7 Springs

This weekend we took our annual trip to 7 Springs with Jim's family for Autumnfest. It is my favorite time of year to go up there. All the leaves are almost at peak color, the air is crisp and cool, and the festival is in full swing! It's a weekend of food, music, craft shows, and fun activities for the kiddies. Jim and I managed to sneak some golf in which is always fun.

Ava had so much fun with all her cousins. She loved playing with all of them non-stop. She fell in love with cousin Kayla's Disney princess dolls and had to bring at least two of them to bed every night and for every nap. Now both I and Maryann are on the hunt trying to find a set for her. She also had her first experience in a big girl bed which she loved. We loved it too because she slept until 7:30 every morning! We can't wait to move her to her own permanent big girl bed here at home.

This is the impossible shot - trying to get all five kids smiling at once. LOL


This is just a pretty picture from our hike on Saturday morning at the top of the mountain. To see all the landscape images, visit our family website. They're all posted there.


Ava's favorite part of the trip was her horse ride. For an entire day she thought she rode a cow, but now she knows it was a horse. She also loved getting her face painted; she chose the pink flower two days in a row.




Running up the ski slope chasing her cousins. So cute!


Ava and cousin Kayla who is almost 4.


The family.


All the grandkids at the condo. So cute!


I'm already looking forward to next year. I just love 7 Springs anytime of the year, but fall is by far my favorite!

When we returned home auntie had some new presents for Ava, one of which included a ballerina tutu. She put it on immediately and now wants to wear it every day. She calls it her "choo choo train" insted of "tutu". Oh well, she loves it; that's all that matters. Look at how proud she is in the pictures :)

Princess Ava & Pet Palooza

Saturday was the annual Pet Palooza event to benefit the Humane Society of Charlotte. Jim is a member of one of the bank's teams and personally raised over $1200 this year! His team raised just over $9,000 and came in first place of all the teams at Pet Palooza. We are happy to help out all the doggies and kitties waiting for good homes!

It rained all morning, but stopped in time for the celebration. Ava loved seeing all the dogs, and our own dogs enjoyed sniffing all of their species rear ends to say "hello". We all walked a lap around Independence Park together before calling it a morning and heading home.

This weekend was also the last kids consignment sale of the season (I hit up three this month). I went Friday night to the preview sale and finished off Ava's winter wardrobe, but there was so much good stuff I want back for the 1/2 price sale on Saturday afternoon. Michelle convinced me to shell out $10 for a blue princess/fairy costume for Ava. Sure enough, it was money well spent! She put it on immediately and now wants to wear it every day saying "mama, blue dress" every time we go in her room! She's not a fan of the fairy wings or tiara it came with, but loves the magic wand. So much for me keeping her a tomboy...

Baby Vaca is now past the halfway mark at 21 weeks. I got to see her again on Friday and she looks healthy and strong. I picked up a few clothes and decor items for her at the consignment sale this weekend as well. My big find was a super cute Pottery Barn Kids crib bumper for a whopping six dollars! Woo hoo!

Playing at the Park

We had a great weekend! The weather is nice and cool, and there was lots of football to watch!

Saturday morning Ava and I went to the park to play (her favorite thing to do these days.) Daddy stayed home to finish getting over his cold. Ava loved swinging high for about 40 minutes; she kept telling me "faster, mama!" Then we went through tunnels and down slides for a while.
We spent the afternoon watching Purdue football, then joined up with our friends the Glawes for dinner and a backyard concert in their neighborhood which was fun.

Sunday we went to church, then househunted again in our favorite neighborhood. The house we were originally going after found another buyer last week, so we had to find another house. The one we found suits us better and has more room. We'll probably stay on the market another month or two and see what happens.

So baby #2 is now 20 weeks along (half way done baking!) I'm starting to bust out, but am still staying active with jogs, walks, and lifting occasionally. October and November are gearing up to be big months for us, so I'll probably taper back on the runs by Nov 1. October includes two weddings to shoot, two community events to help plan (one for Accenture; one for the neighborhood), and our annual trip to Seven Springs for a long weekend. None of this includes the fact that we are six weeks away from Rome and I haven't even picked up a book yet! We're going to show up clueless!

Naked Fun

So I used to swear I'd never be one of those people who let my child run around in a just a diaper. I think it's so tacky and slightly redneck. Anyway, I'm here to admit that while I'd never take Ava out in public like that, she has been outside in the driveway a few times sans clothing. Today was one of those times. We went outside to play with bubbles. Because Miss Independent wanted to do it herself after about two seconds, I let her. She promptly turned the bottle over and spilled it on her dress. Now, if you know Ava, she can't go on if she's dirty, has anything on her hands, etc. She immediately wanted to take off her dress, so we did. I was too lazy to go back inside for clothing change #3 of the day, so I let it go.

