed outfits 5 times that day. Everybody got her new clothes and wanted to see her in them. This shirt I bought her at Target and it says Little Firecracker. I pulled Nellie around in this red wagon. It was a good place for her to play in, until she realized she could pull up on the sides!
How patriotic. Nellie is busy contemplating our nation's independence.
My rents relaxing with Nellie on the porch swing. Why don't people in NM have porch swings?
Grandma passed out American flag hats for all of us to wear.
Nellie was gettin kisses from great great aunt's that I didn't even know! Someone left behind some lipstick so I had to get a pic.
Family pics.

It was difficult to get Nellie to sit in this rocker but she just looked so sweet in it!
Family pic in front of the well.
We went to a pretty cool fireworks show down by the water. Nellie was pretty freaked out at first but she got used to it and really liked it.
then on Sunday we rented a pontoon boat and took it for a half day excursion. Nellie didn't mind her big life jacket at all. We brought the pack and play and she napped in there for a long time and we were able to keep her in the shade. I was super paranoid of Nellie getting sun.

Nellie napping in great grandma's lap before the boat even took off!

I love the sun! (except when i am not in a swimsuit and there's no way to cool off)
This place is called Crab Island. And all the boats come here and the people get out and swim and play because it's shallow water. They even have a boat selling snacks and big blow up water slide (costs $7 for 30 minutes and is only for kids...boo!)
On the pier. Nellie's face is great in this one!
Here we are trying the beach again after dinner at Margaritaville. I think she hated the texture of sand on her feet because she kept turning around for me to pick her up. Or the waves scared her. I think Nellie was a little too young to appreciate this trip to the beach.

Doing a little dance. Surprisingly, Nellie keeps her sunglasses on most of the time.
My grandparents.
Cutie face in this one too.
Grandma had a huge ornament in her lawn that Nellie got a kick out of.
Ahhhh, too big to fit in my mouth!!


So Nellie is crawling every where now even from room to room. Luckily, she'll play in one area pretty good. But last weekend she started pulling up. This video shows her already pulled up on her karaoke machine on the first day she learned how. As you can see she hasn't mastered getting back down from the standing position. Now she is pulling up on everything, including people.

This video shows her pulling up but it's not very graceful and it looks as though she is going to quit several times. But hang in there, she perseveres and does it. Usually it doesn't take her this long. But look how excited she is when she finally gets up!

And here's a conversation she has after she is standing. You can see she really doesn't know where to go from here.

Nellie is talking a laughing more and more and it's super fun. Her new words are bop and dooh (said in a really low voice). She says da da pretty good and usually a long string of ma-ma-ma-ma. And she had her first bubble bath and loved it. She was trying to pull up on the side of the tub but realized it was quite slippery without my help.
Nellie is getting better at picking up finger food but is overall pretty lazy with that and sippy cups. Thankfully, she doesn't have stranger anxiety yet (knock on wood) and smiles at people in the store and will let others hold her. I sure hope it stays this way!

i can't believe she is almost 9 months old! this is just craziness!