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1700 miles in 6 days...!

I am so glad that it's April 21. Not only is it my birthday today (yay #33!), but it means that our long and exhausting week is truly over.

Last Tuesday, I picked Ava up from daycare at 10:30am, as we needed to hit the road for Kansas City. As I was walking out the gate with her, one of the little boys (Kyle, who I think is maybe 5?) told me he needed to kiss Ava good-bye. I thought, "Isn't that cute? He must really like her." I had no idea how much! He got out of the little car he was driving around, came over, gave her a hug (which she returned promptly), and then kissed her on the mouth! As we were walking away again, he yells, "I'm going to marry Ava when she grows up! I'm going to marry her!" It's never too early for her 1st marriage proposal, I guess!

So, we had a nice long drive down to KC, which was fairly uneventful. Ava did pretty well, however, once we crossed into Missouri, she decided she was bored of looking out the back window and at the back seat. I can't say that I blame her. I crawled into the back with her and attempted to entertain her for the next 1.5 hours. Overall, she did really well, but all three of us were happy to arrive at my parent's house. They hadn't seen her since Thanksgiving, so it was fun for them to see how much she has changed.

The next morning, all 5 of us piled into my parent's car, and we proceeded to drive another 250 miles to central Kansas. Riding in the back with the car seat is definitely not as comfortable as riding in the front seat. Ava did much better this time with both Gramma and I there to entertain her. A few hours later, we arrived at the church to prepare for my grandma's memorial service - Ava had so much fun crawling up and down the stairs. She definitely knows how to go up them, but is insistent about coming down them face forward. I think we need to work on that!

At dinner that night, I made the mistake of giving Ava a little bit of vanilla ice cream, and that's all she could focus on for the rest of the mealtime. We quickly left after that! We then headed back to our room for some relaxing family time. Ava proceeded to entertain us, as you can see below. She has a habit of sleeping in weird positions - the best is where she looks like she was sitting up, and then fell asleep as she was sitting, and fell face forward. In the video below, we tell her, "Go to sleep, Ava!" and she falls face-forward onto her blanket. She did this at least 10 times in a row on one of the nights we were in KC. What a ham!

I love the fuzzy hair in this one!

Grampa's reading to Ava...

The next day was the memorial service, which was a wonderful tribute to my grandma (and grandpa's) lives, but it was very draining. We also visited the family plot in Galatia to see their final resting places. Besides the non-stop wind, it's an absolutely beautiful and peaceful place to be. God rest their souls.

Our family: Stephanie - Craig - Mom - Dee - Scott - Ava - Doris - Dad

I love how Ava is zonked out in this shot - it was a long day for her, too!


And we once again hopped back into the car to drive the 250 miles back to KC. I was attempting to sleep, and was awakened by someone grabbing at my arm. I thought it was my mom, but it was little Ava, trying to get my attention! It was just the cutest thing! So, she then decided to entertain us some more.


She's been rubbing her tongue on her lower gums a lot lately - what a weird expression!


On Friday, we finally had a chance to relax - my mom, Ava and I went shopping, and I realized that I no longer buy clothes for me...now it's just clothes for Ava! I got the cutest little spring jacket for her - let's pack that winter snow suit away!

That night after her bath, I was showing her how to brush my hair and then hers, and she took the brush and put it up to her hair and moved it. It's the little things that are so much fun to see - who knew a baby learning to brush her hair was so neat?? Probably not to anyone other than the parents...:)

On Saturday, we once again hit the road (I was beginning to hate the car by this point), and drove back to the cities. Ava slept for several hours on the drive...I thought that was good at the time...

Our close friends, Tiffany and Darren, moved this weekend, so once we got home from KC, we hopped back into the dang car, and drove 100 miles south to visit them at their new house. They've got a great place now, but we will miss them like crazy!

Ava did NOT want to go to bed that night, and by the time Scott and I came to bed (midnight?), she was WIDE awake and ready to play. For THREE hours.

Note to self: no more long naps in the car during the day!

Scott, the early riser, woke up at 6, and we got back into the horrible car and came home. We proceeded to lay around all day, and do nothing but laundry and nap!

The next day (yesterday), Ava was sent home sick from daycare, and then I was sick last night. Needless to say, we didn't make it to swimming last night. I was really bummed about that, since Ava didn't take to the water right away last week. :(

And here we are...April 21. I'm slowly getting caught up with things around the house, but am taking it one project at a time! We went to Paisano's (pizza) in Woodbury for dinner - I guess I really am a parent now! Instead of going for the nice birthday dinner, I chose a place that would be fine with kids. But it was still good!

On that note, I'm signing off and heading to bed! Good night!

Comments

Lisa said…
That's such a cute video! I just love all the facial expressions they are experimenting with. Such personalities! Sounds like you spent a lot of quality time w/ your car!

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