Brookfield Zoo

My Uncle Don works at the Brookfield Zoo, so whenever we want to go, we can just call him up and he gets us in for free! We decided to go today with my mom, dad, grandma, and uncle. The weather was beautiful all day long and perfect for walking around the zoo. We were able to see a bunch of the animals and a lot of the exhibits. I think Katelyn enjoyed watching the little otter and the goats in the petting zoo the best. It was fun to spend the day all together at the zoo. Thanks Uncle Don!!!

Family Picture on the lion

Mom, Kately, and Uncle Don

Papa and Katelyn

In the petting zoo........not to sure about the goats

Love this one......look at Katelyn

Matt eating a fried caterpillar.......YUCK!

Grammie, Great Grandma and Katelyn

Katelyn's new trick

Katelyn's new trick is to pull herself up. She grabs hold of the tables, stools, couches, and anything else she can and pulls herself up. I caught her the other day just standing and looking out the back window. I think she was there for about twenty minutes. I wonder what will be next?

Look at me, I am so BIG

Cypress Cove Water park

Matt usually is off on Thursdays, so today we decided to head out to Cypress Cove Water park. I looked on the website and it looked very kid friendly and affordable. Katelyn enjoyed the pool, the lazy river, and the sand. It was nice to spend the summer day as a family!!!

Dad and Katelyn

She loved the sand

All sandy with Mom

Miami

Most of these blogs are about Katelyn, so I decided to do one without her in it. This past week, I went to Miami for my best friend Lisa's bachlorette party. We have been friends since Kindergarten (that is hard to believe that it has been that long). We left on Thursday and stayed until Sunday. There were 17 girls that were apart of our group. During the day we would hang out by the pools or beach. At night, we would go out to dinner and go to the clubs. We stayed out really late and I was not use to that at all, but I managed to survive. I had such a great time relaxing, laughing a lot, and going out to celebrate Lisa. I sure did miss Matt and Katelyn A LOT!! It was nice to come home to them yesterday and hang out all afternoon with them.

One of the many pools at the hotel

The first night out at the club LIV

Yes, they had a bouncy house in the club....we had a lot of fun with this!!!

Love these girls

Most of the group and the Italian waiters at the bar

The bridesmaids minus one

Happy 94th Birthday to Grandma Occhipinti

Today, at my parents house, we celebrated my grandma Occhipinti's 94th birthday. WOW....I hope I got those good genes. She looks great for 94 and is still with it. It was extra special, because both of her great granddaughters were there to celebrate with her. It was a great way to end the week, by spending time with family and celebrating a birthday.

Happy Birthday Great Grandma

Playing with Grammie

I-phone friends

Hanging out

Sophia and Katelyn playing in the pool

8 Months

Katelyn is now 8 months old!!! This past month has been an exciting one. She now is crawling around and getting into EVERYTHING. She also likes to pull herself up on tables or chairs. We had to lower her crib all the way down, because she was pulling herself up. She still is an awesome eater. She loves everything and her food is now a bit more chunkier. Katelyn is still drooling like crazy, but no teeth. She enjoys the water and her swim lessons at the YMCA. I think she would stay in the water all day, if we let her. She is very observant and needs to see and watch everything going on around her. She responses to songs and little games that we play with her. Matt and I can read books to her and she will sit and listen for about ten minutes. The teacher in me, loves this!! Since, she is so active these days, it was hard to take a picture of her sitting still. We managed with a few.

Crawling and Crawling

I feel like Katelyn went from rolling around to crawling everywhere overnight. She has been crawling for the past month, but recently she has been crawling to everything she is not suppose to. This means no more sitting on the couch while she plays on the floor in one spot. Her top three favorite items to crawl to are.....the outlets, the cords, and the tables. Do not get me wrong, we are having fun with this stage, but this is when your whole life changes!!

Happy 4th of July

I thought this was funny...not happy

Mom and Katelyn...still not to happy

Michigan Lake House

Our first summer vacation was taken this past week. We went up to Elk Rapids, Michigan, which is about 6 hours away. Matt's aunt and uncle have a beautiful lake house on Elk Lake. We met up there..... Matt's parents, his aunt and uncle, and Mark. Our week consisted of A LOT of fun in the sun. We swam, boated, fished, ate and drank. It was such a relaxing vacation and wonderful to spend the week with Matt's family.

All packed in!

That picture is of the lake house from the dock...can you see it?

Matt fishing in Lake Michigan...Yes, I took that cool picture

Loving hanging out in the sun

Family Pic

Katelyn hanging out with Oma

Chillin with my dad in the lake

Grandpa, Matt, and Katelyn

Me water skiing!!!

Mark showing off

Beautiful sunset...that is the view we saw from their deck every evening! 

Matt fishing

Matt tubing