We then decided to color on the driveway with chalk before moving on to my anniversary gift to Jim which was a personal carwash (big gifts at that six year mark.) Ava loves to wash the car, and loves to see the bubbles being created in the bucket. She had a lot of fun helping me out, and I of course appreciated her enthusiasm even though she'd wash the same spot ten times over.

So yes, today was our six year anniversary. Michelle was kind enough to take Ava all morning so we could go out to breakfast peacefully and then hit the golf course (second time all year.) We had a great time and enjoyed the almost-empty course. It was H-O-T hot out, but that didn't defer us from finishing all 18. We really miss golfing - that was always one of our favorite things to do pre-kids, but we know in a moment's notice we'll wake up one day and all the kids will be grown and we'll have all the time in the world to hit the links. Here's to another year of marital bliss!

100% Girl

Ok, we're really behind in posting this, but we're having another baby girl! Jim is going to be well outnumbered. We found out on August 28th, but then went out of town for the long weekend, yada yada yada. So anyway, we're excited and are making preparations as you can imagine.

I've gone through all of Ava's old clothes to figure out what will work and what won't. The seasons are a little off, but that's OK. Everything that won't work I'm selling at all the great fall consignment sales. We haven't figured out a name yet, but we're working on it. We like "A" names but have a few others in the running that aren't "A" names. Jim has already decided that his Christmas break project will be the painting of our "blue bedroom" to a nice shade of pink, so I'm excited for that. We can't put our little girl in a blue room, afterall, can we?

Beach Trip!

We had such a great time last weekend at the beach! We joined our good friends the Varcas and Clarks for Labor Day weekend in Atlantic Beach, NC. It's a 5.5 hour drive from Charlotte, but well worth it. We had so much fun and the weekend went by way too fast!

We discovered Ava will indeed love having a baby sister, as she followed Baby Addy around all weekend long. Whenever she was with her momma out of site, Ava would walk around saying "where's Baby Addy?" It drove her nuts to not have her nearby. There were plenty of teachable moments for Ava to learn sharing of toys (especially Addison's pool raft) but they did very well together all weekend.

As for we adults, we just enjoyed eachother's company, hung out at the pool and beach, and did a little beach shopping which was fun. Luckily Ashlea brought me some of her maternity bathing suits to borrow, which turned out to be a really good thing because I own none and am popping out of everything I own these days!

I've convinced Jim that starting next year we must take at least a week and hit the beach every summer. Living so close, we just have no excuse! Yea for the Carolinas!

Jim and Ava playing in the water


Wheee!!!


Ava's favorite activity was digging in the sand with her bucket of tools.


Colleen playing with Ava in the water. She even taught her how to kick and pseudo-swim!


The girls! Ava, Ashlea, Addison, Mary, and Colleen

Early one morning at the beach.

About 7am.

Ava kissing Addison

Ava's fake smile for mommy's portrait session.

Reading books after getting cleaned up for the night.

Beach Bound!

Although summer is over, we're excited to finally make it to the beach this weekend! We're going to Atlantic Beach/Emeral Isle with our good friends the Varcas for Labor Day weekend. I can't wait for Ava and Addy to meet and play. Ava will love being a caretaker to "the baby" and it will give her good practice for her life ahead.

In the meantime, our little girl is growing up. She's moved from loving baths to loving showers. She washes herself, the walls, the floor... you name it. As well, Auntie Michelle bought her a little baby bottle whose liquid "disappears" when you feed the baby. Ava calls it "Baby Juice" and has been walking around all week feeding her Pooh doll and her Bitty Baby, affectionately known as "Baby". She is going to be a great big sister!



Ava is talking a lot these days; mostly 3-4 word phrases. She's obsessed with her purple dress, so you'll probably see a lot more of this in coming weeks. She's also starting to get an opinion on all of her daily outfits and shoe selections. Goodness, we have a girly girl on our hands! She loves to carry around the purse the Hopes bought her for her birthday, and she loves wearing her sunglasses and anything that resembles a bracelet. In the last month or so she's suddenly become addicted to her pink blanket "pink blinkie" which she also likes to have with her at all times (but we don't let it go to school... gotta draw the line somewhere.)

Vacation in Bogota

We recently returned from a five day vacation to Bogota, Colombia. Here are the pics. I'll write all about it at the bottom. The entire album of pictures can be found on our family's website.








THURDAY: We arrived in Bogota Thursday morning at 10am CST. Bogota is a huge city of 6 million people, and it's the end of winter right now, so the highs were in the sixties. August is the month of wind in Colombia (lots of celebrations) and there are flags everywhere as a result. We spent most of the day exploring our surroundings, then went out to dinner with our Colombian sister, Johanna, at a really good Italian restaurant.

