Guess who's 4 months old today!!!!!

Dear Avery Lynn,

YOU are 4 months old today! Where has the time gone? We have been so busy having so much fun as a family. In the four short months you have been here, you have experienced and have accomplished so much.

*You have been on TWO airplanes.

*You have been to California! With two more trips planned by the end of the year.

*You are rolling from your back to your tummy AND from your tummy to your back.

*You are scooting on your tummy across your play mat.

*The other day I put you in your swing and you were trying to escape. You would pull on the side of the swing to try and get out. Thank goodness I had the play tray snapped in. BUT, you were also pulling on the rings on your try to pull your self up and out.

*After the above incident, your daddy and I went and bought you a jumper. You are SO independent. You love your jumper!

*You have become quite the swimmer. You try so hard to quick your legs and blow bubbles. You like to dunk your head in the water and give your mom a heart attack.

*You like getting up ALL the time in the middle of the night. I don't know what has brought this on, but you are making your mommy and daddy SO tired!!

*You are now wearing 3-6 month clothes and some 6 month clothes. (Today you wore a jumper that was 6-9 months!!!) Stop growing so fast munchkin!

*You are so much better in the car. You fall asleep now or watch yourself in the mirror and observe your surroundings.

*You LOVE your stroller. You and I take LONG walks together. We are going to do a 5k together next month. Woo Hoo!!

*You know your name now. When your dad or I say your name, you look right at us. It is so cool!

*You put EVERYTHING in your mouth now. And I mean everything! You eat your clothes, your woobie, mom's hair, dad's ears, all of your toys, and now your toes!

*In the morning I put you in your Bumbo chair while I cook breakfast. Your toy of choice: mom's measuring spoons. You eat them, suck on them and hit the tray and make noise with them!

*You want to eat and drink like a grown up so badly. We like giving you ice water in spoons and you try to eat it. You observe us drinking water and now you try to do it too.

*You are on a daily routine now. You MUST have your morning and afternoon nap or you are very very upset. ;)

*You also go to daycare for one hour a day so mommy can work out. You do so good and usually just take a nap there. Hollie loves you and says you look like a porcelain doll.

*You are now laughing a lot more. It is the cutest laugh ever and gives us the biggest smile when you do it. You love to laugh at Monte and Gracie. They are your bestest friend. While you are in your jumper, you try to pull Monte's ears. He loves to sit near you and follow you wherever you go!

Avery, we are so very proud of you. You are such a sweet, innocent, perfect and beautiful child. We are SO blessed to have you. We are constantly in awe at the things you do. You are developing so quickly. Every time we blink, you are up to something new.

We love you Love Bug!!

Love,

Your Mommy and Daddy

Your buddy Gracie.

Your BEST buddy Monte.

Playing outside in your bouncer.

Tell one of your many stories!

Your new jumper.

Monte watching you as you play.

Helping your mommy update the blog. :)

We've been a busy family!

Wow! I have been a blogging slacker lately!! We have SO much going on right now, that when I do have time to sit down and blog....I do not feel like it.

SO.....what exactly have we been up to you might ask????

Well, here we go.....

*We have been swamped with planning the upcoming wedding. We have booked the dinner/reception site, I ordered the invitations, we hired our officiant/photographer/florist (yes, it is ALL one person. Makes it SO much easier!), now we need to get the cake going.

*I bought my dress. I originally wanted a tea length dress, but was having a hard time finding one. I found a long dress that looks like it fits on a beach and I fell in love with it once I tried it on. :)

*We bought Nick a linen suit. He is pretty much the hottest guy around in it!!!

*We have had the car in the shop twice for the same problem. Nothing too big. I got the sweetest Mercedes loaner this last time and secretly want to keep it. :)

*We went to the Farmers Market and bought Ave some cute bows for $2 each. Plus, I had the BEST pesto garden veggie sandwich and strawberry lime rickey around!! Yum!!

