The Fourth

We had a fantastic 4th of July with my parents this year. Gotta say, I'm totally a fan of four day weekends. Let's have some of those more often, K? K.

We had a fun day together and then headed to the beach around 3 with lots of snacks and dinner.

Water fight with GramGrampa ("GramGrampa is how Ava refers to Grandma and Grandpa Brown. It's awesome because it reflects how my parents are each other's besties and are always together.)

Me and my boo:

My kind of sunset:

We met up with some more friends while we were there so Ava had lots of entertainment after it was too cold to be in the water but before the fireworks started. 

 Some of Ava's friends. They were all decked out in facepaint and glowsticks. Good thing other parents were prepared with festive things to occupy the children.....

My sassy kid:

Fireworks in St Joe are lit from a pier so you can hang out on any of the surrounding beaches and watch them. So that was the plan. But we left before they really started because they didn't really start until 11 and my kid was a zombie. But we had fun, nonetheless!

Armstrong Family Reunion 2013

I totally read back through my blog the other day and realized that I am a horrible blogger now-a-days. Horrible. So maybe I should be better. I'll try but I can't make any promises.

ANYHOODLE, we totally had a little family get-together with Danny's side of the family a couple of weeks ago. People flew in and drove in from all over and we got our camping on. Yes. Camping. 25 weeks pregnant. Thankfully my SIL, Mandy, was 27 weeks pregnant at the time so we were all, "solidarity, sister" and, "yeah, we'll go on a hike....for like 3 minutes." I really would not have made it through without her. She is the best.

So once everyone got to our house, we headed up north to Sleeping Bear Dunes and stayed for 3 nights and then went to the Great Wold Lodge and stayed for one more night and then called it good. Ava was in heaven. She's been asking to go camping for quite some time and the fact that she got to go with her cousins alllllllmost made her head explode. Especially Lydie. Ava and Lydie arelikethis. It was really fun to watch but also weird because she had no time for me.

Sleeping Bear, aside from the mosquitos, was beautiful. Lake Michigan is so clear and blue and absolutely freezing up there. And the dunes. Man. I called them dune cliffs. Huge mounds of sand. So, without further ado, here are some pictures (thanks, Mandy!! My husband thinks I don't need a good camera.....or a camera at all.... and maybe these will help him realize that I do! Maybe.)

Regard:

On a huge dune:

 How cute are they??

Allll the Armstrong cousins:

 trying to stay away from the mosquitos (notice the tutu):

sandcastles!

Inseparable the entire time:

Heh heh. I love this one. Nana and Ava:

Burying Ava:

More cute husband:

Lydie and Ava. Heart melty.

Singing with her cousins:

Yeeeeeah. If she stays this beautiful, we're in trouble. Don't mind the s'mores all over her face.

Yes. Pregnant. Wicked sunburn lines. Embracing it.

Washing the "shampoo" our of her hair (handfuls of sand served as a the shampoo):

This is TJ. She is the youngest right now and she is adorable. In her free time she enjoys eating, being sassy, keeping up with the older kids, and yoga. 

The pedicures my sweet broham-in-law treated us ladies to after we got back to civilization. Don't mind the bellies. 

So grateful for my bed and my house and pedicures. And famiry. Heh heh.

Missing Shannon

We got to kidnap my little sister from my parents for a few days over Christmas break. It was wonderful. We just loooooove our Shannon. Ava likes to pretend she's Shannon a lot and she tells me all the time that she misses her.

I know, kid. Me too.

Summer fun: Part 2 of 3

Next up? RaRa and Jay (Ava to English translation: Reilly and John).

You know what's lame? I have no pictures of these happenings. I think all pictures were taken/hoarded by Reilly. What the.....? Anyway, one of my best friends moved from SLC back to Ohio so she and her trip companion (her little brother) stopped by for a few days to visit. Now, the first time Ava and Reilly met (after Ava discovered that she was, in fact, a human being), Ava was pretty much completely freaked out by Reilly. She cried if I left her in a room alone with her. I attribute it to the fact that I am pretty fair skinned and blond and Reilly is, well, Esmerelda. Thankfully, the fear wore off and Ava was all about RaRa when last we saw her in Utah.

See? Friends. 

