We are back not only to blog land, but also back as in we just got home from a fun trip to the east coast. What better time to start blogging again than with a blog to recap a really great vacation?!
Here goes...
My brother and his family moved to Raleigh, North Carolina just over two years ago. While we've seen them a handful of times since the move, we have never been to Raleigh to visit them and see their new hometown. We decided to make a big trip out of our visit to see them, and went to Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina as well. Jeff and I both agreed the entire trip, in all regards, exceeded our expectations.
On to the pictures!
A little bit of this...
A little bit of that.
And a lot of this... Color away, kid.
Dinner the first night in Savannah. Loving the three hour time difference!
We walked ALL over Savannah.
So much history. So many squares with trees. So much character and culture! Speaking of character, Claire captured the hearts and attention during her interpretive dance performance in Savannah. See the video below...
Crab legs, shrimp, hush puppies. Jeff's paradise.
Hotel bed sharing at its finest.
One lunch where we enjoyed cheese grits and Jeff had a mahi BLT. Please note Jeff's hair being on point.
We went on a historic horse drawn carriage ride in Charleston and were able to pet all the horses beforehand.
While the toddler sleeps...
The big kid eats. (We all agreed to not tell Claire... shhh...)
Beautiful Charleston!
Hip hip hooray! All the cousins together again!
Durham Bulls AAA game! Love these big girls!
We visited many great museums!
These two.
Buddies!
This front porch swing got me every day.
We had such a great vacation all around and look forward to visiting Bren, Michel, Helen and Rose again next year!
You are an incredible blessing to us. We love you so much and cherish you morning, noon and night. You are just an absolute pleasure to be around and we couldn't imagine life without you and all that you are.
You are very smart, incredibly verbal and so engaging. You are sweet and often sing lullabies and songs to friends, family and your beloved stuffed animals. You are confident and brave. You love making people laugh and have a great sense of humor for being so little. We just love you to pieces, Claire Bear!
It has been 16 days since Avery turned six and boy, has it been a busy 16 days. Milestone after milestone over here at the Simpson homestead!
She lost her first tooth!
Her lower left tooth had been wiggly for a few months, but in true Avery fashion, she was a little unsure about wiggling/touching it too much and had no interest in helping the little guy find its way out. So, the adult tooth coming in pretty much just pushed it out. (Yes, she had two rows of teeth for a few months!)
She lost her tooth at recess (like literally lost it - it came out and she didn't know where it went!). Fortunately, the recess supervisor had everyone in the area stop playing and help look for it. Avery's friend found it and then Avery promptly walked to the nurse's office to put the tooth in a special tooth necklace that she proudly wore for the rest of the day.
The tooth fairy came that night and again, in true Avery fashion, she had no interest in having the tooth fairy come into her room to make the tooth/money exchange, so the tooth pillow stayed with Jeff and me that night. Unfortunately, we both slept pretty heavy, so neither of us saw this mystical fairy in action.
Cartwheels!
After many months of practicing cartwheels all over our house, Avery has finally nailed it! I miraculously got her first "perfect" cartwheel on video late last week and it was a magical moment. Her reaction says it all!
(I should clarify that getting it on video wasn't truly miraculous... See, Avery asks me to take videos of her 496 times a day doing various gymnastics moves, so in all honesty, I thought this was just going to be another cute video clogging up my phone's memory. Instead, we got this great memory on camera!)
She has since gotten better at "landing" the cartwheels and continues doing them wherever she can find room. She also practices handstands on every wall surface of our home and we hope to nail that move (without the support of our dirty, footprinted walls) soon as well!
And to round out the milestones, she learned to ride her bike without training wheels!
She was determined to get those training wheels off yesterday, so Jeff and her spent an hour going all over our culdesac. Their efforts totally paid off and now she's off!
We are so proud of our big girl!!!
FPT
Why smile for the camera (and the 15 adults urging you to say "cheese") when you can pretend sleep?
She's six. SIX! We're talking big kid status over here. Five was a big deal, but I can't shake the feeling that turning six was an even BIGGER deal. Maybe it has to do with the fact that she's now in kindergarten and doing a bunch of big kid after school activities. Maybe it's because she matured a lot recently and now has more big kid tendencies than little kid ones. (Believe me, I know she's still "little," but this is all about perspective...my perspective! And believe me, she's not all big kid -- there's still plenty of little kid stuff going on with her, but I can see the shift happening...and I welcome it with open arms!)
Below is her six year interview, as well as some pictures from her birthday festivities.
Since Avery's birthday was on a Saturday this year, she celebrated on Friday with her kindergarten class.
Her birthday morning - this was just after she saw the streamers and presents. Pure happiness.
One of her gifts was a cheer outfit!
Now that she's six, she can ride the big kid cars on the big kid track. She was stoked, to say the least.
Oh, Claire.
Oh, Claire!!
Danda and Papa spent most of the day with us at Legoland!
That's a big kid over there, if I do say so myself.
We let Avery pick out one thing from Legoland as a gift. Legos for the win!
On Sunday we went to the American Girl store in LA with Danda and GramCin!
She LOVED it.
When we got home from the American Girl store we had a little party with friends and neighbors!
Jeff and I met on a blind date in December 2004 and were married in October 2007. He is the apple of my eye, the hop in my step and the love of my life. In September 2010 we proudly welcomed our first child, daughter Avery Elizabeth and this site was created to share with our friends and family, near and far, Avery's journey through this magical thing called life.