*Nick and I both went on the same diet at the same time. (I was reluctant at first...I HATE DIETING! But he has lost a total of 16 pounds and I between 5-7. It fluctuates.) I give myself the weekends to splurge while he is being a strict boy with himself. Note: Chocolate Gelato is only 60 calories a serving, only 5 grams of sugar and 3 grams of fat!! Not too bad in my book. It's almost identical to some yogurts out there. I love that I found this delicacy!

*We took Ave swimming in Grandpa Dale's pool. She LOVED it! (The water is about 80 degrees and feels like a bathtub. She was in the water for an hour before she was ready to get out and take a nap.

*I have let Ave go to daycare at the gym so I can workout when I'm in Logan. So far, she has been doing great. When I am in Salty, I walk 4 miles with her while she is in her stroller. We have fun together!

*Nick has had two record breaking months at work. Good Job babe! We are so proud of you!

*We attended Lincoln's baby blessing. (My step-sister Stacie's baby.) He is such a doll. I didn't take any pic's of the cute guy, but will steal some from someone.

*We've laid on the lawn and stared at the sky to see what Avery sees. It's pretty fun to try and see things from her perspective.

*We've had AWESOME dinners at the Country Club. I eat like it's going out of style and regret it the next day, but still love doing it!!

*Avery has now rolled from her tummy to her back. She throws her arms out when she is done. It's like she is saying "Whoa. What just happened?". She is getting SO big.

*Ave has also started scooting on her tummy. We now need to start keeping a close eye on her. She is growing to be such a little independent lady!

*I noticed this last week that when I am drinking water while I am holding our little monkey, she leans in towards the cup. SO....I put the cup up to her mouth today and she grabbed it and pulled it towards her mouth and connected. She wasn't sure how to swallow and let the water run down her shirt. It was priceless!!

*We have also (well, me) started playing with spoons to see what she does. I like to dip it in ice water to make the spoon cold. Ave likes to try and suck on it. I think she is more than ready for cereal!!

*Nick took a Harley trip with some buddies to Jackson Hole and had a little too much fun.

*I was lucky enough to be invited to Coraline's baptism. (Our friend Sean and Erika's baby.) I have never been to a catholic baptism and thought it was so neat. Coraline is such a beautiful baby. Erika and Sean, you are doing a FABULOUS job.

*I also went to lunch with Em and Grace at the new Beehive Grill in Logan. It is delish!!! I just love that little Gracie. She is such a good and gorgeous baby!

***We have been up to so much, I know I am leaving out a ton!! This Friday we are headed to the Outdoor Retail Convention! We are stoked!!

We hope everyone has a wonderful and safe 24th of July!!!

Ave is currently putting EVERYTHING in her mouth!

Concentrating SOOOOO hard!

Our beautiful Baby with Baby Blues!

Daddy and his best buddy!

My handsome man!

Doing what we do best, hanging out on the front porch!
Uncle Houston....he IS the baby whisperer. He put Ave to sleep twice!!

Nick just adores Housters.

The fam at Lincoln's baby blessing.

Avery with her Great Grandma Wendy.

I swear she was having fun.

Our Love Bug.

She's a fish.

Discovering the sky at Avery's perspective.

Huh?

Pretending to be in mommy's tummy again. She started to fall asleep. :)

Giving Grandpa Dale a big KISS!

Our friends Erika and Sean with sweet baby Coraline. (She wore her daddy's baptism dress. So tender!)

Some more info on September wedding

Hello again!

While in California, we scavenged for deals on hotels. Unfortunately, we cannot get a "group/block" rate unless we have at least 20 rooms to block. So..........I have been searching high and low on the Internet.

We are getting married on the beach across from the Del Coronado. Our condo is right next door and the view of the ocean is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!! BUT, the Del is SUPER expensive. (About $269 a night. Purely ridonculous!) So here are some hotels on the island we have found:

Coronado Island Inn http://www.coronadoinn.com/
Runs $99 + Tax
The rooms are REALLY basic! But, it is right on Orange Avenue (The Main Street) and everything is within walking distance.

Coronado Inn http://www.coronadoinn.com/
Runs $99 - $119 + Tax
This is The Coronado Island Inn's Sister Property. The rooms are a little newer and it is still on Orange Avenue.

