Many Firsts for Ava!

Wow, what a whirlwind Thanksgiving break! Ava experienced so many "firsts" this weekend that I want to list them out:

• First time out of the state
• First car ride over an hour and a half (in fact, 2 12 hour rides in 4 days!)
• First time swimming
• First Thanksgiving!
• First time to stay in a hotel
  

We left Wednesday morning at 5:00 am to head to Illinois to visit my dad's family. I was a little nervous about how Ava would handle the car ride but she did WONDERFUL! At one point my mom even said she was "an angel" which has never been a way to describe our daughter! :) I was so proud of her because I know she was scared at times with being in a completely new place with all these people she had never seen before.

She did this most of the way there and back

Steph and I entertaining ourselves on the long ride

Forcing Zach to join in the fun (doesn't he look thrilled?)

We made the trip so that my grandparents and aunts and uncles could all meet Ava, but there was one person I really wanted to meet her. My great grandma is still alive and kicking at 95 years old! She doesn't always have great memory recall and didn't really know me or my sister, but she knew my parents and was absolutely tickled to meet Ava. She just held her and stared at her and was so happy. We managed to capture a picture of 5 generations which is so rare so we were excited to have this opportunity.

Ava with her great-great-grandma

Five generations!

My parents, grandma, great-grandma, sister and us

Ava in her Turkey Day attire

Ava and Daddy on Thanksgiving morning

Mommy and Ava on Thanksgiving morning

We also had another exciting first for Ava while we were there. We took her swimming! The hotel had an indoor pool that was heated but it still wasn't warm enough for Ava so she didn't care much for it. I didn't have a swim suit for her so we improvised - my brother Nick bought her three Halloween onesies and I told him to return two of them, but he never did, so she used that as a swim suit.

Right before heading to the pool

Daddy and Ava in the water - she was checking out the water

Ava was sooooooooo excited to get home yesterday. It was so cute how she could recognize being home and how happy she was. She just laid around and played and laughed. It was too cute. We got up this morning and went to church and then had lunch at my parents' house to see my brothers. After that, we headed home and Ava napped while we worked. Zach helped finish catching up the laundry while I made chili and spaghetti (it's so much easier to cook on the weekends and then heat it up during the week) and I also decorated the Christmas tree. Tomorrow is back to work and daycare. We had a nice long break and are sad to head back to work. The last Ava picture is of our little sweetie trying to wake up from a nap today.

My grandparents sent us some pictures from the weekend and it's a good thing we left yesterday because this is what they saw out their front window today! Brrr!!

I hope everyone has a good start to the week!!