"Night Life" at the beach

Heading out for a nice dinner at the beach. We decided to try a new place...it was on the marina and had a nice pier to walk on and lots of boats to see. There were even vending machines to buy fish food...and well, we couldn't resist!


Uncle John, you better watch what you feed those fish!

This was the first time that Uncle John and Aunt Jennifer had seen Ava since Thanksgiving. It was an amazing visit...and the most exciting part was hearing the news that Ava will be getting a new baby cousin in April!!! YAY!

Here we are, at the table we got after an HOUR wait. The food was pretty good...but the atmosphere was...eh. All the tables were outside and it was super HOT!!! They had live music which was probably nice, except that it was only 1 table away from where we sat...what a memory~

Aunt Jennifer and Nana


Uncle John and Aunt Jennifer


Dave and Amy


Aunt Jennifer and Ava


Ava drinking up all the water she could!!


Being silly before bed...

...making fish faces is very much like giving kisses...


Good Night Ya'll!

The JeffCo Fair

Our local fair comes to town the week of Dave's birthday. This year, we decided that Ava would love the lights if not the rides. We weren't actually sure how it would turn out but the weather was amazing for July and we wanted to spend some time outside.


There were a couple rides that she could ride with a parent but many more she could ride alone. After I put the nervous worried mommy voice out of my head we let her give some rides a try. She thought it was really something to ride all by herself! Here she is in the ROLLER COASTER!




And her absolute *FAVORITE* ride...the bees. They went up and down, she laughed the whole time. As soon as the ride was over, she wanted to go get back in line and ride again!

Just bein' Ava

Just some cute pictures we wanted to share. We hope you are all well...Happy Summer!

Sleeping in my BIG GIRL bed...

I thought that Ava's first year was full of so many *firsts* and milestones that later ones would be easier to accept. WELL, not so much. My sweet angel is a growing girl {yes, girl...not baby} and tonight she slpet in her big girl bed for the very first time. This was a deeply sentimental moment for me, can't really explain why but it was a super proud moment for the mommy!

She did great too! Only one incident...she fell off her bed onto the mattress on the floor about midnight. It terrified her. I went upstairs and she was trembling- I picked her up, loved on her, and put her back in bed. She slept there until morning. What a sweet blessing.

Peach Pickin' at Eckerts

It's our summertime tradition...going to Eckert's to pick peaches. We love them, and we love all things peachy {cobbler, ice cream, pie, wine...you get the picture}. This year, before we went, we told Ava that she could ride the tractor. Well, that was all it took to excite her!


Peaches GaLoRe!!



The new addition at Eckert's this summer is a BRAND NEW country market. Completely state-of-the-art facility. They sell all kinds of home grown farmer's market kinds of things as well as fun, unique "farm" things.



Ava and the tractor. She kept calling it PawPaw's tractor :)



We soon realized that they hadn't opened the "pick your own" season for peaches yet. The crop was a little slim and there wasn't enough *excess* for everyone to go tromping through the fields. We were very disappointed at first and starting to wonder how on EARTH we were going to explain to a 2 1/2 year old that we weren't going to be able to ride the tractor after all...
BUT...fear not!! They were giving tractor rides!



Ava didn't care if we picked a single peach or not. She was there for the tractor ride! And thankfully - she got it.


We took a quick stroll through the market and found that they were very prepared and equiped for kiddos... An Ava sized grocery cart! We loved it... and she had a blast pushing it around.

"My toes are pink!"

Ava had her first little "pedicure"... It was so sweet! She loved every second of attention that she got. And I did too, they didn't charge me for it!



Then, a couple days later...after the polish had worn off...we found her first pair of flip flops!

The 4th...& FIREWORKS!!!

We spent Independence Day celebrating with our friends, The Harmon's. Our girls were born 2 months and 2 days apart. Not only did we spend pregnancy moments together, now our girls get to spend fun times together.

They LOVE to play at the park just up the street form Maddie's house. The swings are always a hit and now that Ava is getting better at gymnastics, she got lots of practice on the balance beam.





And who could deny these sweet girls a ride in the wagon on this HOT afternoon?!?!




We talked about the fireworks all afternoon and the girls were both very eager to see what all the excitement was about...

...we soon learned that Maddie didn't find them all that exciting where Ava on the other hand, couldn't wait to see the next one! She's been like that since her very first 4th...she's always thought the lights were amazing.


Laying with her "bear" waiting on the big display to get underway...






Fireworks...times 2!
We spent a second night watching fireworks downtown with Grandma and Grandpa. Ava enjoyed the fireworks but this time I think she was more interested in sharing ice cream with Grandpa :)