Hoppy Easter 2013

Avery put the "hop" in Hoppy Easter this year and he as the oldest Grandchild lead his o'so willing cousins in bunny hopping on GG & Papas bed.

Bunny Hop time

There were easter eggs and baskets to be found and treats to eat. It is always fun to see these 3 together. It was always a "hopping time". 

Later Papa, gotta find more eggs

Freddie & Avery checking out their eggs

Easter Loot!

Ok enough Easter puns. Happy Easter!

Early Easter

Rather then hopping all over town :) on Easter Avery had an early Easter egg hunt with my parents. The look on his face when he found an egg filled with a treat was pure excitement and bliss.

Found a Blue egg!

Tasting his Easter egg hunt treats

Not so sure about this Peep thing

Nothing in the world could have been better then finding not 1, but 5 large treat filled eggs and and 2 Easter baskets filled with more eggs, cars and a new bear.

Easter Eggs are the greatest!

Some Bunny is one lucky little boy

Trying his candy necklace out

More Easter treats

Some bunny really loves this little boy!

P.S. Every treat Avery tried he took one bite of and moved on, he likes the idea of candy but doesn't actually eat it, except chocolate, he likes chocolate :)

Bunny Pictures 2013

This past Saturday, for the third year in a row Avery got to see the Bunnies at Drummers Garden Center.  Dressed in a spring-ish shirt we went to see the bunnies and get bunny pictures taken. I much prefer Easter Bunny pictures with live bunnies rather then the Easter Bunny pictures of my youth (aka some guy dressed up in a bunny bunny suit).

Hi bunny! Want to come out and play with me?

More Bunnies!

 Avery loves bunnies, and was so excited to see them. After the shortest wait for bunny pictures yet (pays to show up early sometimes) and a few warm up shots Avery showed off his bright smile for the camera. 

I am holding a bunny, but not really smiling!

Hoppy Easter!

I am so glad we do this every year, I love looking back at the past pictures.
Take a look at how much Avery has changed from last year (2012 Bunny Pics) and his first Bunny Pics (2011).

92 and counting

Today is my Grandpa’s 92nd Birthday, so we celebrated.  Avery is very lucky (as am I) that he has such a amazing Great Grandpa, who we get to see all the time. 

Avery and Great Grandpa

 The party wasn’t anything fancy, just family and food. And being the greatest, Great Grandpa there is,  Avery of course got to blow out the candles on his Great Grandpa’s cake.

Avery blowing out Great Papas 11 candles (9+2)

 Happy Birthday Grandpa!

First Day of Spring

Ready to ride

What else do you do on the first day of spring in Minnesota, get all bundled up and go for a skidsteer ride with papa one last time.
Happy Spring, done worry the snow will melt and the grass will turn green, it just wont be today.

The Mankato Library - A Magical Place

Like many kids that grew up in the Mankato area the Mankato public library is one filled with many of my childhood memories. Finally I got to share the magical place that is the Mankato Library with Avery, and no big surprise but he loved it. He started with the fountain, almost every kids favorite. 

Avery checking out the fountain

From there we went into the wonderful children’s book area that is filled with books (of course) and toys and puppets and more books. 

Too busy playing to even take his coat off

Lots of books to read

Dinosaurs!

Avery played with everything is sight, bonding with a large stuffed bear who accompanied him everywhere we went and read every book with him. 

Reading with Gma & new friend bear

More reading with new friend bear

and more reading with new friend bear

 After seeing  the fish and reading lots of books and the library was getting ready to close for the day,

Checking out the fish with Gma

Fishy!

Avery proudly marched to the check out counter with his books he choose to take home and handed them to librarian. 

I would like to check these out please

I got my books!

She checked out his books and he took them back and happily carried them to the car. The library has always been a magical place for me, and it was great to share it with Avery.

