You be the judge ....

Avery dressed up and all ready to go somewhere

Now I don't know what the problem is with Mommy and Daddy, but they are absolutely refusing to take me out of the house in this outfit?!!??! Do they even care that it took me over an hour to coordinate all the colors and style just right?!!??! Just how can they deny such a bona fide fashionista such as me!!?!? Maybe someday they will learn ...

Avery spinning for the full effect of the outfit

My 200th Blog Posting!!!

"Say Cheese!!!"

"We did it, we did it, we did it, hurray"!!! Today's blog entry is my 200th posting and I'm glad to say I'm still loving it and I'll be posting another 200/400/600 more!!!

A big thanks to everyone out there for being so interested in all my adventures and making lots and lots of comments on all of my posts so that when I'm older (say like 4 yrs old) I can look back and read all of them over and over and over again!!!

And to help celebrate this HUGE achievement, please sing along with me in this video of me singing a song that more than a few of you might know out there ...

Beach (and Animals) Summer Vacation!!!

I finally had the time to upload pictures and videos of all the fun I had on my summer vacation. Walk through it with me since I saw many puzzling things that I'm still not sure about and have tons of questions that you might be able to help me out with (since Mommy and Daddy are no help at all) ...

Avery and Mommy at the beach for sunset
after a very long car drive from home ...

... and the hotel room at the beach
was sooo much fun to play in ...

... but, first things first, a long planned out
outing at Sea World before any quality beach time!!!

Here's just some of the neat stuff I got to see at Sea world ...

... tons of dolphins doing all sorts of cool tricks ...

... and baby whales that can talk
(they can talk???) ...

... and something called starfish that don't
seem to swim around like any other fish I know ...

... and I'm not sure what kind of sea life
this was, but it looked very unique ...

... and huge colorful whales named Shamu
that perform crazy neat-o tricks ...

... including walking around out of
the water (huh?!?!?) ....

... yep, that Shamu guy/whale is
very talented indeed!!!

And then after tons and tons of fun at Sea World, we went to dinner where somehow Grandpa was there all of the sudden. I have no idea where he could have come from ... did he follow me on my vacation ... or was he hiding in the trunk all this time??? And if he was in the trunk, is Grandma also hiding in there??? This all seems so strange. Is it normal for Grandparents to follow their Grandchildren on vacation??!?!? Oh my ...

Avery and Mommy surprised by a visit from Grandpa

The next day was full out beach time ... or as I like to call it, "Total Fun in The Ultimate Sandbox"!!! Too bad Mommy and Daddy forgot to tell me about "The Scariest Thing in the World" that is right next to the beach, called The Ocean ... sure it seems all lovely and inviting at first with it's playful little waves splashing about and that calm cool mist in the air, but then after it surrounds you and starts to suck you back into those deep never-ending waters, that's just not what I like to call a fun time (maybe when I'm bigger and older, but not right now). Below is a video of my first moments experiencing the beach ...



... and as you can see, I fell in love with that scene until I got just a little bit closer ...

... Daddy helping to introduce Avery to the Ocean ...

... and Avery deciding it's much safer
up high in Daddy's arms!!!

Avery and Mommy starting to play in the sand
(at a safe distance from the Ocean) ...

... then Avery and Daddy digging deeper and deeper ...

... until Avery jumped in and wanted
Daddy to bury her!!!

Below is a video of what is now my favorite thing to do at the beach (except it would be nice to NOT get sand in my mouth every time I do it) ...




The next day we went to a quieter part of the beach called "The Bay" where the Ocean waters seemed a lot more friendlier to little peanuts like me.

Avery and Daddy looking for seashells
(and nice looking seaweed as well)

Avery, Mommy, and Daddy on a
sunset boat ride in the Bay

Even though I was on vacation, I just couldn't let myself get off track from my horse riding training, so Mommy found me a horse where I could log some decent hours on.

Avery practicing her riding

And would you believe the coincidence that my good friends Nick and Katherine were also on a beach vacation at the same time as me?!!?? We all agreed to meet up and play for awhile; and no, Nick was a perfect gentlemen this encounter and nothing became "accidentally" broken. And it seems that both of Nick's Grandma's followed him on his vacation and even one of Katherine's Grandmas as well, so I guess it's not sooo weird to have them tag along.

Avery with her friends Nick and Kathrine

Last photo-op at the beach

With half of our vacation completed, we then traveled North along the coast to a place where monsters use to roam the earth and unfortunately for them got sucked into tar pits (if you remember this blog entry, http://averyclaire.blogspot.com/2010/08/i-survived.html, below is the remains of one of those big guys that were in the picture of the tar pits), but fortunately for us, we get to see them rebuilt as "bone statues".

Avery and Mommy in front of an ancient
woolly mammoth from the tar pits

Avery enjoying the other rebuilt statue animals
(that were also stuck in the tar pits)

Then on our last leg of the trip, we stopped by to see a lot of the family that are lucky enough to live near the beach, one of them being Great Grandma Lucille. Below is a video of me playing with all of her fun breakable and really old toys ...

Avery and Mommy with Great Grandma Lucille

Avery playing with a really old looking
toy kitchen set that is totally amazing!!!

And like every visit, I get to see everyone else that lives around there too over at Great Uncle Rick and Great Auntie Sherry's house where I have tons of fun playing ball with the dogs, acting cute, making old fashioned ice cream, and playing with new toys. Here's a video of my new all time favorite toy right now ... she's my pretty pony Pinky ... thanks Cousin Danielle (FYI, don't worry about me, I'll start practicing right away to be ready for next year).

