Chicago

During the last weekend in March, Nana, Ava and I took a trip to Chicago to visit my parent's families. There were so many firsts! First flight, first on-flight tantrum (really it was around nap time), first class (thanks Nana!), and most importantly, the first time Ava got to meet her great-grandma on my Dad's side, as well as her second cousin Scott.

Here we are getting ready for departure. You would think Ava did this every day she was so good. She was just mesmerized by all the people and waved to quite a few of them. We read a lot of books and played. Then it got to be around nap time and I just had to hold her tight for about 10 minutes as she cried herself to sleep. I actually offered folks earplugs on both flights but the one person who took me up on them said she wanted them for her own kids!
The first night was a little tough just because it was a long day but the next day we were rearing to go. Again, one of Ava's favorite things to do in the hotels is to watch the Disney channel in the morning (esp. since we don't have cable). I swear, it takes me weeks to get those catchy tunes out of my head- "Hot Dog, hot dog, hot diggetty dog...." Oh no, not again!

Later on we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house and Ava's great aunt and second cousins brought a bunch of great toys to play with. Here the boys have built a cardboard brick fortress around Ava.
Did that stop her from busting out? Heck no, man.
Some of the best toys aren't really toys at all...
Playing peekaboo with Grandpa from under the table.
Per special request, the boys brought oodles of different shaped balls for Ava to play with. I'm pretty sure we all got worn out tossing and rolling and bouncing the balls around because she never seemed to want us to stop.
Family picture with Ava's great aunt and uncle Ellen and Steve, and my cousins Scott and Neal.
(Ava's like "What happened to the party?")
"Alright, this is better!"
"Let's boogie!"
Here's Ava with her great aunt Gloria, my cousin Megan and her fiance Jon-Marc.
They gave us a great touch and feel baby animal book which Great Grandma helped us read. Ava liked touching Grandma's hands just as much as she liked reading her book. :)
Here's Ava getting Nana to escort her up and down the hotel halls.

The day before we left, Ava actually figured out how to climb the stairs! Just as grandpa and I were talking about her figuring out one leg and then another, she did it right there. And before we knew it, she went up all fifteen stairs! We've got one determined little girl. Here she is going up one more time before we hit the road.

On the return flight, Ava initiated a long game of peekaboo with the girl sitting behind us before we took off.
Goodbye Chicago...

Gardening

After a long, cold, and very rainy winter the weather has finally turned springlike. The past few weeks have been a joy to get outside and play with the munchkin. We've been enjoying swinging in the hammock and letting Ava play in the yard.

Below Ava is helping me not float away.

While visiting Nana for the memorial tree planting, Gail did a bunch of work in the flower beds trimming dead branches, weeding, etc. Ava and I came outside to help pull up weeds and sample the flavor of the dirt. Mom wasn't impressed with my parenting skills...


After sampling the dirt, we noticed Gail was using the most wonderful contraption for carting compost (and babies!) to the back. Good times ensued.

I don't know what's happening, but I love it!

She looks so studious! :-)

Whatcha know good?

For all y'all Yankees, that means: "What have you been up to?" in Southern speak.
Well, Ava has been all over the place. We've been to Douglas, Atlanta, and South Georgia all in the past month. We've been traveling fools. We stayed with Jeremy's folks for a spell around when the Olympics started. It was so much fun hanging out with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Nathan. We tried catfish and potato salad for the first time.

Nom, nom, nom. Delicious! Definitely a southern girl!

Here's Ava standing up and playing with some sort of gizmo.

Playing in the yard is fun!

Tree Planting Memorial

Folks my Dad worked with in the Forest Service all pitched in and donated enough money to purchase 25 trees for a Trees Atlanta project. They're 10 gallon trees and I didn't realize that they're over a $100 each. (Wow! The Forest Service is awesome! Thanks guys. I know you loved my Dad - and he loved you too.) What an amazing memorial! I couldn't help but get choked up several times because it meant so much and was such an appropriate memorial for my Dad.
So on March 13, our family and as many Forest Service folks that could make it, along with the Trees Atlanta volunteers, as well as some students from the local school all converged on Centennial Elementary School in downtown Atlanta to plant them an amazing grove of trees. There are white oaks, overcupped oaks, persimmons, maples, hickories... more that I can remember! Luckily all these folks were here and we were able to get them all planted in three hours on an early spring morning.

I'm glad so many kids were there. My Dad loved to teach kids about trees. You can bet my tree projects rocked back in school.

Ava and Jeremy listen to instructions.

I place one of many bags of my Dad's compost at the foot of each tree. Now each one's got a little Daddy love in it.

(Jeremy is hijacking the text henceforth.)
Gail had to do most of the heavy lifting and digging for her crew.

Gaby and Nana discussing what to do next.

Bo and Randi went around and sprinkled some of Don's compost on each tree.

Good job Bo Bo!

Growing and Snowing

At the beginning of February we entered two of my father's succulent pots into the Southeastern Flower Show which took place in Atlanta. It was a big ordeal to get the genus and species of each plant properly figured out and identified with a labeling system(although in proper Daddy fashion he had maps of the pots made in a binder which helped immensely). Then the pots had to be groomed before we left which entailed removing any dead leaves and some persistent maple seeds which were tangled into the pots (also Daddy). Then we loaded them up with the help of Mom's neighbor and hauled them carefully to the Cobb Galleria where they were groomed some more before submission.

Well, all the hard work payed off. I'm not sure if Daddy would have planned on entering two plants but I'm glad we did because his were the only two submissions in his category (three or more species of succulents in one container). Therefore, and I can still imagine him laughing at this, we won first and second place! Here's the blue ribbon winner.
I think more people didn't enter this year because the show was uncertain for half the year if they would be able to afford putting it on. Last year there were at least 6 submissions. Even more exciting though was the trophy we were awarded for Best Collection in Show (there were at least 5 or six collections). Apparently there's an awards ceremony later in the spring so we'll let you know when we go how that goes.
Here are some of the judges comments, which surprised me because several of the other blue ribbon winners still had some critiques included.
And here's our little flower! She loved looking at all the plants and kids attending.

Ava's developing a healthy appetite for vegetables these days. She really prefers feeding herself and I love when she accompanies her eating with what sounds like her saying "This is delicious." Nom, nom, nom. She loves butternut squash, zucchini, carrots, potatoes, and here she is trying out the heirloom "Preacher beans", green beans which have been in the Tarver family for four generations.

As most of you know, we had a snowstorm down here a couple weeks ago and we really enjoyed taking Ava out on a hike to take in her first substantial snowfall. Ava even tried eating some snow and seemed intrigued by the feel of it.
The dogs enjoyed it as well.






And here's Ava with her cousin Bo at BBQ on President's day. Nom, nom, nom, more green beans!