Well, RaRa arrived at our house this summer with lots of gifts, most of them for Ava. Any vestiges of Ava's extreme Reillyphobia were completely erased by the total spoiling Reilly did to my child. Ava still loves her "RaRa" shirts the best.


Next came Matt and Mandy and their little ones. Matt is Danny's brother and they are ridiculous totally awesome when they are together. To be fair though, I'm pretty sure Mandy and I are equally ridiculous when we are together, but in a way cooler, less dorky way.


They have 4 girls. More importantly to Ava, they have a Lydie. Ava looooves Lydie. It's hard not to love Lydie. Ava and Lydie were kind of inseparable the whole time they were here. I'm really happy Ava has fantastic cousins on both sides.

Lydie and Ava on the beach:

This is the littlest Armstrong. She tried to crawl, head first, into the lake every chance she got (read: she is awesome).

All the Armstrong grandbabies:

Sadie and Ava in their natural state. So fancy.

Sparklers (they were here over the 4th):

Ava was really upset that everyone was leaving so she collapsed onto the ground. Naturally.

Bye, cousin friends!

Our Summer: part 1 of 3

Well? It is time.

Time to stop procrastinating and actually blog about our summer. Not for your sake because, let's be honest, you won't feel bugged if this post does not exist. No, no, this is for me. And posterity or something.

Anyway, we had a wonderful summer. In my head, I was all, "get all the house things done before hotel d'Armstrong opens at the end of June!!!!" Reality laughed at me and tossed her hair that smelled of beach days and summer frolicking and I gave in. How can I spend my days inside doing boring house stuff when the sun is so sunny and the sand is so sandy?? So. Hotel D'Armstrong is still a work in progress but I think our guests enjoyed their visits all the same.

First up, Tyler (of the big brother variety) and Shannon (of the genus littlest sisterest) came for a quick visit and dropped off my piano.

Ava jumped on Shannon upon arrival:

And warmed up to Tyler in .7 seconds:

We beached around and made and ate a lot of really good food and then we went to a WWII reenactment.

A flamethrower demonstration. We could feel the heat from where we were standing.

Annnnnd Ava's reaction:

It was a too-short visit but I was just glad to get a little bit of sibling time.

Fathering

Feeling so loved. I have an amazing father who makes me feel all melty and loved and a husband who makes our daughter feel the same way. This life of ours is a good one.

Summertime has been kicked off. Officially.

We went to Ohio for Memorial Day weekend. Danny and I got to go to a wedding for a good friend of mine from high school while Ava played with cousins and "gampa". It was good to see old friends and dance saucily with my husband. It was kind of weird though - dancing with good friends from high school with not a care in the world totally took me back and it was suddenly so strange that I was a mom. Total Twilight Zone moment. I mentioned it to one of my friends and she laughed and said, "it's still weird for me that you're a mom too!"

C'est la vie.

Ava played so hard while we were there and it took her a good 2 days to recover when we got home. Is it just me or is that how fun family time should be? She didn't want to miss a second.

The "baby wee" - dude. pushing a kid in a swing is like, SO HARD, when it's 90 degrees outside with 95% humidity.

Listen to me now and hear me later.

Ganging up on Aunt Shannon (she will kill me for posting these pictures on the internets. heh heh.)

Aunt Shannon is so mean. Poor E.

Snuggling by the homemade root beer. Nice work, Fasha.

Watching Little Mermaid

I love this picture. Wish it wasn't so blurry. Uncles are so fun.

I can't decide whether or not Ty is photobombing this one. Methinks kind of.

Famiry

Shannon came to visit for her spring break last week. It's always amazing when Shannon is here - it's like having a cuter, awesomer, more efficient clone of me running around doing good deeds and saying witty things. I came downstairs after showering (by myself!) one morning and my entire 1st floor was clean. And then we spent the day giggling and eating too much chocolate. Naturally, her visit included a trip to the beach. I have the best sister ever.

Ava was in heaven alllll week.

Notice the cute little underwear? No more diapers for this girl...although I kind of miss the saggy diaper bum.

Practicing her letters, "o" "o" "a" "e" and "o".

"Ava, can you smile for mommy?"

This summer is going to be magical.

The only bad thing about a Shannon visit is the Shannon-hangover we all have afterward.