Happy Birthday Daddy

Daddy is the big 33 today!  Give him a pound!

Father's Day 2011...

Last weekend....

Best Friends

Avery has about 10 other kids in her class, but she's closest to 3 other girls - Nihla, Abby, and Lily.  Nihla is very vocal (like Avery) and she says hello to all the parents.  I think they all know each other's parents.  I've heard Lily call out "There's Avery's Mommy" and Avery will say "That's Shaum's Daddy" as he walks in the door.
Lately, when Robert or I arrive to pick up Avery, Nihla runs over to Avery and says "Give me a big hug bye!"  Of course it's the cutest thing ever so I asked them to repeat it today so I could get a picture.  When Shaum comes over to join the hug party, Avery is not as thrilled - boys are yucky.

Beach Part 2

After lunch, a few pee breaks, and a vomit clean up, we finally made it to the beach.  Avery was very excited to go in the water, holding Grammie's hand of course.  She insisted on taking off her shirt (like the 3 little boys that were playing a few yards away).  This was the farthest she walked in the water during the whole trip, she even sat down.  The next day she told me "the waves gonna get me", not sure what changed her mind, but when her mind is made up, it's hard to change.

We loaded up with everything needed to survive for a week on the beach and headed out. Luckily, we were on the second row and right in front of the beach access point just in case we forgot anything.

This time Avery was very content to sit watch the waves come in.... I wonder what she is thinking.

She eventually got out of the chair and tested the sand a bit.  Her favorite part was destroying the castles that aunt Stephy built.

Avery discovered a new love at the beach -- shucking corn!  She pulled those husks like it was her job and would yell "next!" each time she finished one.

There was a small park on the other side of the marsh that we visited one evening.  Avery went up and down the slide all by herself about 50 times.  There were some older girls running around and Avery fell right in line with them, running to the stairs and calling out "be careful" as they climbed up.

Silly

"I hiding" - Notice the Bojangles biscuit...

Beach Part 1

So I am going to do my best to put up some pictures from Avery's trip to the beach with Laura's family even though I was not there.  The first part is too funny of a story not to tell.  Avery has recently been attached to Bojangles biscuits.  That's not a bad thing, because all of the road trips we go on pass a Bojangles and I don't mind a Cajun Chicken Biscuit combo.  So Laura's path to the beach involved a stop at Bojangles to feed Avery lunch and to break the 4+ hours of driving into segments so that Avery would sleep in the middle.  Avery got some green beans, but mostly ate a biscuit plus her usual quart or so of milk.  They got back on the road and Avery took a nap.

 However, after Avery woke up she wanted to watch some cartoons on the tablet.  No big deal, so Laura gave her the tablet.  A little while later there was a gurgling sound and an eruption of milky biscuits out of Mount Avery.  (I will not post the picture of the after).  Avery supposedly was the most concerned that she had gotten vomit on the tablet.  So Laura had the pleasure of stopping in the middle of no where cleaning Avery and the car seat with a bottle of water and some towels she had packed.  Avery was perfectly fine to sit naked in the front seat and to continue to watch her cartoons.

While parked, Avery found the Bojangles bag from the stop and dug out the remainder of the biscuit she hadn't finished at lunch.  She proceeded to then woof it down, leading to this awesome picture. I love everything about it...Avery's face, the fact that she is handing the bag label up to Laura, a mouth full of biscuit, she is sitting naked in the driver's seat.  I think I want this picture on our mantle.

Backyard Fun

This is how her hair looks after running around for an hour outside.

 When she swings, she wants to go "Super High", similar to how Rocket will go "Super Fast."  She will even pat on her legs, stomach, shoulders, then shake her whole body to get us to swing her higher.

Zoo pt 2

We have gotten a little behind on blogs due to vacation and fun things, but I am going to try and catch up.  Last weekend we decided to go to the Zoo in Columbia.  Avery really enjoyed it last year and figured she would enjoy it more now that she knows more about animals.  We were so right.  She had a blast running from exhibit to exhibit yelling at the top of her lungs, "MORE ANIMALS!!!"

We walked into the gorilla exhibit just as one was passing the window.

 Big Smiles for seeing a gorilla.  She was so excited she flipped mommy off.

This is her watching the elephants.  Every single exhibit she would point out the Mommy animal, the daddy animal and if there were 3, the Avery animal.  We would have to say the Avery animal was sleeping if it was not there or she would keep asking where was her animal?

 There was also a petting zoo where she had a lot of fun feeding a goat.

 She also had a blast on the merry go round until it stopped.  Then the crying started.

 She enjoyed the aquarium as usual.

 I think she would have watched the fish swim around all day and loved shouting "Sharks!" when they would swim past.

More Professional Pics

 For those that don't know, this is her "I'm going to push the boundaries smile."

 Laura had just gotten home from a week in Sweden so Avery was very clingy to mommy and very anti-daddy, so this one is one of the few we got of her giving me a hug.

 I love the face Avery is making here.  She was so over taking pictures at this point.

A weekend at the lake

Last weekend Avery went to the lake with her grandparents while Laura and myself went canoeing down the New River with our buddies.  They didn't get to get in the water because of the cold, but I am sure the grandparents and Avery had a blast spoiling each other.  I forgot to download the pictures from my parent's camera, but here are some my sister emailed me.

Reading her cousin "Baby Anna" good night moon.

 I am pretty sure these two are related.

 Taking Charger on a "walk"

Eating broccoli and fried fish.