Happy 2nd Birthday Ava!

Ava turned 2 on June 29th. We had two birthday parties for her. The first one was at Tiffany's house. We all went to St. George for my Dad's 60th surprise birthday party. Before he got there we had pizza and celebrated Ava's birthday. All of my family was there except Annesa's family. We wish she could have made it. Ava is more than obsessed with the color Pink. Sometimes it's hard for me because I am not a pink girl at all! I've learned to accept it though.

My mom picked her up a pinata for her birthday, when she asked me what kind to get I responded anything pink. She came home with this cute unicorn. Ian, Jaren, Jeffry, and Jade having pizza.

Ava and the dollhouse we made for her.

Her pink house cake melted in the St. George heat, not my best work. Better luck next year I guess.

Opening presents... Cari helped her get Cinderella dressed. With two 3 year old girls, she is a pro at playing dolls.

Tiffany made balloon animals for all the kids. She was an amazing hostess.

Pinata time....

After all the kids got a chance at the pinata, we gave my dad a chance at it, since it was his birthday too. As you can see he creamed it! Check out his concentration and flexed muscles!

Ava and I hanging out with some of her pinata candy.

The second birthday party was at the Cabin with Dustin's family. (Unfortunately Dustin couldn't make it to either party). Here is Carson, Auntie Andrea, Ava, Tori, Me and Ian.

This cake was much cuter than her other one, and it tasted amazing too. It is angel food cake stuffed with jello, cool whip, and berries and was brushed with orange juice. Yum!

The kids and I spent the week at the Cabin with Andrea and her kids. There will be more photos to come.

A few things about Ava at 2:

Her favorite color is pink.

She loves stuffed animals.

She likes to play in any type of water.

She calls every Disney Princess Tinkerbell.

She is extremely girly; loves to have her nails painted, and wear lip gloss, bracelets, etc.

Her favorite song is Once There Was a Snowman.

She loves almost all food.

Her favorite drink is chocolate milk.

She loves to jump on the trampolene.

She squeals every time she sees an animal or is excited about something.

We haven't figured out how to tame her curly hair yet.

She loves Betty Spaghetti.

Her pink sandles are her favorite shoes.

She has dracula teeth.

She has attitude problems, hopefully she will get it all out of her system before she is a teenager.

Her favorite movies are Finding Nemo, Kung Fu Panda, and WallE

More presents and cute birthday cards...

Thanks for everyone who made her birthday special, and who hosted her parties. Ava is truly loved by her parents, her brother (sometimes), and the rest of our families.

Goodbye Washington

The kids and I left the Tri-Cities on the 20th of June, I thought we would be in New Mexico by now, but plans change. It looks like we will be spending the summer in Utah, Nevada, and anywhere else we decide to visit. Dustin will be in Washington until the end of August. This whole process is extremely frustrating, but we will get through it. The kids and I haven't seen Dustin for nearly 3 weeks, and he is coming out for a visit tomorrow, we can't wait to see him!! I will blog about what we have been up to the past few weeks as soon as I can.
Back to this post....
I want to remember the things that we liked most about the Tri-Cities, and was able to take some photos of a few the places we liked the most.

The Playground of Dreams
This playground is amazing! Our kids will miss going here.

The Park also has a splash pad, fishing pond, skate park, and it is located on the Columbia River.

Bridges:

There are some amazing bridges in the Tri-Cities. This is the blue bridge.

Here is the cable bridge. The kids always got excited to go over these bridges.

Viera's Bakery:
This bakery has the best doughnuts, and they are huge.

We had to stop and get some of these before we left. I guess it could be a good thing that we won't be living by these doughnuts, so we don't get too fat.

Howard Amon Park:
This is our all time favorite park. It is huge, and has amazing shade trees. It has everything. A playground, rock climbing wall, a huge sandbox, a zipline, a toddler size swimming pool, a walking path along the river, boat docks, great wildlife and swinging park benches.

This day when we went to the park there was a huge paddle boat at the dock. It does tours up and down the Columbia River.

We will also miss the Columbia River, the many fruit trees, easy access to both Portland and Seattle, and most importantly the people. We have met so many wonderful people in the Tri-Cities, and have made some amazing friends. We love how family oriented the town is and how kind everyone is. Thank you to all of those who reached out to us and welcomed us into your homes, you will truly be missed!

What we won't miss is the wind, and our trampolene and BBQ blowing over multiple times. Also we won't miss being that far from family. New Mexico is still about a 9 hour drive, but is much closer than 14-18 hours. This change is full of emotions, excitement, sadness, and mostly anticipation and frustration. I am looking forward to what the future holds for us.