La Avenida Inn http://www.laavenidainn.com/
King Bed Runs $149 + Tax
Two Full Beds Runs $155 + Tax
This Motel is closer to the Del. It is a bit older, but still....who plans on being in their room a whole lot?

El Cordova http://www.elcordovahotel.com/
Runs $185 - $215
It is in a cute area with 4 restaurants right there, but not worth the expense.

Best Western (On Coronado, not in San Diego) http://www.bestwesterncalifornia.com/
One King Bed Runs $175
One Queen Bed Runs $175
I don't get the pricing. It is a NICE Best Western on Orange Avenue.

The Marriott on Coronado http://www.marriott.com/
Runs $199 + Tax
What you would expect from a Marriott. This property is beautiful! I believe it has a Bay View.

Finally................This would be my choice for the money:

Glorietta Bay Inn http://www.secure-res.com/res/vn3/avail.aspx?hotelid=1014&checkindate=9/11/2009&nights=2&rooms=1&adults=2&children=0&trr=EFFFFFD9D9A8D1&culture=1&culturename=en-US&wtpid=1 http://www.gloriettabayinn.com/
Standard Room with One Queen Bed Runs $159 + Tax
Another option is to get a bigger room (say with two rooms). They will sleep 4-6 people. Depending on if you want to bunk with anyone.
This property is right across the street from The Del Coronado. It is GORGEOUS!!! It has a view of the Bay and is the mansion that the original owner of The Del lived in.

I also looked at Enterprise Car Rental. For an economy car, it runs $26.99 a day. I found it on Priceline.

Also, The Airlines are having a "FARE WAR" tonight until midnight. If you fly in on a Thursday, it is $60 each way. (Leaving on a Monday.) If you fly in on Friday and out on Sunday, it is $79 each way. This is flying into/out of San Diego on Southwest. Jet Blue is a bit more expensive. (SIDE NOTE: There is one layover in Phoenix or Vegas.)

On Delta, a round trip non-stop to San Diego is $189, which includes the tax.

So, this is what I have found so far. I will keep checking daily. I understand many will not be attending....but I thought I would post this info anyways.

If you want to stay in San Diego (not on Coronado Island), it is a bit cheaper. And it is only 10-20 minutes away, depending on traffic. Check the Sheraton, Holiday Inn on The Bay, The Marriott....the hotels along the Bay. I am not too familiar with the bay area, but I will try to help in any way.

Our agenda is pretty simple.

We will arrive on Thursday morning and get all the marriage preparations finalized. On Friday, we will all be going to dinner at Old Town Mexican Restaurant in Old Town San Diego. SO YUMMY! On Saturday, we will be getting married on the beach by the rocks across from The Del at 3PM. We hired a photographer for only 45 minutes, then we will all be having a nice dinner at Il Fornaio at around 5PM. Perfect for a sunset by the bay. On Sunday, we do not have any plans yet, but are pretty sure we will be doing breakfast somewhere.

I was asked if we will be doing any activities together. (Sorry Aubrey that I haven't gotten back to you.) Since most will be arriving on Friday and leaving Sunday, we figured we didn't want to squeeze in too much. Believe me, the island is gorgeous and there are so many things to do. I thought maybe Sea World, but most of us have young ones and it may be too hard this trip. We will just enjoy every one's company.

I'll keep everyone posted if anything changes. :)

Thank you again everyone for everything. We love you all and are so excited to share this special day with you!

Farewell Coronado, see you in September! Picture Overload!

Where do I begin?

Day One:

We had such a fun week in San Diego. We stayed on Coronado Island which is ten minutes out of San Diego.

Avery had MANY firsts while we where there. We flew from Salt Lake City to San Diego in Grandpa Dale's private jet. Not many kids can say their first plane ride was on a jet. This was Avery's first time on an airplane and she did AWESOME!!! Well that is until we landed. She kept crying and was pulling at her ears. I remembered reading my friend Sarah's blog about her baby Easton doing something similar after flying. So I called her for some advice. She said to give Ave a bottle and plug her nose for 5 seconds while she was eating. We did it, which Ave was definitely not a fan, and then I got into a warm bath with her. She was a bit fussy the rest of the day, but nothing like before. Thank you Sarah! You are such a great friend. It is so nice having so many friends with babies. You know you can always ask someone for advice!

