Recent Happenings

A trip to the farmstead with friends!  Ava had so much fun seeing all the animals, eating an ice cream cone, and playing with her friends.  For some reason, she was obsessed with helping push Jackson's stroller.  I hope this means she is looking forward to being a big helper!

Ava celebrated her 3rd birthday!  She got a starter violin and mat from her grandma Longmore and Ryan proceeded to teach her how to stand and hold her violin.  This quite amused me.  I had no idea Ryan knew some violin basics.  I was rather impressed.

What a silly (but awfully cute) little monkey!  She recently has gotten back into the habit of sneaking out of her bed.  When Ryan and I went to climb into our bed, this is what we found.  We thought she was so cute, we caved and let her sleep with us.  

Ice cream! We stopped at Russell Stover's for ice cream after a trip to the doctor.  Ava finds going to the doctor pretty traumatic, so I was trying so soften the blow by offering ice cream afterwards.  She got another UTI and also a fungal infection.  Most of you already know, but this has pretty well been the story of her life since she was 4 weeks old.  She has ureter reflux and also some hydronephrosis that makes her prone to these infections. For the most part, it is pretty well controlled with some preventive medication and the last year we had a really good run with out any breakthrough infections.  This time it was better too because she was able to tell me right away that she was hurting, so we were able to catch it before it turned into a bad kidney infection.  In the past, we weren't able to find out until she spiked a high fever by then the infection had already spread.  Also, this time she was potty trained so she didn't have to get a catheter placed.  So much better!  And she quite enjoyed her consolation prize :)

After we got home from the doctor's, we took a nap while waiting for the prescription to get filled.  She woke up from her nap with a burning fever and feeling pretty crummy.  So we spent the afternoon laying on the couch and watching cartoons.  Luckily, the meds kicked in pretty quick and she was feeling better before long. 

The Farmer's Market!  I'm not sure how we managed to live here for 5 years before venturing down to the city market, but it was a fun afternoon!  We enjoyed some good Italian food and picked up some yummy food to take home.  

A trip to the "airplane restaurant."  So out in the middle of nowhere (outside of Paola) ... is this teeny tiny little airport (maybe not even big enough for that distinction) and attached to this little airfield is a little restaurant.  I forget what it's called.  They serve breakfast in the morning and BBQ for lunch.  The pilots fly in, park their little planes, and walk into the restaurant.  Ryan's brother and family had this their bucket list before moving back to Idaho and invited us to join them. Ryan and I thought the BBQ was subpar (we are kind of food snobs), but the kids LOVED watching the planes fly in and out while they ate.  After eating, we were invited to walk out to get a closer look.  Ava enjoyed watching, but she thought the planes were way too loud.