2 years, 2 months

Growing up so fast

I don't know it could be possible but I fall more and more in love with Avery everyday. He is the perfect mix of Me and his Daddy, and he means the world to us. Like always he is a silly little boy with lots of energy. He loves to drive anything with wheels, color, do puzzles and read. He loves to sing and talk and be silly. He also has better ipad skills then i do, even though he only gets to play with it for a few minutes every few nights.
It has been fun to see how his play has changed, he now talks to his toys and is great at pretending.

Size wise: He wears a size 5 diaper, 2T pants, 2T-3T shirts, and 3T Pjs and a size 8 shoe.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Avery is a Dr. Seuss fan and just a fan of reading, both make me very happy.

Avery I Am

 Some of Avery Suess favorites have been "The Foot Book" and "Green Eggs and Ham" (he is good buddies with 'Sam")

Home Again

It was a short trip but it was fun. Avery got show off his skiing skills and I got some runs in too. I am sure we will be back in the years to come, I cant wait to see how much he has changed the next time were in Colorado.

Being Silly with Leaf

Keystone Ski Patrol!

 Thanks for all the fun Leaf & Veronica! See you next time!

Gone Skiing - A-Basin

Yesterday  Avery took the day off and stayed in the condo and played with Grandma, Leaf and Veronica. 

Taking a day off to play

Dinner time

But today he was already to hit the slopes again, this time we headed to A-Basin to ride the Molly Hogan. 

How many adults does it take to get a 2 year old dressed

Heading to A-Basin

He did great again, he took 3 runs on the “bunny” hill before he wanted to ride the big lift. 

Skiing with Leaf at AB

But he was just too tired and wanted to be done skiing, so he went inside the chalet with Grandma to play while the rest of us took a few more runs. 

Reading in the chalet is fun too

Avery's new truck, that Grandma had to buy him

Grandma, Avery and Papa

 Avery is just a ski till he drops kind of kid because again as we were leaving Avery fell asleep about 500 yards from the area. 

Out cold

But that quick little cat nap on the ride back to the condo was the only nap he would take. 

Because of the weather coming into Denver we decided to pack up and get on the road in hopes of a better drive. 

Heading home

Gone Skiing - Keystone

The main reason for our trip to Colorado is to see Uncle Leaf, and Veronica (and of course to get some skiing in). Having only started skiing in December this was Avery’s first ski trip to Colorado. Day 1:  After a good night’s rest and Avery started off his day having Uncle Leaf put his boots on. 

Leaf putting Avery's boots on

Then we loaded up and headed to Keystone, for Avery’s first Mountain skiing experience. Before we even got to the skiing Avery was having fun adventures. First to get from the parking lot to the base area Keystone has little red wagons to haul, gear and kids, Avery thought this was the greatest thing ever!  

Little Red Wagon at Keystone

The next adventure was getting to the top of the mountain,  Keystone  like many resorts has a Gondola (which was great because this meant that Grandma would come to the top too). Avery was completely amazed by the Gondola, he had his face stuck to the glass, with his eyes wide open the entire time. 

Here we go

Glued to the glass in the Gondola

After all that excitement it was finally time to ski. We headed to a beginner area on the top of mountain, where Avery showed off his skills for Leaf, Veronica, grandma and Papa. 

Skiing with Leaf

The fun didn’t stop at the bottom of the run, rather then a ski lift (Avery’s favorite part of skiing) they was a covered magic carpet (basically a carpeted conveyor belt) Avery jumped on and did great, (better then some other older adult beginners skiers). 

Riding the Magic Carpet

Almost to the top

After 6 or so runs it was time for a break , and another Gondola ride before it time to head back to the condo for nap time. 

Heading in for a break with Leaf and Papa

Mama & Avery in the Gondola

Back at the base of the mountain Avery got another ride in a wagon back to the parking lot. 

Wagon train

 Avery maybe made it 500 years out of the Keystone parking lot before he was out cold.

Sleepy little skier

 Avery's first day of mountain skiing was a huge success, and he was very excited to share all his adventures with his daddy via Skype. 

Skype-ing with Daddy

Then after a little more goofing off with Leaf and Veronica  and a bath it was bed time (for all of us) so that we can be rested for Day 2.

Look at all the hands