Crazy Family Cali Fun ...

Avery, Mommy, Grandma, and Great Grandma

Last week was crazy busy and lots of fun!!! We all flew out to California to visit Great Grandma and everyone else. Here's just a sampling of all the fun stuff I did out there ...

Avery is lucky enough to have her own
personal stylist that travels with her

Playing Scrabble with Mommy, Auntie Em, and Great Grandma

Great Grandma showing Avery how to cheat
at Scrabble (by using big words out of the newspaper)

And there were so many toys at Great Grandma's house ... even toys I had never even seen or heard of before!!!

Avery playing with her spinning balls ...

... and playing in her huge toybox ...

... and playing on her really old computer ...

... and playing 'hide and seek' ...

... and playing with her wind-up toys ...

... and having tons of fun in the wild backyard!!!

Grandpa was even tons of fun to play around with out there

And all of the young pictures of Mommy were just so informative

Avery and Daddy having loads of fun too

Avery learning how to feed the fishes with
her Great Uncles and Great Auntie

All the friendly dogs that wanted to play as much as I did!!!

Avery and the whole extended family

Avery taking a well deserved break

Storytime with Daddy ...

Avery's favorite thing to do early in the morning

Most of the time, I'm just about ready to jump out of my crib as soon as the sunlight hits my windows just so I can remind Daddy to come and read one of my favorite stories with me. It's oh so peaceful so early in the mornings ... Mommy is still sleeping ... the dogs are all still sleeping ... so, it's just me and my Daddy and all my stories jumping right out of the pages all around me.

Daddy pretends he would rather be sleeping,
but I know the truth

Drawers are so much fun ...

... you never really know just what you'll find!!!

For instance, Mommy always goes into this one drawer for things to wear under her clothes, but I don't think she ever knew that there were things to wear as clothes in that same exact drawer!!! Luckily she has me to show her where fashion is at today ...

Avery just loves playing dress-up ...

... but, what she's exactly dressed up as,
only she knows ...

Compute-off ...

On your mark ... get ready ... get set ... go!

Grandpa had heard how amazingly good I was on the computer, so he jokingly mentioned a challenged, to which I just had to take him up on. I even agreed to let him use TWO computers!!!

The overall objective was to see who would be the quickest to create a better and quicker version of that thing that does that one thing on the computer. Mommy had the stopwatch and Daddy took pictures to document our "photo finish" result.

And guess what!!!! To everyone's surprise (even mine), I beat Grandpa by a hundredth of a second!!!! Some people might say that's too close to call a winner, but I'll take a win that close any day!!!

Photo finish of Avery completing
the challenge before Grandpa

Avery plays dress-up with The Great Pumpkins ...

The Great Pumpkin about to eat the
Not-So-Great Pumpkin

I think I love Halloween!!! Last year was sooo much fun and then this year was even better ... I got to play with knives, pick out my own costume, visit the old neighborhood, and get lots of great candy!!!

The day started out with dressing up the Great Pumpkins into their Halloween outfits ...

Avery and Mommy dressing up the Avery sized pumpkin

Avery and Daddy "cleaning up"
the bigger sized pumpkin

And then it was my turn to get all dressed up ... try and guess what I was this year ...

Well, around the face Avery sort of looks like a bug, right???

And from the back, there are wings and a tail ...
what type of costume could it "be"???

Ha ha ... why Avery's a bumble bee, of course!!!!

And then we went over to a friend's house in our old neighborhood to go "Trick or Treating" ... this was sort of confusing at first, since I thought you're not suppose to take candy from strangers?!!?? But I guess it was alright this time since Mommy and Daddy were around.

'Buzzing Bee' Avery flying around 'Honey Pot' Shannon

We started out the adventure by "Tricking" Daddy into
"Treating" us for a ride ...

... we passed many unusual characters roaming around
the old neighborhood ...

... I'll remember these witches for the rest of my life ...
I think they "Tricked" us rather than "Treating" us!!!

... What a score!!!! ... I love chocolate!!!! ...

Avery showing off her costume to the masses

Avery and Daddy walking back ...
and eating lots and lots of candy!!!

Old MacDonald had a ...

Avery and Shannon touring around
all the farm animals

We had so much fun last weekend!!! I got to see all sorts of farm animals ... even some that I've never heard about before.

Avery and Shannon also picked up Sophia on the ride
(and Sophia's goofy dad)

Avery trying to pet a llama ... whatever that is ...

... awww, look at the cute chicks ...

... and the cute cow and the cute sheep ...

... and the cute duckies and goose ... well, the goose
was just ok looking ... actually, he was sort of even mean ...

... and look how the goat just poops anywhere he wants ...
he must be a load of fun to live with ...

... and best of all was the little tiny horse ...
I wanted to hop up on him, but was only allowed to feed him ...
maybe next time

In search of, The Great Pumpkin ...

Beginning of my Great Pumpkin quest

Although it seems like I was just in the pool the other day (well, actually it was just last weekend), it must now be Fall all the sudden since we loaded up into the car yesterday and ventured out of town to began that quest for that picture perfect Great Pumpkin of the season ...

As we ran into the pumpkin patch, right off the bat I could tell that Mommy did not have the attention to detail that is necessary in order to find that Great Pumpkin. She would run up to any old thing and try to call me over to it, when in reality it would be sooo disformed and sooo discolored that you could tell it had been cast aside many many other times by all the explorers prior to us.

Mommy hopelessly finding the
absolute opposite of "great" pumpkins

And as Mommy was pointing out yet another "so-so" pumpkin, in the distance out of the corner of my eye, I saw her, or rather she saw me ... could this be my Great Pumpkin I have been searching so long for?!!??

Avery pointing out what could possibly be, The Great Pumpkin ...

... and with Mommy's help, Avery runs
through the patch to see if it is true ...

... and yes, yes, it is true!!! The Great Pumpkin has been found!!!
And she's just like me ... petite and cute as a button!!!!

(watch for the next posting with The Great Pumpkin called "Avery plays dress-up with The Great Pumpkin ...")

Avery's First College Party ...

Avery all dressed up for her first college party

Since we moved far far away from the University and don't get to walk down there from home anymore, Mommy and Daddy arranged to have a party on the campus down there!!! My on-again/off-again boyfriend was down there as well and I even made a new best friend ...

Everyone mingling and doing party-like things ...

... this is my new best friend Sophie ... she's only a few months old
and is way bigger than me already!!! She'll be a really good friend
to have in case any bigger kids ever pick on tiny ol' me ...

... and you probably remember Nick,
up to his funny-game tricks as usual ...

... everyone had lots and lots and lots of fun!!!

Party Time ... Excellent!!!!

Who's that dancing and spinning around all crazy like
while wearing kitchen utensils on her head ...

... why it's Avery having lots and lots of fun while
Mommy is out of town, of course!!!

Since Mommy left me and Daddy to fend for ourselves over the weekend, I decided it was time to "cut loose" and do a lot of the things Mommy never lets me do, like ...

... climb and play around on huge gigantic turtles ...

... jump up and down on the stroller ...

... roll in the snake infested grass ...

... try to ride Scout-No ...

... pet animals in cages ...

... eat leftover food from Scout-No's bed ...

... and just party all night (and morning)
long with my fun loving Daddy!!!

Comfy Cozy Closet Space ...

Avery napping in one of her all-time favorite places to nap ...

I'm really starting to just absolutely love my new home ... and there's this one favorite spot of mine that's just so much fun to play all around in and explore. In fact, I spend so much time there that as I fall into my dreams, I'm often whisked back to that very special place of mine.

... in Mommy and Daddy's closet