Vacation Pictures

Sorry for so many posts, but I decided to post the pictures by the different parts of our vacation. We just got home about 11pm last night. Our flight out there was much easier than our flight home. One of Ainsley's top teeth popped through yesterday and the three others up top are close. So she was a bit grumpy and rightfully so. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of Ainsley from our trip and then I posted more below. I'm waiting to get copies of my mom's pictures, so I might post some more later this week when I get those.

Rocky Creek Ranch

The first part of our vacation was spent at Rocky Creek Ranch outside of Statesville. We kept ourselves busy swimming, canoeing, fishing, horseback riding, and shooting guns. Ainsley met lots of new family members including 3 of my cousins, 5 of her second cousins and a great aunt she had never met before.


























I couldn't resist posting the next two pictures.

Anne shot Osama right in the middle of the forehead.

















And my mom shooting a machine gun is a site I never thought I'd see. She got him in the elbow.

The Mountains

The second leg of our vacation took us to my aunt's house in Boone for a couple of nights. We didn't have nearly enough time to do everything, but we hit a few major highlights including Blowing Rock, the Mast General Store and Grandfather Mountain. I also had to take the time to enjoy two of my favorite things about North Carolina ...Cheerwine and Mellow Mushroom (I've read that Mellow Mushroom has finally made it to Texas, but no where near my house of course). Ainsley also had two firsts while in Boone, bruise #1 and bruise #2, both on her forward, but from two separate incidents.

Old Friends and New Friends

The last stop on our vacation was one night in Charlotte. We didn't have a lot of time, so we were happy to sandwich in visits with old friends and to make new friends for Ainsley. We spent the night with our friends Shannon and Reagan. They introduced us to their neighborhood, Noda, and their favorite place Alexander Michaels. Saturday my friend Sarah from college drove up with her daughter Eleanor and we went to lunch. Eleanor and Ainsley got a long great and Eleanor even tried to teach Ainsley about sharing by introducing her to fruit flavored Cheerios and graham crackers. Thank you to everyone for carting us around while in Charlotte! Hopefully next time we visit we will be able to stay in town longer.

9 Months!

She's 9 months old! It's crazy to look at how much she has changed in the last month. She went from barely being able to crawl to pulling up on things, letting go with one hand (sometimes both, but not for long), and slowly cruising around toys and back and forth along the couch. We've gone from 2 teeth to 3 with 5 more ...yes 5...about to pop through (1 more on the bottom and 4 on top)! She's still on the light but long side weighing in at 16 lb 12 oz and 28 inches long.

I got smart with her 9 month sign this time and laminated it before taking pictures. It lasted much longer and she liked it almost as much as she likes her cuppy.

Cuppy Love

Ainsley received a cup that says, "Smile! Jesus Loves You" at the church nursery several months ago. I've kept it on the diaper table for her to hold onto while I change her diaper on days when she's wiggly. Yesterday morning after changing her diaper, she would not give me the cup back and she's been carrying it around for two days now. We took it to our friend's house yesterday and she even got in a fight over it. Presley tried to take it away from her and they both started screaming. The look on her face was priceless. She did not want to lose her cup. She keeps carrying it into the kitchen and it makes the funniest noise as she makes her away across the hardwood floor. I wonder how long her obsession over a cup I'm now calling "cuppy" will last?

Pool Party!

Well...sort of. We went to our friend's house yesterday and there was an inflatable pool in the backyard. Ainsley lasted just a few minutes. I'm not sure if it was because it was cool in the shade or because there were three big girls jumping around her, but she didn't last too long. I'm sure when we go to swim lessons in July she will find she actually loves the pool. I love the second picture, its just a shame the sunlight through the fence hit her right between the eyes!

Miss Maria and Jadon Come to Babysit

Ainsley has been sick the last couple of days and was running a fever at daycare yesterday afternoon, so she had to stay home today. This is one of my busiest weeks at work getting ready for the summer and Dustin had things going on at work too. So Maria and Jadon came to our rescue and agreed to babysit Ainsley. Lucky for them, other than a snotty nose, Ainsley was feeling better today and didn't require being held all day. Jadon also got some experience with a baby which is good because we are all hoping he will have one around next year sometime! Maria and I thought Jadon and Ainsley would share a birthday as I was going to be induced on his birthday, but she came a day earlier. So they are almost exactly 3 years apart in age. Here is a picture of the two of them just before they left today.

Thank you so much for coming to take care of Ainsley today!!

Sugar and Spice and Puppy Dog Tails

Little girls can like puppies too right? I've always complained when we look at baby clothes that the boys get all the cute puppy stuff. I rarely see anything truly cute with dogs on it for a little girl...until we found this little outfit at Gymboree. Ainsley loves her puppies and Ainsley's puppies love her, or at least they have learned to tolerate her.

Up, Up and Away

Well, up at least. Thankfully not away just yet. She hasn't perfected it yet, but she's doing great. She even managed to get into Charlie and Gabe's toy box and pop a dog bone in her mouth (no picture included...sorry to disappoint). She also can pull up on her cool new toy from her Great Aunt Patsy!























In addition to pulling up, we worked on finger foods over the weekend. Please note the use of her left hand...perhaps she will take after me in at least one way (honestly, I know this means nothing yet). We also attempted to give her both broccoli and black beans...she wasn't impressed at all.





















Also...check out Ainsley's new Shutterfly link. Shutterfly has a cool new feature. Essentially they are offering blogging capabilities. Obviously we are all set up here and I don't want to move her blog, but the new feature lets me at least post her photo albums in cool way. I'll post some new pictures in a couple of weeks when we wrap up her 8th month.