The first day we just hung around the island. We walked up Orange Ave (which is the main street) and looked at all the local shops. That night, we headed out to dinner with Nick's parent's to a fancy Italian restaurant, named Asti's, in San Diego in the Gas Lamp District. It is our family favorite!

Avery with her daddy and the pilot Mark.

Getting ready to fly.

Grandpa Dale and Ave.

The view from our condo.

Walking around on the beach.

Cheese!

Day Two:

The next day I was SOOO anxious to get Avery in the pool for the first time. After having breakfast at The Del Coronado, we headed out to the pool. Coronado is on average around 70-75 degrees. There was a slight breeze, so it made the air feel pretty chilly.

After slathering her in sun block, we hit the kiddie pool first. We started out with just her legs and she seemed to really like it. SO...we took out her floaty toy and put her in the BIG pool. She had no idea how to react. She liked it for about 4 minutes, and by the 5th minute she was done. She cried until she was all warm and dry in a nice big towel. She took a long nap after that, so Nick and I decided to lay out.

Since Dale and Sheri were in Coronado with us, they offered to watch Avery at night so we could have "adult time." Much needed adult time might I add!! Dale and Sheri are on a 9 day detox diet to treat her Lyme disease. The first 4 days are just OJ, the next 3 are just water and the last 2 are Ozone treatments. So we weren't able to go to dinner with them except for the first night. Thank you for watching Avery at night though. It was so nice going on a date for 6 nights in a row!! That night we hit up Old Town Mexican Cafe in Old Town San Diego. It was yummy!!! We realized once we got home how burnt we got from laying out!

Getting ready for the pool! Family Time. Such a good daddy! Not really sure what to do.... Minute...Number...FIVE!

Ooooooooooooouuuuuuuuucccccccccccchhhhhhhhhh!

Day Three:

By this day I did not want to be in the sun. I was so smart to get such a bad burn on the 2nd day being on vacay! My skin changed a lot after having Aver's! I have never burned that bad! My skin hurt to touch, bend and shave. We headed out to Inn and Out Burger, Nick's favorite! We always stop here at least once when we are in a state that has one. It was Oh So Good! While out, we decided to try and find me a wedding dress. We went to one of the local malls in The Gas Lamp District again. I did not find anything. Bummer. Nick and Ave were trooper's while I looked around. Thank you guys! We went out to dinner that night to Tomaso's. We were trying all the restaurants we liked to see where we wanted to hold our wedding dinner/reception. Tomaso's was one of the one's on top of our list. It is such a delicious place to eat.

Yummy! This is for Matt!

Avery and Nick got bored while I was finding a place to warm up Ave's bottle. I found them playing on a bed in Nordstrom's. :-)

Avery all tuckered out.

Day Four:

After breakfast at our usual joint, we ventured out to USS Midway in San Diego Bay. This ship retired in 1991 and is now a museum. It reminded me of my childhood in Texas. I remember my mom and dad taking me to a ship just like this. I don't remember which ship, but I remember I loved it.

This ship is huge! It is 1,001 feet long, 258 feet wide and has 18 decks! It used 100,000 gallons of gas daily and weighs 69,000 tons. I could go on and on. This ship was amazing. We spent two hours taking tours and wandering around. I had head phones to listen to, but I was enjoying my company...Avery and Nick. We put Avery in her Baby Bjorn and she was out like a light for almost the entire time. We played around San Diego for a bit before heading back to the island. We could definitely tell it was a holiday weekend. The traffic back was a nightmare. We said then and there that we were spending the rest of the trip on the coast. We wanted to try to go to Sea World, but thought it would be too much for our baby. We are going to try in September or even November when we go back.

