7 days and counting.....

In 7 days we will be leaving this:

and this:

 

to go see this:

and this:

and this:

and watch Al do this:

and this:

but HOPEFULLY will not see any of this:

we will miss this:

In 7 days we will finally be out of this lovely winter wonderland and head south. Al has been looking forward to this for months (I have too, but he's crazy ready to go!). He checks EVERYDAY to see what the weather looks like and to see if anyone is fishing on this webcam: Port A webcam. 

We have the trailer at the house now so that we can get everything packed and will be out of here next Saturday. There is so much to do to get ready, but we can't wait!

Ava Marie

Craig had to go to Des Moines tonight, and Sarah had to work at 7:00, so we got to watch Ava tonight until tomorrow morning.  I will let you know how the overnight goes. It's been way too many years since we have had to get up in the middle of the night with a little one. But her mom says that she will sleep all night. We will see!

We love her to death, and are glad we get to watch her, but we also now remember why you have babies when you are young. You really get used to just doing your own thing every night, especially when the kids are all out of the house, but with a little one visiting that does not happen! As I'm writing this at 10:00, she's finally asleep, but she was a bit grumpy tonight. She had an ear infection this week, and now has a bit of a cough and a snotty nose, so she's not the normal happy baby. You really do forget what all that is like after your kids are grown.  But the best part of the night was that we had to call a friend to figure out how to set the stupid  pack-n-play up! I tried it first, then when I couldn't do it, Al decided that I just didn't know what I was doing. After 10 minutes I could hear him talking in the other room, he had called for help!

She's sitting on her own now, and grabbing everything she can. She grabbed a big handful of Tai's hair (ok, maybe not much hair because he's mostly hairless, but you get the idea) and he wasn't too happy. He doesn't like her much anyway, because she takes my attention from him. He's my baby and maybe just a tad bit spoiled you think? Ava really likes both of the dogs. She just giggles when she sees them.

Grandpa is teaching her early to love VW's and fishing. Hopefully we will still have the same VW that all our kids first learned to drive when she is ready, you think?  Her mom really really liked her experience learning to drive in that lovely yellow bug! (right Sarah?)

I think she liked the fish better than the bugs! (Al's getting ready to go to Texas and she was helping him to identify all the fun fish he's going to catch in a few weeks!)