Vacation, Crawling, Old Man Smile...

Last week we had our first family vacation up north camping, nay- RVing. The Chapa's camper doesn't really count for camping but we did stay in a campground. I switched vehicles with my sister-in-law so we had a minivan for the week (Jim was SO thrilled to have to drive a minivan). So the girls started the trek up to Wilderness State Park and the guys took the truck and trailer. Norah was in the midst of being potty trained so it took awhile to get up there (5.5 hours I think) but it went by really fast. Ava slept most of the way up (thank goodness). I was afraid she'd scream the whole way up there. She didn't though, both the girls were wonderful. We spent a few days in Mackinaw City and had bonfires and ate A LOT of food. The weather was cool but comfortable. Jim and I spent our third wedding anniversary at the Bayfront Inn in Petoskey having dinner. It was exquisite. On the Fourth we packed up and headed down to Traverse City. There we watched fireworks and went to the beach a few times (Jim even took Ava all by himself!). Norah entertained Ava a lot... there was one evening when the boys were out fishing and so it was just us girls, and Norah was just sitting next to her and Ava was hysterically laughing. She even snorted. I was on the phone with my mom so she got to hear it and I got the very end of it on my cell phone. I hope she always finds things that funny! The day before we left Jim surprised me by renting jet skis for an hour on the Grand Traverse Bay. It was SO much fun! All in all it was a blast even though we missed the Cherry Festival. Yeah- we made reservations in the winter for it, and then at some point the dates for the festival were moved and we had no idea until we got there. Bugger.

Ava is now 7.5 months old and is army crawling everywhere. Yesterday she crawled all the way down the hall by herself (no one calling her to come), I grabbed the video camera and got her going into her room and finding herself in a mirror I haven't hung up yet. She then proceeded to laugh and squeal at herself and then kissed her image. It was so cute. She also suddenly has separation anxiety really bad and wakes up in the middle of the night numerous times screaming like I've left her forever. It's awful. Yesterday was the worst though, she would have a tantrum if I wasn't on the floor playing with her the whole day. She took two 45-60 minutes naps and that was it. It was a long day. It is nice to be needed so much, but a little exhausting.

She also has this new smile, she shows her teeth and crinkles her nose so she looks kind of a like an old man. It's the best! She is also babbling "mamamamama" quite a bit, but I don't think she's saying it on purpose.