Crazy Times

It's been a crazy 2 weeks around here with illness. Unfortunately we all had some sort of the flu over that time period. Poor Michael caught it first with a nasty stomach flu, and then Ava got the same thing. Fortunately I only carried a fever for a couple of days and felt tired, but I definitely got the lesser side of it. Michael and Ava were both out of commission for quite a few days. Thank goodness I didn't get it worse.. I was busy taking care of them.

Unfortunately, we had to miss the Iles memorial day picnic... And some other things that we were hoping to do over the last couple of weeks. We knew that the family was sad that we couldn't come, so as a consolation, we are posting video of Ava. It's not the same, but, hey... It's something! We took it a couple of weeks ago, right before all the sickness set in. :) She's a cutie and if I can just brag on my baby for a minute.... she's so smart! She picks things up so fast, I am usually shocked a some of the things I hear her saying when she's playing by herself. The other day she dropped a bowl of snacks and she immediately said, "Aw, Man!" She must have heard us say that at some point. :)
Anyway... she gets a little camera shy when she sees the camera, but I think we got some good stuff on the video.

In other news, Michael and I celebrated 4 years of marriage yesterday! Definitely the best 4 years of my life!!!

Chicago

This past weekend Michael and I went to Chicago. We left Ava behind to stay with here grandma and grandpa (Mary's parents.) I definitely don't think that she minded at all because every time we called to talk to her she was "too busy." We barely got a hi and bye-bye. But, we were glad that she wasn't missing us a ton, because it makes it easier to enjoy being away when we know she's having a blast without us. :)
Michael and I used to go to Chicago pretty often in college since it was only a 3 hour drive from IWU.. It always made for a fun day trip back then.. and even after we got married and lived in Indy, we used to go to Chicago for random weekend trips. I remember being so glad that we could finally go for more than just the day, after we got married. :)
We started off by staying at Michael's sister Amy, and our brother-in-law Jake's house. They are on our way to Chicago, so we had a place to stay for free. We got to see their new house for the first time and it's so, so cute! Michael loved playing their new Nintendo Wii.
When we got to the city the next morning, we went to our favorite pizza place, Gino's East (seriously the best pizza in the entire world) Michael and I could do a commercial for that place, we love it so much! We walked up and down Michigan Avenue, window shopping and people watching. That's always a good time. Then we went on a boat ride out on the Lake, it was chilly, but still very nice.
Saturday evening we went to Michael's cousin, Jon's wedding, who married his college sweetheart Krista. The wedding was just a half hour south of the city. They seem really happy, which is great to see.
Finally, on Sunday we met up with our friends, Sarah and Shawn, who live in Chicago. Sarah was in our wedding. It was great seeing them, even though it was a pretty short visit since we were starting to get anxious to get home to see little Ava.
She definitely survived without us for the weekend. We are still working at getting her off the sugar high and grandma and grandpa's spoiling, though. :)

Natural Bridge, KY

A couple of weeks ago my (Mary's) family met up for a weekend in Natural Bridge, KY. We've been trying to meet somewhere every spring for a mini vacation. Since we are coming from northern and central Ohio as well as my brother and his family coming from Tennessee.... Kentucky and Gatlinburg, seem to be the most convenient locations.
We rented a chalet with plenty of room, which is a good thing since our immediate family has grown to 8 adults and 7 kids.

We had a really fun time hanging out. Unfortunately the weather was pretty rainy, so we didn't get to do as much of the outdoor stuff as we had hoped, but, the kids and the men went fishing one afternoon, so they were glad for that.
Ava had a blast playing with her cousins and we had fun catching up with everyone. Fun times.

Grandma and Grandpa visit

On Sunday, Michael's mom and dad came up for the day. It was a lot of fun. Ava loved the extra attention and enjoyed showing off her skills at the park. She even started saying Me-Maw and P-paw, when we say grandma and grandpa... so cute.

Funny Face

For the last 2 weeks Ava's been acting super crabby. I'm not sure if it had to do with immunizations or teething or something else. It seemed like she was a totally different kid. But recently she's been back to her happy self. Sometimes during the day we look in the mirror and make silly faces together... She loves it and she can really come up with some cute funny faces! Last night she even made her faces for the camera (which definitely surprised me.) So you can enjoy them, too.

My mom was here this past weekend which was fun. Ava enjoyed every minute of it! She loves company, and anyone who will give her attention. My mom helped a lot with Ava and babysat so we could go out on a date. We had fun hanging out together and going to dinner and a movie.

Happy Easter!

Nikos & Ava

Our friends Michael and Ally came to visit this weekend, and they brought their son, Nikos, for his first out of town experience. We were so glad that he did so well at our house! He is a cutie, as you can see. He and Ava are almost a year apart in age, but soon they won't even notice. Hopefully next year at this time they will be running around together, but for now, they just look at each other:) Ava and Nikos even gave each other a goodnight kiss as you can see from the picture! :)
Michael went to high school with Michael and Ally back in Cincinnati. We got married around the same time and have stayed close friends!

We had fun! Thanks for coming to visit us!