Labor Day Weekend Campout

Over Labor Day Weekend we went out to Laird Park with Andy's parents and sister, Crystal and Family. We had a wonderful time together. Much cooler than our campout 2 weeks ago. We stayed pretty busy while out. Who has time to relax when you have a 4 1/2 month old, (2) 3 year olds, and a 5 1/2 year old?

Getting ready to head out camping on Friday night.

 

 

Saturday morning, Papa took the kids for a short ride.

 

Ava playing and being cute.

 

The kids and Andy went swimming in the reservoir. I heard the water was freezing! Noah got in long enough to swim to Andy and swim back to shore. Eric and Sophia LOVED it!

 

The swimmers return to camp.

 

Noah LOVED playing with Eric's monster trucks!

 

The kids LOVED playing and climbing all over the 4-wheeler even if they weren't going for rides!

 

We had a great campfire on Saturday night, with s'mores and visiting. Andy was tired so he went to bed early.

The story behind the pictures. There was a rope sitting on the table, and Sophia asked what it was for. Papa told her it was for tying up little girls. Well she belived him and wanted to get tied up. Papa left camp for a little bit and Sophia was ready to be tied up, so Andy tied her up. She LOVED being up in the tree. And even though the rope was digging into places it shouldn't have been, she didn't want to get down. Finally Crystal had to make her get down.

 

Andy, Noah, and Sophia in the hammock!

 

Andy, I, Noah, and Sophia, walked the loop. Ava rode around obviously. For the first 1/4 of the walk, Noah and Soph took turns riding on Andy's shoulders. Finally they were done with that and both decided they could walk. They kept up with Andy and I really well. We had some pretty interesting conversations with the Noah and Sophia while walking, like the rectangular trees, and "water gators" (water skippers).We had a great time.

 

Once we got back to camp we had hotdogs for lunch, the Tibbals family came to join us and brought their giant great dane puppy winston, who is the cutest dog I have ever seen. Now that means a lot coming from me, because I don't like dogs at all. We had char sui pork for sunday night dinner and had a great time around the campfire eating s'mores and visiting.

A great time was had by all!! Except for Ava who was tired all weekend because she wouldn't sleep longer than 1/2 an hour at a time.

ENT visit

We went up to Spokane for a visit to the ENT dr. It was a pretty uneventful. I was telling the dr. about her cough and wheeze, and then the pulmonologists comment about her cough sounding like she has laryngomalacia. In order to rule that out, he put a camera down her nose to look at her throat. Ava HATED it! She was one ticked off girl when we were done. Good news is, she doesn't have laryngomalacia. So back to square one...why does she cough? why does she wheeze?

Bumbo and A New Bike

Ava helping in the kitchen to make dinner. She isn't a big fan of the bumbo chair like Noah was, but the sooner she sits the sooner we give the bumbo chair to someone else.

 

We got Noah a Balance bike because he is too big for his little tricycle. He isn't a big fan of it yet, because he hasn't figured it out yet. I have a pretty cautious boy, but he will get there. He just needs a little kid his age to show him how its done.

 

4 month WBE

We had Ava's well baby exam today. She weighs 12 lbs 14 oz. (30 %tile) and was 23 1/2 inches long (25 %tile). We had a good visit. The Dr and I talked a lot about her cough and wheezing. And also about the pulmonologist feeling of laryngomalacia. She felt a trip up to an Pediatric ENT would clear that up. We didn't come to any conclusion or any plan for her cough and wheeze. Just wait it out and see if it goes away. Of course kids will never perform symptoms at the dr office, when you need them to, so I always wonder if people think I am making up her symptoms. I even second guess myself, until she does it again.

Camping at Boyer Park

We went to Boyer Park down by Lower Granite Damn for a weekend campout with Andy's parents, sister, and brother. We had a great time! The mornings were the perfect temperature, the afternoons were hot and horrible and it was perfect again once the sun went over the hill. There weren't many trees in the section of the camp we were staying at, so we enjoyed the afternoons in the air conditioning of Tom and Denise' camper.

First thing in the morning when we were not too hot!!

 

Keith brought his boat down to the river and we really enjoyed playing in it. The water was breathtakingly cold at first but once you got in it was wonderful. I was brave and dove off the front of the boat which is something I don't EVER do. I am one of those to slowly inches he way in and then dives in, once I am acclimated to the water. I was the first to go tubing, it was great fun, but the water hitting the gluteus maximus was painful and caused pain for many days following. After an hour I had to go back to feed the baby at camp, with Denise. Everyone else went out on the boat and Andy took Eric and Sophia out for rides in the innertube.

 

Noah and Sophia taking a nap together in the AC.

Noah was blowing the fire because it was "hot." This picture doesn't come close to capturing his face, but it will do.

We had a great time camping! Thankfully we had the AC so we didn't melt during the hottest parts of the day. By the time sunday morning came along, we ate breakfast and packed up as fast as we could so we didn't have to endure anymore sweltering heat. Next time we need to go earlier in the year, when its not so hot!!

Smiles

Ava is a very smiley happy baby except when the camera is in her face. It takes a lot of work to get her to smile for the camera. But is is oh so worth it when she does!!

4 months old

Ava is now 4 months old. She is such a wonderful and fun little person!! This month she started rolling from her belly to her back. She only does this occasionally because she knows if she starts to cry, on her belly someone will pick her up. She squeals with when she is happy or playing, and is very ticklish on her torso. When she is tickled she scrunches up her face, curls up her body, and kind of grunts, like the early stages of giggling, I guess. It is so cute! She went swimming in a pool for the first time. Ava is fascinated with Noah, she loves to watch him play. Not a lot will distract her from eating, but Noah talking will. She will find his face everytime. It's a little annoying to me!! We haven't had her 4 month appt yet, when we do I will tell you her weight and length.

 

Photo Shoot for fun

It dawned on me that I haven't taken very many pictures of Ava this month, so I thought I needed some more for her 1 year scrapbook. We had fun taking pictures right before bed and she totally cooperated which was a shoker.

Ava loves to look at her hands! She hasn't found her feet yet, but I am sure she will eventually find those too.


When Ava is laying on her back, she is constantly doing crunches in order to sit up.

She is such a happy and healthy girl!!

Swimming with Friends

We love having friends with pools!! My friend Joni has a grandma with a pool. She loves to have people swim in her pool, and we LOVE to play in her pool. This year Noah was a big fan of the pool. He swam around by himself with the waterwings and a noodle and had a great time. Ava also did pretty good with her first time in the pool. She never did cry which is a good start to a lifetime love of the swimming pool. Ava was definitely tired after her exertions in the pool.

Follow-up with the Pulmonologist

We drove up to Spokane today to have Ava's follow-up appt with the pulmonologist. It was a disaster. Not because anything was wrong with her, but because it was long (1 1/2 hours is way too long to be sitting cooped up in a dr office with a 3 year old at dinner time). And we only saw the dr for 45 minutes. Thankfully the nurse brought in goldfish crackers for Noah!! Pretty much all of her issues from the pnuemonia are gone. The only problem left is her wheeze and cough, which haven't gone away since the pneumonia. Which I am sure we will follow-up on. The dr said her cough sounds like one a baby with laryngomalacia would have, which is a softening of the cartilage in the larynx. I hope that isn't the case.

After we sat in the dr off for a long time, the kids and I went to dinner with Andy's cousin, Pam, her husband Cody, and their little boy Joel to Tomato Street. We had a nice dinner and then the kids and I went shopping. They were both troopers. We didn't leave Spokane until 8:30pm, so we were all tired and ready for bed when we got home.