One Last Time

Last night we went to Knoebel's with the Smiths for the last time this summer.  We had a great time!  One thing though that occured to me again last night is how much Annalise has changed this summer.  Last weekend I took Anna to the park and as I was watching her play it really hit me how much her playing and physical abilities have advanced in such a short time.  I thought back to the beginning of the summer and how shaky and somewhat nervous she was about going on the playground equipment and then last week I watcher her zip around with ease on most things there.  Well, last night at Knoebel's I thought back to the beginning of June when we had her there for the first time of the summer.  At that time she was a little impatient waiting in line because at 18 months she just didn't get she had to wait.  She never carried on, but I definately had to keep her occupied while waiting.  Also, back at the begininng of the summer she didn't really understand that she had to get off the ride when it was done either.  Again, she never had a fit or anything like that but she used to try hold on so I couldn't get her out.  Back then (a whole 3 months ago), she was afraid of certain rides and was really preoccupied by the little stones that cover part of the park and I spent a lot of time cleaning off her hands.  Well, fast forward to now and again, like my realization at the playground last week, she has grown so much this summer!  She gets it now that she has to wait in line, no more holding onto the rides when I get her off, no more preoccupation with the rocks and while she was afraid of one ride (the frog hopper) once she got on it, she wasn't afraid to actually get on.  It makes me kinda sad when I think about how quickly she is turning into such a big girl!  Anyway, here are a few pictures of our fun!

It took about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes for us to get two slices of pizza!  While we were waiting Anna pointed out many things to me.

She started by showing me the pretty flowers

Then I got her out of the stroller because it felt like forever and Stan was still not back and she continued pointing out rides.

and pointing out more rides

and more rides

and then a little bouncing

and finally some pizza!  We would've gotten something else but we never thought the line would take that long to get through!  It was one of those things though that once Stan had already waited so long he wasn't going to get out of line!

Anna and Aidan on the Frog Hopper

One thing that is tough with Anna is the fact that she is so tall so even though she is only 21 months old, she is a little over 36 inches tall and therefore is tall enough to ride all the rides over in the kiddie part even though she is not yet even 2 years old.  I have not let her ride anything that goes up in the air because I don't trust that she won't decide to stand up when she is up in the air.  I made an exception to this with the Frog Hopper (for those who are familiar) because even though it goes up in the air I couldn't see anyway that she could get out of it and she was asking over and over to go on it.  It started out fine but then she quickly decided she didn't like it.  My poor babe had to stay on it though until the ride was over.  She didn't cry while it was moving but kept saying "All done!" which was hard for me because I could hear her from the ground.  Anyway after it stopped she did start to cry but quickly got over it.  As we were walking away though she asked to go on it again.  I told her I think we should wait till next summer for it =)!

Over the Frog Hopper scare and lovin' the fire trucks!

Knoebels

Yesterday we went to Knoebel's for the school employee picninc.  Annalise had a great time taking everything in and even rode rides by herself for the first time!  I was really questioning whether or not she would sit still on a ride for the entire ride or if she would try to climb out but she did well.  She rode on the fire trucks, the boats, the cars and the train.  She said that she wanted to go on the helicopters but once I put her in and pushed the lap bar over she panicked and wanted out.  That was the only ride with a lap bar and not a strap so it must have been something about the bar that freaked her out.  Anyway, I can't wait to take her back this summer!

On the fire trucks.  She liked ringing the bell!

She spent much of the fire truck ride looking at the other kids on the ride so it was hard to get  a picture of her face.

Aidan and Anna going for a spin on the cars.

Following the cars, they enjoyed a nice boat ride.

They both kept turning around and looking back at the water but neither one ever stuck their hands in.

Annalise likes the Smith's double stroller.  She liked to stand on Aidan's spot on the back.

Anna and Lily in the double stroller.

Aidan nicely shared the back standing part with Anna.  Poor Brad ended up pushing it with both of them on it!

End of School Year

The transition back to work has gone very smoothly (thank goodness!). I can actually say that it does feel kinda of nice to be back into the swing of things there. Of course, with the school year ending this week, I will be back at home again until August but at least I have gotten a taste of what it will be like next fall. Anna took her first trip to Knoebel's last night and she really like looking at all the action and listening to all the sounds. She was extremely smiley the whole time and was not interested in eating her dinner at all since there was so much going on! I did not take any pictures though because we did not stay real long, we basically just went to eat at my school picnic and then walked around for about an hour. We can't wait to take her back another time though so she can view the sights!