Shell hunting

I can't remember if it was an airplane or a helicopter, but again the only reason they are all looking in the same general direction and not moving is because there was something very interesting to see.  Thank goodness, so we could get one more good picture of all.  

My sister had a great idea to have them collect shells and then make little jars filled with their own shells.  They enjoyed collecting shells.  Avery loves that kind of thing.  There are so many pretty little shells in the Gulf to pick from.


To see the finished product, click here.  Sweet babies.  We miss them so much.

Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo

All of the days but one, we either went to the beach or sat on the local bayou beach.  The other day we took all the kids to the local zoo.  At the front door you can pick up a cup full of feed, aka zoo puffs, to feed the animals as you travel through the zoo.  The first zoo puff sign I saw was at the pen of a small deer or some such animal and I thought, oh that's what a zoo puff looks like.  Little did I know there would be 40 of those signs throughout the zoo telling you that you can feed that animal the zoo puffs in your cup, not that they had 40 very different looking breeds of zoo puffs.  The kids loved seeing and feeding the animals.  We got to see deer, sheep, turtles, birds and tigers among other things.  The wagons were a nice touch too.  The kids had fun getting in and out at most stops.  

Auntie B helping Avery feed zoo puffs to the sweet 'deer'.

Oh those greedy goats.  They got a lot of zoo puffs from all the kids.

Pirate's Cove

On the last day at the beach where we had extra help, K and H, Jon and I went for a fun outing.  We rented jet skis in the rain and took a ride over to Pirate's Cove, which is a total dive bar that can be reached by boat, jetski or by land.  There are lots of dogs who live there or just hang out there during the day.  There is writing all over the walls and tables from many visitors who have been there.  They have good burgers and beer, if you are into that kind of thing :).  Jon and I had a bushwhacker, yummy yummy.  We ended up sitting at 3 different tables before settling on the best one that was overlooking the water but out of the range of the rain that was coming down.  And after sitting there for a brief time, I looked down at the table and saw "Avery!" written on out table.  Then I knew, that was why we had searched for the perfect table.  PS Jon is a crazy fast jetskier and we beat K and H in a couple of races then upon return we found out their jetski was set on the slow mode.  Tee hee.

One Good Picture

I mean, really, you have no idea how hard it is to capture a good picture of the four kids.  Here is everyone smiling and looking in the right direction.  I will take it.  My sister mentioned in her blog the fact that we did not properly capture all visitors who we saw while we were at the beach.  GG, Poppy, Grancy, Nana Lin, Grandpa and Nana Penny.  I will try to be better next time.

New Things

The first day after we arrived at the beach, Avery was so fortunate to share in one of her cousins' favorite activities.  That is watching and greeting the garbage truck.  Where we live we can hear the garbage truck or we might pass one in the alley as we drive to work/school on Tuesdays or we might see one on the beach emptying out the beach trashcans.  But at the beach with her cousins, they all got to watch the garbage truck drive on down the road and back.  You can tell they are entranced because they are all facing the same direction and no one is moving out of the frame. It was exciting. Then we were ready to get to the beach. 

 

Another time they all sat still was for a yummy snack of popcorn (Avery's first experience with this treat).  Katie gave me lots of ideas about things to feed Avery. I always thought she might choke on popcorn, but instead she just enjoyed it, imagine that.  Avery ate exponentially better watching her cousins eat.  My sister just plops down plates of well-balanced meals and expects my nieces and nephew to eat the food, and they do!  Avery did pretty well with this, although she still wouldn't try the cottage cheese that her cousins love so much.

Avery did take a few days to really come out of her shell with Lucia, Elliott and Mazie.  She had fun but wasn't quite herself until later in the trip.  They all shared special moments.  Lucia and Avery loved to banter back and forth and make each other laugh.  Elliott and Avery enjoyed time playing and running around together.  Mazie and Avery share a deep love for their babies. One day they went missing and I went searching for them.  I found them rubbing their babies' backs where they had tucked them both into one of the beds in a bedroom of the house.  It was so sweet, I went running for my camera and scared my sister into thinking something was wrong. Nothing was wrong at all.

Jamberry

Avery enjoyed reading new books that her cousins willingly shared with her.  Her favorite was this little one, "Jamberry".  Katie allows her kids to take books into their cribs at naptime to read to their dolls/stuffed animals.  Since Avery isn't napping anyway, I have started letting her take a book to read for naptime.  Avery also shared one of her favorites that we brought along for the plane ride, "Pinkalicious".  Katie is very good about making reading books a priority and it has already made all three of hers very interested in books.  Thanks Auntie Kate for reading lots of stories. 

Airplane Ride

It is October 24th today, although I will backdate this post.  That means I am over 1 month behind, so here I go catching up!  I have found starting to post about our wonderful trip to Alabama to see my sister and her family, my mom, my dad and stepmom and Jon's mom and stepdad to be overwhelming.  It was such a great trip and I am tempted to just put a link to my sister's blog since she did a great job of detailing our trip.  So here that is, but I too will tell our stories.  It all started with the plane trip.  We brought lots of activities (note sticker-covered shirt) and snacks and Avery was quite enjoyable.  I loved that she had her own seat, both so that I didn't have to hold her the whole time and so I don't have to sit in the middle seat anymore.  Yay!

Our Little Non-Napper

So for several months now, Avery has chosen to hang out in her crib for a couple of hours a day rather than take a nap.  She averages 2-3 naps per week, usually at daycare.  She naps more for Daddy than for me.  I think she does it to make me crazy.  She is pretty cranky on days she doesn't nap but goes down easily for an early bedtime at 7.  How do I know she isn't ready to give up her naps entirely?  Well for one she naps for 2.5 hr at daycare.  I mean, really?!  And she does this to me (see picture above).  She's not fooling anyone when she passes out in the car at 4 pm on the way to a barbecue with friends!