It's Finally Summer!

Summer temperatures finally arrived about a week and a half ago and it is won-der-ful!  This is our 4th summer in England, and I don't remember it being so warm for so long.  We haven't even had any rain, just some thunder for a few minutes yesterday... it reminded me of the hot, humid summers in Ohio.  At 29/86 degrees yesterday, it was the warmest day of all. Ellen and I have spent loads of time outside, either at the swings or in the paddling pool out back.  We've also eaten quite a few suppers outside; we are so glad we bought an umbrella for our table a few months ago.

 Dinner outside

A week ago yesterday, we drove about 25 minutes south of Shrewsbury to Cardingmill Valley to do a short (uphill with a bit of rambling) mile walk to a waterfall and back with Ellen in the carrier.  You'll notice we don't have any pictures of our walk to the waterfall, the beautiful scenery or the waterfall either.... that's because Ellen cried the entire time we spent walking and we decided to turn around and just let her play in the stream that ran through the valley.

 Us before the walk

 Ellen beside the stream before the walk

 Ellen was very happy to help me eat a Magnum

Ellen loved splashing in the stream

Cute little feet in the stream with Ellen's new bouncy ball

View of the valley from where we were paddling in the stream

Just a couple cute pictures:

 

 It's been warm enough to splash in the pool!

 

I took Ellen to Attingham Park on Thursday. We said hi to the cows then took a walk to say hi to the swans.  Once we got to the walled garden, peeped in on her and Ellen was fast asleep - with her banana still in her hand!

 

While Ellen snoozed, I took some pictures of plants in the walled garden I found particularly beautiful and made this collage on my iPhone....

 ...then sat on a bench in the shade  for over an hour(!!!), enjoying the peace and quiet and blue skies above... until Ellen woke up and was hysterical for the next 40 minutes, because I wouldn't nurse her (we're working on weaning her at the moment... not fun).

What I found when I went in to wake up Ellen from her nap this afternoon - so precious

 

 "Standing" is Ellen's new favorite word

 Reading her book with Daddy

Ellen's walking is definitely coming along, although she still prefers to bum shuffle.  On Thursday she climbed up the stairs for the first time, too, which is very exciting and very scary.  She puts her right knee on the step and pushes up the stair by putting her left foot on the step.... oh, and counts the steps, too... "six" and "ten" are mentioned a few times ;o)

This picture was taken on July 3rd before our "heat wave".