Half Marathon!

Avery might be into Basketball as I said in my last post, but she also likes to Cheer! Here she is getting ready to cheer me on at the Eugene Half Marathon this weekend! We're standing in front of Hayward field where the 2008 Olympic trials for track & field will be held later this summer.
Here I am about to start...and wondering why I'm about to do this! And on 3 hours of sleep no less (Avery really didn't like sleeping in the hotel, but luckily Jon is a saint and drove her around Eugene at 3:30am so I could try to sleep more!).
I made it!! Here's my little Cheerleader wearing my finisher's medal...

2nd steps!!!

As I said in my post last week, I missed Avery's first steps...but I caught her 2nd steps!! I was just trying to record her making a few shots on her new Basketball hoop (Jon's already getting her ready for the WNBA), but then she decided to walk over to another toy. I took this a few days ago, and since then, she has been taking a few steps each day. Not really walking yet, but definitely getting a couple of feet without hanging onto anything...

FIRST STEPS!!!

Avery took her first steps today!!! I was tempting her with the best toy of all...her daddy's cell phone, and she took 3 very purposeful steps towards the phone before she realized what she was doing and then quickly sat down. Of course we didn't have the camera out...but now that walking is probably not that far off, I'm going to keep the camera in one hand at all times!!!

I did want to post some cute shots from the past weekend. We had a beautiful Saturday, so we headed out to the zoo with our friends from the neighborhood, the Brown's. Here we are having lunch on the lawn....


Here are the Brown boys, Doug, Everett, and Sam. Everett was born just 2 weeks after Avery...

Avery was so excited about the giraffe!! I was pretty excited too because we have been to this zoo at least 20 times and I never knew that they had Giraffes or Zebras...

Later in the day we went to a BBQ at our friends Grant and Darcy's house. Don't get confused...the guys have switched babies below. Jon got to hold sweet little Hazel who is about 7 months old and seems light as a feather compared to our big girl!

Avery dancing

Avery obviously got her dancing gene from her dad...

Weather...

Well, they were calling for snow this weekend...but luckily they were so wrong...it turned out to be a beautiful day! Avery and Trot were begging to go outside all day...



Then Avery remembered she's not a big fan of grass...


But her daddy made her smile...

Trip to Michigan

We just returned from a long weekend in Michigan visiting family and friends. It was a great trip aside from Avery getting 2 new teeth and pneumonia!!! Poor girl. I think the combination of those 2 things brought on her new phase...super clingy! So, needless to say, Avery was very cranky all weekend. I think the picture below is the only one I have where she's smiling (thanks to the funny hat the Norvell's gave her!)...

We were sad to have to miss some of our planned visits when Avery wasn't feeling well, but once her antibiotics kicked in, we were able to visit with some friends. Here's Avery with Dana...

Here's Avery with her buddy Jake on his 2nd birthday...

Avery also got to catch up over lunch with her friend Samantha....

We got to spend some time with the Pope's. Here we are with Avery's uncle Nick, Grampa Lee, and Great Grampa Hank...

Grampa tried to help Avery learn to walk...



Uncle Nick got to bond with Avery...

Grandma Connie invited her whole family out for dinner on Sunday. It was so nice to see everyone!

Busy week!

Mindy and I took the girls downtown for lunch last week and enjoyed a quiet ride home as the girls both slept on the way home...


This video is from earlier this week. Avery is getting much better at pushing her walker around already...


Brenna and Andrew came to visit us this weekend! We had lots of fun up until Avery decided to get her first fever and kept us all up all night long!
Avery amazed us by figuring out her shape sorter! OK, she's only figured out the circle so far, but keep in mind she had a 103 degree fever when she figured this out!