First stop: My parent's house. Of course we were thrilled to spend time with Oma, Opa, Uncle Ryan and Kayla... But even more exciting? Getting to meet Jane! Jane and her family have been near and dear to our family for over 20 years. Long story short... Our families met while we were all living in Michigan. Jane and my mom were the only 2 crazy ladies in Michigan who let their children play on the playground in sub-zero temperatures. On one such arctic day, I spotted Jane across the playground with her 5 week old daughter in a stroller. Like a magnet, I attached myself to Jane and the baby, introduced myself... and the rest is history.
Jane was visiting my parents for the long weekend. Matt and I zipped over to my parents house so that Ava and Jane could finally meet each other. We enjoyed seeing you Jane, and we look forward to visiting with you again soon!
Not quite sure what either of us are doing in this next picture, but I thought it was a great shot of Ava. Thanks Jane, for taking the picture.
My parents have a wonderful screened-in porch off the side of their house. Since Ava loves being outside, she really enjoys spending time on the porch. I love sitting out on my parent's porch as well. Screened-in porch = no bugs!
After a really quick trip to my parent's house, we packed up the car again and headed down to see Matt's sister and her family in Bluffton, SC. This was our second trip to Bluffton since having Ava. Our first trip turned out to be quite a cry-fest on Ava's part. We were hoping that Ava would be ready to show her happy side to Aunt Erin, Uncle John and Cousins Jack & Finn this time around.
We were making great time as we blazed down I-95 when all of a sudden, we saw... brake lights! Traffic didn't just slow down, it came to a full-blown stop! Somehow, a car up ahead of us had gone up in flames, which obviously brought traffic to a screeching halt... for 45 minutes. What did we do? Matt took advantage of the situation by feeding Fergie and letting her use the bathroom. I took advantage of the situation by feeding Ava dinner.
The whole incident seemed almost surreal. People were getting out of their cars, throwing footballs, walking dogs, jump roping, making phone calls, etc... on I-95! If you're familiar with I-95, you know how strange it felt for us to put the car in "park" for almost an hour! Fortunately, the driver of the flaming car was able to escape unharmed and traffic quickly began moving again.
We finally made it to The Ussery Household and enjoyed a wonderful, relaxing weekend with family.
Ava is so advanced. She isn't quite 6 months old and she was Skyping with Erin's In-Laws in NYC. :)
A good portion of our weekend was spent at the Hampton Lake pool. This pool is amazing! It is surrounded by palmetto trees, it has a lazy river, waterfall, awesome playground, water features for kids... I love going to Hampton Lake and I'm not even a kid!
This was Ava's first encounter with a swimming pool. SHE LOVED IT! Ava took to the water like a little fish. As long as she was in the water, she was a happy camper.
It's hard to tell in this next picture, but Ava's head was covered with sun screen and her hair looked really nasty. It took some elbow grease to get all of the sun screen off of her head later that day. I'd rather deal with a nappy head than a sunburned scalp!
Here is Ava and Matt enjoying the Lazy River in the pool.
Our nephew, Jack, found out one of the reasons Uncle Matt is so much fun. Take a look below. While Jack enjoyed being launched into the air, Matt was able to get quite a nice arm workout! I'm sure you can imagine this picture was only one of the many, many times Matt threw Jack across the pool.
Ava taking a break from the water and sunbathing with Mimi...
After a long day at the pool, we headed to the May River for a picnic. Could we have enjoyed a more beautiful setting for dinner? I think not. This is the same location Matt and I had our pictures taken a few months back. The same woman that took our pictures in February was able to meet up with us again for an Ussery/Gardner family photo shoot. Hopefully the pictures will be ready to view soon!
Day #2 at the pool:
Me and Ava floating through the Lazy River. At one point, I was holding Ava as seen below and she fell asleep in my arms. It's a hard knock life.
Lazy River again, this time with Jack!
Ava and Poppy enjoying some quality time together...
I am so thankful for the wonderful weekend we were able to spend as a family, with family.
1 comment:
Great post! We had so much fun this weekend with you guys. can't wait for the beach vacation in a few weeks! Thanks for making the haul to see us!
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