Ahhh, summer!

Oh my gosh!!  I have SOOO much to tell you about my busy August.  You won't even believe it!!

My mom and my Auntie Em took me to the National Zoo for my first time.  Ummm.  That's a cow behind Auntie Em.  Look at the barn display next to us.  Here I am calling Auntie Em on the whole "zoo" thing.  This is seeming awfully "Farm-esque" to me.

Later up the road we saw this guy.  A MONKEY!!  Okay - fine - maybe this is the zoo after all.

We took my car to the zoo.  Every time I'd get out of my car to look at the animals - we'd come back to find some boy trying to get in my car.  They were all jealous.  They wanted me for my HOT wheels.  Turns out, if you want to pick up the (2 year old) boys - taking your sweet red ride to the zoo is the way to do it!

It was a long day at the zoo.  I got kinda tired and fell asleep at the wheel.  Oops.

Then later in the week I went to this amazing playground.  It was HUGE and had all kinds of toys for all size kids.  It didn't have a cool slide like my favorite one in Connecticut, though.  So that was too bad.

Tucker and I were going to try this slide instead... he was pretty nervous about it.

I tried to hold his hand and let him know that it would be alright.  C'mon Tucker... 1...2...3... 3 1/2...

The swings were, as usual, my FAVORITE!

Then Tucker went to drive me home.  Something was not right with his car.  Being a man, he worked on it and tried to fix it.

It's okay Tucker.  Some days are just harder than others.  Things will look up tomorrow.

Then it was time to head to Michigan!  YAY!  First we went to my mom's cousin's wedding in Grand Rapids.

I was a VIP.  I got my own place card, and my own favor (a brownie!!).

I got to dance with my dad all night.

I think the groom was a little jealous... so I danced with him too.  After celebrating with Jen and Steve, we were off to the cottage!!

This year we were there with my parents, my Grandma and Grandpa Howe, my Uncle Charley, our friend Laura, and my Great Aunt Holly.  It should be noted that all these people were there - even though they aren't in a lot of pictures.  For some reason we were so busy that week we just kinda forgot about the camera.  Oops!  Also - one day early on Callie got SOO excited to see my mom swimming in the lake that she ran down to join her, "accidentally" swam on top of mom's face - and gave mom quite the scratched black and blue eye.  She did not allow pictures of that mess so almost all the pictures of Michigan are of ME.  As it should be!

I brought my mini boat and floated around by our dock.

Some days I wanted to swim SO many times a day that Mom finally got sick of putting a new bathing suit on me each time... so I just went in my diaper.  No boys my age were up there - so I went for it.  Check out my sunglasses!!!  My Great Aunt Holly found me these "Baby Banz" glasses - and I ACTUALLY WORE THEM!   Well, for 10 minutes tops.  Which, as my mom points out, is about 1,000,000 times longer then I'll wear my regular glasses.  Progress!

Another diaper-dip.  My parents got me this baby pool to put on the dock.  I think they were hoping it would serve as a play pen of sorts... you know... to contain me.  HA!  It took me about 5 seconds to figure out how to dive up and over the wall... at which point I would crawl to the end of the dock and hang my head over the edge to look for fishies.  OF COURSE someone was always right there and I knew I wouldn't get away with it for long (Silly vigilant parents!)... but it was fun while it lasted.

Hey - eventually - even princesses get tired of posing for pictures and looking cute.  Thank goodness for crawling - I'm outta here.

We took the big boat out for rides around the lake.  I was a natural!!  Look at my hair blowing softly in the breeze.  I even make this crazy tent-like life jacket look GOOD!

When getting the boat ready to take out - I wanted to help.  I decided I would hold the ropes.  Then I realized they were a bit wet...  so I could only hold them princess style.

Ahhh ha!  Here's a way I can help that is MUCH better.  I'll just take that paddle, please, Mom...

We took those kayaks away from our dock and over to see other docks - and that crazy dog of mine just followed us.  We kept thinking she'd go home... but she never did.  So finally we had to go home - you know - so Callie didn't drown because she forgot to pay attention to the fact that she was getting tired!!!  It's hard to take care of such a crazy dog!!

We had lots of fun in Michigan!!  Now we're back home and mom is back to work.  I'm still hanging out - doing my therapies, taking some music classes, learning my sign language, and important stuff like that.  I recently learned how to sign "Please, Mama" - and let me tell you something I have learned.  If I ask for "More Ice Cream" or "More Cookie" my mom may say something like "Abby, you've had enough today"... But if I can follow it up with "Please, Mama!" then I get it every time!!!  EVERY time.  No matter how ludicrous my request - that woman is putty in my hands.  It's just TOO EASY!

I hope you all had wonderful summers too!!