Fall Break

Fall Break. What IS "Fall Break", anyway?! It seems like school just started, and the kids already need a break? Geez, Louise.

Well, despite it's obvious uselessness, Fall Break was a lot of fun for our family. Most notably, the girls had a great time playing with their cousins Vanessa and Christian who had come in for a surprise visit from Chicago.

Here's a pic of Ava and Vanessa at the park (...yes Ava has a black eye....and, NO we don't beat her. Do you remember when she broke her little leg on the slide two and a half years ago? Well, she apparently has a knack for barfights with slides. And the slide always wins.)


Sleepover time!

And of course, there was quite a bit of eating out. Between Costa Vida, Paradise Bakery, Rubio's and the food court at the mall, we pretty much covered the whole town. Here's Ella at Paradise Bakery. Seriously, can she get any cuter?

And the week ended with Dave's birthday on Friday. So where did we go to dinner? Famous Dave's of course! Usually, I have objections to eating at restaurants with neon signs of a pig in front. But hey, it was David's day, so he got to choose. And, it was actually pretty darn good. Thanks to the bottle of TUMS I brought along. At this point, I don't leave home without it.

The girls were obsessed with Famous Dave's mascot, Wilbur. He must have been the model for the neon sign out front.

So, there is our week of play-dating, park-going, eat-outing, and birthday partying in a nutshell.

But the best part of my week was this morning. As we were leaving for church, Ava handed me a picture she had drawn of our family.

Our whole family. Ella, Dad, Mom, Ava, Kona...and Dallin. Dallan? Dallen? Whatever. We haven't decided on a spelling yet, and Ava is keenly aware of this... so, she simply writes, "Dall n". With a backwards N. Can you see the blue bundle in my stick-figure arms? That's him. And that's Ava for you. Including everyone, down to every last detail - up to and including the color of their eyes. Including everyone, even they are not born quite yet....and even if we don't quite know how to spell their name.