Urban Adventure.

This past Thursday brought a change of pace. Katie and I packed up Roz and Ella and headed downtown for an adventure in architecture, outdoor art, a historic theatre, live music outdoors over the lunch hour, food, a visit to Ella's Daddy-O's office and ice cream. You throw in a big fountain and larger than life sidewalks and well....



 ...the girls were dancing in the streets. It was an excellent (near) four hours. Our downtown has taken a beating over the years. Like a lot of cities our size, the retail hustle and bustle of yester-year has moved on out to the suburbs. But the old gal is reinventing herself, I think. Good ideas, good people and a really strong sense of pride are flowing.

I think the pictures will show that a pretty blue sky with big mashed potato clouds shows just how cool downtown still is. Oh, and three cute little ones (Thomas joined us later) certainly help it along!



Ella posing with the piano to the sky in honor of our city's own, Art Tatum.

Ella walked 10 feet in front of us, owning the sidewalk. Her sense of independence is...wow!

Stopping for a self-portrait in an office building window.

Someone had her third fall in three days.

But it didn't seem to stop her from doing this:



The pic in the lower right corner STILL has us grinning stupid grins.

Thomas!

I wasn't kidding. A LOT of dancing! Happy Feet :)

There must be an extra $5 in that fountain because of the coins they threw.

Rozzie and her Mama Heather.

Our weekend was equally as fun - filled with our annual neighborhood garage sale, biking as a three-some (with Ella in a buggy or as she calls it, her car, behind my bike), painting at the easel, sidewalk chalk, gardening and a big favorite for Ella - putting laundry on the clothesline!

Currently, a tired little one is snoring through the baby monitor. Have a good week, Ella-Land!

~H