Thanks Mommy and Daddy for such
a great summer vacation!!!

Oh yes, yes, yes, Nikki's coming back!!!

Avery and her play-friend Nikki

I've been so excited lately that my very good friend Nikki is finally coming back from vacation that I just had to write a new song ... it's called ...

Nikki's Coming Back

Oh Nikki's coming back,
Oh Nikki's coming back,
Hi ho cheerios,
Nikki's coming back!

She's been gone all great long summer,
It's been such a huge big bummer,
Mommy and Daddy just won't do,
Things are going to get so much funner!

But I have this really bad monkey,
I'm a serious hardcore TV junkie,
Turn on, tune in, drop out,
No kidding, I'm a full-out couch flunky!

And I've changed so much since she's seen me,
She won't believe it's really me when she sees me,
ABC's, 123's, Do-Re-Mi, it's all a breeze, ...
Hey this summer, I even earned my first college degree!

Oh Nikki's coming back,
Oh Nikki's coming back,
Hi ho cheerios,
Oh yes, yes, yes, Nikki's coming back!!!




See you next week, Nikki!!!

I survived!!!

FYI, I made it back safe and sound from my summer family vacation ... although, maybe a little bit more nuttier (close time with the family does that to you, I think). I'll be posting tons of pictures, videos, and my usual witty commentary about the trip over the next week ...

Daddy, Avery, and Mommy on their summer vacation
(and yes, the background really is what it looks like ...
a depiction of a family of elephants struggling with
being pulled into a tar pit ... more on that later ...)

Family Vacation ...

Avery ready for the long road trip

Everyone needs to take a break during the summer (even me), so I'll be incommunicado over the next week while I'm building sand castles, swimming in the deep blue sea, and enjoying all of the aquatic life there is to see out at the beach!!! And don't worry, I'll make sure to take tons and tons of pictures to blog about when I get back!!!

Until then, see you later (unless I'm going to see you on my trip) ... here we go!!!

These times are tight ...

It seems that these years of economic downfall have finally trickled down to me!!!

Don't get me wrong ... I love to play with the box that new toys usually arrive in, but this time, there was no new toy, only an empty box?!??

Avery playing with her new "toy" ...

... with Mommy providing the "battery power" ...

... and Avery loving every minute of it

"Go Mommy, GO!!!"

Strict Pool Educational Exercises ...

Daddy helping Avery with her
warm-up exercises

Since Mommy and Daddy are such worrisome parents, they have been forcing me to perform strict pool safety exercises all summer long. Not only is it physically enduring, but also mentally challenging as well ...

This video is of me wall walking the perimeter of the pool. I typically do 5-10 full perimeter revolutions a day.




This video is of me counting to 10. I typically practice counting up to 1000 (so I can keep track of all my wall walks that I do).

Poor Sick Scrappy ...

Avery's painting to Scrappy

It seems that Scrappy was feeling rather sick today, so I tried to cheer her up by painting her a picture that portrayed the downward sequence of earlier events as they suddenly unraveled. Below is a video of me explaining my artistic ideas behind this masterpiece ...



I think I cheered her up, since she seems much much better tonight!!!

Scrappy finally feeling better

Adopted ...

Avery and her newly adopted baby

Now I typically do not like to follow those latest Hollywood fads or anything of that nature, but I just couldn't help myself and talked myself right into adopting a baby!!! I named her Cutie because she is just so cute!!!.

Below is a video of me singing to sleep my little Scandinavian bug-a-boo. Being a parent is sooo easy.

Professional Training ...

Mommy wanted to learn how to professionally swim, so I thought I would help her out and started taking lessons as well. It's a lot of hard work, but also lots and lots of fun. In fact, it's been so much fun that my friend Shannon and her Mommy have now joined us as well.

Avery, Shannon, and the Mommies listening to their instructor

Avery enjoying the free-play chaos

Avery and Shannon taking a well deserved break

Double Trouble in the Hills ...

Avery and Mathew beginning to investigate
all the possibilities

The first day the temperature reached 100 degrees this summer, I loaded up the car and escaped up North deep into the mountains with my friend Mathew to his cabin with some other friends (alright, some of our parents came along as well). And wouldn't you know it, right off the bat I knew Mathew and I were going to have a ton more fun than usual! Here are a number of pics and videos of all the fun we had along the way!

Avery and Mathew taking a relaxing breather on the
hammock after a long drive to the cabin ...

... up next was searching for fun new stuff to explore ...

... then of course there is always many play breaks
that include really good snacks to munch on ...

... and then getting it into really high gear at the park ...

We were having so much fun in the park it felt like we were breaking the law!!! See for yourself in the video below ...

And after a good night's rest, we started the next day out early at the beach ...

Playing knee-high in the water at the lake
(water was too wild to go in any deeper) ...

... plus all the neat indoor toys there to play with as well

We had so much fun building stuff inside, we had to capture it in a video ...



... and the fun just kept going and going and going ...

Avery and Mathew taking turns at "King of the Mountain" ...

... and then racing higher and faster into the thin air ...

... and then jumping through black doughnuts ...

... to finally spinning totally "out of control"!!!

We had such a good time getting totally crazy that sometimes "messiness happens" ... like in this video of us playing "fetch", we end up getting really really dirty ...



... in fact, so dirty that we immediately had to get cleaned up. I even had to help clean up Mathew since, well he's a boy and we all know how much dirtier they usually can get (and yes, Mathew's Mommy at the end of the video was referring to "a floater", if you know what I mean).