MN Vacation: Part 1

We went on our annual vacation up north!  This was Lex's 3rd trip to Kohl's Resort and Avey's 1st time! 

I would love to know how many of these photos I have taken of my handsome chauffeur husband over the years!  We left around 7am on Friday morning and drove to Eau Claire, WI.  It just so happened to be our anniversary so we got there early enough for a romantic date at Red Lobster...with our two babies.;)  We followed that up with a night in the hotel where Ava screamed her head off for most of the time.  Fun times!:/

On the way, we stopped at McDonald's for pancakes!  The girls were pretty good travelers on the way there.  Ava definitely wanted to stop every couple of hours and I think we only had once or twice that she had a full-out screaming fit.  The trip home was a little different story.:)  Alexis continued her track record as an excellent traveler! 

We found this fun area to stop in Wisconsin and checked out this enormous deer! 

We also got to see a huge orange moose...because why not?!

This girl was so happy to get out and run around!

After we stayed the night in Eau Claire, we met up with the rest of the family and headed to Rogers to stop at Cabela's.  Alexis loved the aquarium!!!

Ava got a couple of new treats while we were in the car, just to try to keep her happy.  I gave her a straw cup with water and she is SO good at it already!  She also got to try puffs for the first time, which she loved.

We ended up arriving at Kohl's around 6pm on Saturday evening...almost 36 hours after we left our house.  Traveling with littles is not for the faint of heart!

So happy to be there!

Daddy and his girls! 

Gee-ma and Lex!

We took Alexis swimming in the indoor pool a couple of times and she loved it!

Avey was happy to just watch!  Our weather was pretty cool and rainy for the first couple of days and then ended up being warm and sunny the rest of the week.

Alexis loved playing on the "park" that is right by our cabin!

Daddy took Alexis down to the dock to go bobber fishing.  I didn't really have high expectations, but she LOVED it! 

She stayed right with Bry and would yell "Fishie!!!"  It's a good thing that fishing isn't like hunting...they may have to work on being quiet before she heads to the woods with her daddy!:)

She caught one!!!:)

She wasn't a huge fan of touching them, but did feel them a couple of times.  The second time she went fishing with Bry she was holding the pole and got a fish on her line.  She got so excited that she was jumping up and down and threw the pole in the water!  Ha!!!  Luckily, Daddy had a hold of the line so he was able to pull it back out.  I loved watching these two spend time by the water together.:) 

Ava: 8 Months Old!

Miss Ava Lynn Hall is now 8 months old!  I love these sweet pictures of her!:)

Ava, here's what you are up to this month:

•  This has been a month full of firsts for you!  You are growing and changing and doing new things almost every day, it seems!
• I have no idea about your stats!  You are still wearing all of your same clothes so it's hard to say how much you've grown.  You will go back to the doctor next month for a well check so we'll see!:)
• You wear a fairly wide range of clothing sizes, partly due to hand-me-downs from your sister and partly due to the fact that it's easy to buy summer clothes big so you will grow into them!  You mostly wear 6 or 9 month things.
• You can still wear your size 1 shoes, but I think you could also wear size 2 now.  Your little feet are finally growing!
• You wear size 3 diapers.
• You still nurse every 3 hours during the day and you take a 4 oz. bottle of breastmilk at bedtime.  You eat one solid meal a day and we've started adding a second at times.  I think we'll start eating twice a day regularly very soon!  You eat pretty much any baby food that we give you, although peas are definitely not your favorite.  You also tried puffs for the first time this month!  I am shocked at how well you can already feed them to yourself!!  You are really good at drinking through a straw so I have been giving you a sippy cup with water in it occasionally.  You also like to share milkshakes.:)  You are starting to get more bites of "real" food on occasion and I think that is going to just keep going more and more!
• You got your first two teeth!  The front bottom teeth came in almost at the exact same time when you were about 7 1/2 months old.  I was very happy that they came through because you weren't a whole lot of fun while they were erupting!;)  You are SO stinking cute with two little teeth!
• You are doing better with sleeping again, although not quite as good as before teething started.  (Well, you did AWFUL on vacation, but that's another story for another time.:)  You generally go to bed around 8:30 or so and you wake up anywhere between 5am and 7am.  I feed you and put you back down and you will usually sleep for a little while longer.  I miss when you slept until 8.:)  You nap in the morning for an hour or so and in the afternoon for a couple of hours.
• You are the sweetest, happiest baby girl almost all of the time!  I say that you are very happy until you're not.:)  You can throw a baby fit with the best of them, including arching your back and screaming!  Thankfully, that doesn't happen very often.
• You are not at all interested in being mobile.  You have finally made a few attempts at rolling over again (you haven't done it since you were probably 4 months old), but you just really don't seem to care much!  You mostly have been doing it in your bed, which makes nap time interesting.  Right now, I am watching you sleep on your belly for the first time so I wonder if you will turn in to a belly sleeper like your big sister! 
• I think that your hair is growing!  I saw a picture of you the other day that looked a little different than usual and I think it's because your hair is getting longer.  I've said it before, but I'll say it again...I loooooooove the color of your hair.  It is the most beautiful strawberry blonde color!
• You babble a LOT!  You love to stay in the church service with us on Sunday mornings, but you usually don't make it very long because you are so talkative!:) 
• You can wave bye-bye!
• You think bath time is okay, as long as your sister is in there with you!

Baby girl,

I looked at you the other day and realized that I just absolutely cannot imagine life without you in it.  We have really settled in to our new normal with two kids and I am in awe of how perfectly you fit in our family.  Your little two-toothed smile is the cutest thing ever and we get to see it all the time because you are so happy!  We love you SO much, baby girl!

Hall Family Pictures

We had our pictures taken with the whole Hall side of the family!  Nicole A. Howard Photography did our photos and she did a great job.  We needed to have Ava's 6 month photos taken and Alexis' 2 year photos taken so we decided to throw in a family session, as well.  I think they turned out really well!:)


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Fourth of July

We had so much fun on the 4th of July holiday weekend!  I just love celebrating Independence Day...no pressure, just fun and family time!

Avey was super happy about her first 4th of July! 

Alexis was pretty tickled herself!  She was so excited about fireworks, even though I'm pretty sure she had no idea what they were going to be!

My girls in red, white, and blue!  I could dress them like this every day in the summer.

We went to the Salamonie Summer Festival parade in the evening.  Alexis is getting to be quite a big fan of parades!  She loved picking up candy this time!

We got to hang out with lots of our friends and family!  Here is Anna and Mr. Tucky!

The boys and Kaitlyn and Tyler!

Michele and Vivian (Trinity, Cecelia, and Asher were there, too!), Jessi, and Lill!

Grandma, Grandpa, Dad, Mom, and Ava!

Brody and Lex!

All of the kids!  Vivi, Lill, Tucker, Zaya, Brody, Asher, Peyton, Ava, and Alexis!

They are going to love these pictures so much when they are older!:)  Ava, Tucker, Alexis, and Brody!

My sweet family!  Oh, how I love them.

After the parade, we went to Huntington for the fireworks.  We had lots of fun hanging out on the lawn at the high school waiting for them to start!

Grandpa, Grandma, and Lex!

Daddy and Avey!  Our weather has been relatively cool this summer and it was actually kinda chilly!

So pretty!  There's not much better than watching fireworks with all of your people!

I got a little wild and decided to try making a stars and stripes berry pie...it turned out pretty well!  I am already looking forward to next July 4th!:)