FRIDAY: We had Friday to do whatever we wanted, so in the morning we girls got dolled up. Salon services are very cheap in Colombia. If you go to a salon for a pedicure and manicure, the equivalent is $6 and $3. We didn't do that, but Johanna's mom sent her personal manicurist to our apartment instead. The girl didn't speak a lick of English, but was a master at her craft! Then we found a salon just 200 yards from Campo's apartment, so we decided to get our hair washed/blown out. Lucia and I took advantage of the waxing too since it was so cheap! I think our blowouts were around $7 each. Crazy!

We then went out to lunch at a nice cafe near one of the large malls in Bogota called Santa Barbara. Jim's cousin Martin was our guest driver, as he's a taxi driver in Bogota and knows where everything is. People in Colombia drive really crazy too, so it helped to have a local at the wheel. After lunch we went shopping, then drove all over Bogota seeing famous landmarks, universities and such.

We ended the day in the government district (Bogota is the capital city) as we remembered the buildings as being really beautiful and wanted to see them again. They were heavily armored by police with big guns, but this time no one yelled at me for taking pictures of them. This is probably due to the fact that Colombia has gotten safer than ever the past eight years, with much thanks to the boatloads of aid the US has provided it to fight the FARC and all of the drug traffickers (which as been immensely successful - we're still waiting for Maria Betancourt to thank the good ole USA for getting her out of the jungle). When we came three years ago the police did not let us take pictures of any government buildings. This time they didn't seem to care so that was nice.

The gang headed home around 5pm, but Jim and I felt like exploring more so we stayed out. We were glad we did because they closed down the streets for a parade, and the entire night was very festive-like. We then took a cab back to the T-zone and ate dinner at a good Latin restaurant. Cabbies are also very inexpensive, as our trip home was probably 25 minutes and cost the equivalent of maybe $6 with tip.

SATURDAY: Today was Sister Maria's big day. She is the reason we went to Bogota, as she was celebrating her 50th year as a nun. We headed to southern Bogota for a celebratory mass that morning. Campo and Maryann escorted her during the processional. The mass was 90 minutes long and 100% in spanish, but we survived. Sister Maria was so happy that we'd come, so that's all that mattered. Afterwards the convent had a celebratory lunch for all the nuns celebrating their 50th and 60th year of service and a few guests. This was nice, as we got to share pictures with some of our Colombian family. This was also the first time Lucia had met Sister Maria, so that was nice too. She was so happy.

Saturday night we headed just outside Bogota to a really cool restaurant with our adopted Colombian family the Murcias. Johanna, her mom Ninelly, and brother Andreas all came. The restaurant was a flat-iron-steak kind of place and was huge! It probably sat 500-1000 people easily. We loved it. Everything went well except a lady at the table behind us indulged a little too much on her cerveza and had to be taken out by EMTs on a stretcher. How embarrassing! Oh wait, she was passed out cold...she won't remember.

On the way home we got to see Military Police riding the back of a truck with their big guns. This is a normal scene in Bogota, but nothing to be alarmed at. They are just keeping the peace and helping to ensure the FARC isn't up to anything crazy like kidnapping, drug trafficking, bribing politicians, etc. :)

SUNDAY: Sunday Jim and I went out for breakfast... at McDonalds. Felt like home. We ate off the regular menu, although they did have a Chinese menu too. We thought it might be Olympic related, but who knows? It looked gross.

This was the day we would head back to the convent (after getting our hair blown out for the 3rd day in a row - the salon owner opened early just for us!) for Sister Maria's special mass. This time mass was just an hour and a small part was in English (woo hoo!) This mass was just for our family, but that means about 65-85 people showed up. Family came from as far as the Venezuelan border, which was more than a 12 hour trip through the jungles/dangerous areas of Colombia.

After mass we had a private lunch in the fellowship hall for our entire family and all of the Sisters. Campo and Maryann organized the whole thing and really went all out. The food was great, and Sister Maria was even surprised by a Mariachi band! She loved that. I brought stacks of pictures for everyone to look through and take. You would have thought we were handing out $100 bills the way people snatched those up! They loved learning about their long, lost American relatives.

After lunch we all headed outside and took family pictures. We took, and took, and took... we even tried to get one picture with everyone in it. Pretty funny (and impossible.) Around 3pm we finally said our final goodbyes to everyone and Sister Maria. We told her we'd come back for her 60th anniversary, and she told us we'd better bring our kids next time. Fair enough :)

We topped off Sunday night by heading to the Bogota Beer Company for dinner. Nothing like a burger and fries to send you off. This was really fun and a good way to cap off a nice vacation.

Monday morning we headed to the airport. There were really long lines, but Campo told a security guard that Jim, Lucia, and I were all executives with Bank of America and were on a business trip, so he took us to the front of the line. Ha ha! We made it home safe and sound of course, and can't wait to go back again in a few years!