Summer Days

Summer seems to be flying by! June was jam packed and super fun. The week of the 16th Ava and I went to Columbus with Jim on a work trip. We packed lots of stuff in hopes to make Ava's first long stay in a hotel and good one. We arrived in Columbus pretty late because of the torrential downpours the whole way down. Ava made most of the trip sleeping, but did have an hour of crying. As soon as we got into the hotel, she ran around the suite yelling. I guess she liked it! While Jim worked, Ava and I went to the mall, a bunch of parks and the Franklin Park Conservatory. She loved the butterfly garden, other than that it was to old for her.

At some point that month, we took the front of her crib off and she is officially in a big girl bed.

We were home only a week before we packed up everything and went up north for 2 weeks. We played outside, went to the beach at Otsego Park, went to the pool at the Sportsplex and relaxed. My brother pointed out that Ava is the fifth generation of Armstrong's to swim in Otsego Lake. Pretty Cool! We also discovered that Ava is quite the little swimmer. Everytime we went to the Sportsplex, she got better and better! On the third, we drove to Traverse City to celebrate our nephew's, Nick, third birthday. We then left Ava with the Kulaga's and drove up to Petoskey for our anniversary dinner. We tried to reinact some of our wedding day photos. They make me laugh. Funny how different four years can make you look.

After the first week, the Chapa's (Bob, Melissa, Norah, and Bobby IV) arrived. I think Ava was secretly relieved to play with someone her own age.... they had a blast together. They arrived on the day of the fourth and we got to watch the fireworks on Otsego in the boat. It was so awesome! I hadn't done that in years. Bobby slept through the whole thing (or most of it if I recall), and Ava woke for the last part. It was so cool.
The boy's fished throughout the week, Melissa and I went to TC for the day once, and we went to the beach and to the Sportsplex. One of the last days, Jim wanted to take us to the Platte River. It was a good day to go too, it was blazing hot. In true Jim fashion, it took us about twice as long as promised to get there..... but it was worth it. It may only be funny to us- but we piled all our crap onto the double stroller then tried to push it on the beach.... we probably looked like such rookies. Jim and Bob ended up carrying it. Wish I got a picture of that! We settled right where the river and Lake Michigan meet. The river water was super warm and the lake water was freezing. It was really fun and the perfect way to end the vacation. Melissa and I headed to Mancelona for Crystal's bachelorette party, the rest of the Chapa clan headed home, and Jim and Ava packed up the house and picked me up the next day.

Jim's birthday was next, then my mom's then Kyle and Crystal were married on the 26th. Now-weddings are usually a good time, but I had such a good time. Everything and everyone was beautiful and we got another installment of the Chaburn Club picture (this time everyone was in the picture). It was a great day!
This past weekend was full of events. I headed to Naperville, Illinois for my friend Kristin's wedding shower. Jim had a wedding on Saturday so Ava spent the night away from us for the first time at Gamma and Boppa's. Unfortunately, it was not with out incident (this is my daughter we are talking about). She has inherited my klutz gene, perhaps she is worse than even me. She fell while walking (yes, walking) and hit her head on the heat register that sticks out from wall. It gouged (sp?) her forehead and caused a lot of bleeding. According to Jim, when he arrived to assess the damage, my parent's looked "wrecked". My aunt came over and put butterfly tape on it and she was good to go. Ava did say "Gamma" for the first time which I think may have made up for it. I don't think I have a pic yet of her boo boo so I will post that later. Enjoy all the pictures!