Labor day

I forgot my camera. How I could do such a thing was beyond me. So my apologies for the lack of pictures this post. Maybe I can beg some off of my relatives at a later date.
Anyway, for Labor Day this year, Michael's dad took us to the aquarium. Evelyn was in heaven! She loved the octopus, the frogs (Evelyn, what does a frog say? "Oh Yeah!") and the star fish. But most especially she ADORED the sting rays. In the aquarium we went to they have a big pool where you can reach out and pet the sting rays. I thought it was a bit creepy, but Evelyn wanted to RIDE them! A Sting ray would swim past and flap Evelyn's hand and she would giggle, giggle, giggle and then try and dive in the water. Later in the gift shop, she found a soft purple sting ray stuffed animal that she fell in love with. It was an ordeal trying to get that thing away from her. Who falls in love with a Sting Ray stuffed animal, for crying out loud?!
Then in the evening, Evelyn got to have a giant inflatable slippery slide all to herself. That's the sweet life!
Evelyn loves Michael's family. Each one has a special place in her heart. Her Grandma Adams she calls "Nana" that is occasionally followed with an affectionate sign of "banana." Grandpa is definitely a favorite. If we tell Evelyn we're going to visit Grandpa, she runs to her shoes and screams "PAPA!" and demands to leave right at that second. Then we inevitably endure a whole car ride of "papa. Papa! PAAAAPAAAAAA!!!" And her uncles, both of whom she harbors secret crushes for, are Uncle Yaya (Carl), and Uncle Cookie (Cory). We couldn't even get her to try to say Cory for a while. She just persisted in signing "Cookie."
Evelyn happens to be the first grandbaby on Michael's side of the family. On my side of the family she's merely the first baby Adams, and she falls as my parents' 26th grandkid. Of course, they treat her special too. I guess I'm just not used to the wonderful perks that belong to being a first. After all, I was like the 45th grandkid on my mom's side or something. But I did have the luxury of being the spoiled last child.