That night we went to a really nice dinner at Il Forneau. This is where we are going to have our wedding dinner/reception!!! I knew it once we walked in. It is right on the bay and you can see the entire skyline of San Diego. It is BEAUTIFUL!!! (And really really yummy too!!) More on the wedding in a later post.

USS Midway. I couldn't even fit it into a picture.

I HAD to include this picture. The kid was literally rubbing the statues leg. It was hilarious!

All Aboard! Notice that the Asian on the left looks like the Asian guy on Mad TV! :)

Inside of the ship.

On the Top Deck with all of the retired planes. So Cool!!

After dinner, Family Picture.

Day Five:

Happy Fourth of July!!!

We love the fourth! Last year on this day, we were in New York and got engaged on top of the Empire State Building. It was such a wonderful trip with such wonderful memories. My how things changed in just one year! We never would have imagined a year later that we would have a baby. We wouldn't change a thing!! Despite what some people think, we are truly blessed and couldn't be happier!

The Island of Coronado holds an annual parade down Orange Avenue. The news said there were 150 floats. It was pure mayhem. We lucked out and got a table at our favorite breakfast joint and watched most of the parade from the side of the street, under the shade while eating yummy food. (Yes, we ate ALOT! And enjoyed every minute of it!) After breakfast, we walked along Orange and watched the floats. We went to the nearby park and looked at all the local art booths. It was such a wonderful day! Avery did SO good. She enjoyed being in her stroller, being toted around with daddy and hanging in her Bjorn. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful baby. After the festivities we went and took a nap. Grandpa Dale and Sheri watched Ave again. This time we took a stroll along the beach to the military base. At the end there is a dog park on the beach. It is so much fun to watch the dogs play in the ocean. We can't wait to take ours there one day.

After the beach, we went to a burger joint, then grabbed Avery, Dale and Sheri and watch the fire works from the lawn of the condo. The city shoots the fireworks from Glorietta Bay which is just across the street from the condos. We had front row seats without the hassle of being stuck in traffic. I unfortunately let the battery run out and didn't take any pictures. :(

Nick's dad just bought a bright red Ferrari, so we were lucky enough to get a ride. Man that thing is beautiful, fast and fun!!! Nick got it up to 120. We kept the speed under 80 while I was in it. Again, I wish I would have taken a picture!

The parade route.

The beach was PACKED. We avoided it. Too many people for us!

Mom and her Love Bug.

Daddy and his princess.

Our stroll on the beach. The camera died right after this. :(

Day Six:

We didn't take any pictures this day. Dang it! In the morning we walked around the local neighborhoods fantasizing about how we would one day live in one of the beach houses.

Nick went to a San Diego Padre's game with his dad. They wanted to watch Manny Ramirez play. By the 7th inning he hadn't, so they left. Low and behold in the 10th inning I believe, he batted. Sorry boys! I was going to join them, but thought Avery would have a hard time at a day game being so young. So instead, Sheri, Avery and I went on a scavenger hunt to find a Californian wedding dress. again, we came home empty handed. This economy has made stores like Neiman Marcus and Saks phase out their wedding sections. Bummer! I went to a local store, tried on a few and was irritated at my post baby body. Oh well.

That night we went to a Mexican restaurant. It was our last date night that we would have in a while, so we thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you again Dale and Sheri!!!

Day Seven:

Our flight departed at 1:20, so we didn't have time to do much. Basically we cleaned the condo, packed and headed to breakfast. We realized that we didn't let Avery play in the sand, so after eating.....we put her feet into it. She loved it. In September, we will let her play in it more! We had such a fun trip. We flew on Jet Blue home. I love Jet Blue, but hated our Flight Attendants. They were arrogant and rude. I'll still fly with them. I love the exctra leg room and Direct Tv. Avery was pretty fussy on take off but once I was able to nurse her she was out for the landing.

In front of the Del. We'll be getting married on the beach right in front of this hotel!

Loving the sand. :)

I of course had to take a pic of her blues.

Sad to be going home!

Sorry for all of the pictures. I love documenting our fun trips and everyday nonsense. It's fun to go back and read and see how our little girl is changing and to reminice about our wonderful memories. We hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!!