We've Gone Country....

Wow, I have a lot of catching up to do! Sorry for the lack of posts, but we've been in the country for most of the past 9 days!! Our adventure started last Saturday as we made our way to Koeltztown for Leah and Sarah's birthday party. We all had a great time, especially Ava, she seemed super social that evening. I'm always excited to see the creative cakes that my sister in law makes. Each year the kids get to pick what kind of cake they want and she always does a great job! This year Leah's was a High School Musical cake and Sarah's was a Cinderella cake...they looked amazing:)

Sunday we got to spend the entire day at Grandma Belinda's. She is still recovering from knee surgery and the whole family was there. Ava always has a blast playing with her aunts, uncles and cousins...especially Jackson. He is so cute with her and she loves him to pieces.

Rick flew out of St Louis early Monday morning. He had to leave my parent's house at 2:30 am...that's early! Ava and I drove back to Grandma Belinda's again to spend some more time visiting. Ava enjoys exploring Grandma's new house, she has fun "Ava nooks" to play in:) Then we did some more exploring back at Nana and Papa's house. Ava loves cows and gets a thrill out of seeing them so up close.

Tuesday Ava, Nana and myself drove to JC to get mani/pedis, have lunch, shop and the two of them went to the park while I got my hair cut...a very fun filled day!

Wednesday morning Uncle Jason came to visit for a while and then after nap we went to visit Aunt Renee...more exploring for Ava, she loves to figure out new places. For some reason she especially liked the dryer??? That evening we met Aunt Jess and Aunt Renee for dinner at El Jimmador...yummy!

Thursday Ava and I drove to St Louis to meet Rick and make it to yet another Dr's appointment. Ava had her yearly check up with the neurosurgeon, following her spinal cord surgery. Dr Leonard was pleased with everything, which is exactly what I expected him to be...wahoo:) After the appointment we went to Union Station and had lunch by the water, then drove down to the Landing/Riverfront area and took a horse and carriage ride. Ava especially enjoyed the horse, Scooby. Later that night we did some swimming in the hotel pool. Ava is quite the fish, I can't wait for our pool to open!

Friday did not start off as such a beautiful day...lots of rain! Not good conditions for the Zoo or Grant's Farm, which is what we wanted to do. We had heard from a couple of people that the City Museum was fun and since it was indoors, we thought we'd check it out. It was SUPER crowded and suited better for older kids. They had an aquarium and an area called toddler town which we were excited to check out, but very disappointed in both. The aquarium was disgustingly filthy and stinky and toddler town consisted of a slide and some balls. That got old very quick...oh well, lesson learned. From there we headed back to the hotel so Ava could nap. I grabbed a book and went down to the Starbuck's, which was conveniently located in the lobby of our hotel (lucky me)! It was so relaxing. Luckily, about the time that Ava woke up, so did the sunshine! We quickly made our way to the zoo for a couple of hours. I was so excited to see Ava's reaction to all of the animals, and she did not disappoint! I enjoyed the giraffes, Ava's favorite was cat country and I think Rick's was the hippo tank. From there we grabbed some dinner and then were off to the Magic House...WOW! This place is amazing and we ALL had a blast, we will definitely go back for more! A trip to St Louis would not be complete without a visit to Ted Drewe's...yummy! Needless to say, we were all exhausted after this day!

Saturday we packed up and made the drive back to Koeltztown. We stopped by Grandma Belinda's for a bit to wish her a Happy Mother's Day, then off to Nana and Papa's to get ready for the Mother's Day BBQ that evening. This was lots of fun for all of us. Ava ate a mouthful of sand for the first time...lovely, right? After putting Ava to bed for the night, Rick and I enjoyed some drinks and social time out and about in Westphalia. It's always nice to see old friends:)

Sunday morning when Ava woke up, Rick was so nice to grab her and feed her breakfast so that I could sleep a while longer! I was later awakened by a sweet little girl shoving a card in my face. I opened it and it must be the cutest thing ever. It's a recording of Ava saying "Mama", then the song "You Are My Sunshine" plays. I loved it, and so did Ava. I think we've almost worn it out playing it so many times:) We packed up and made our way HOME! After stopping for a tasty lunch at Carabba's, and a Bloody Mary for myself, we were home at last. What a great Mother's Day! I love being a mom, I love being Ava's mom. I have known my entire life that I wanted to be a mommy. I always expected it would be amazingly life changing. I always expected I would fall head over heels in love with my baby. What I didn't expect and no one could ever fully explain, was how powerful that love would be. A mother's love is like no other. I feel so lucky and blessed to get to be the mom of such an amazing little girl. Thank you Ava and Rick for making my Mother's Day special:) I love you both!

Thanks for checking in on us and Happy Belated Mother's Day to ALL! I will post pics soon:)