The Veldmans: Easter Weekend

We had our first big road trip to Iowa this weekend to visit my family for Easter. It was a huge success, as Ava was a great little traveler. She slept the entire way down to IA, stopping only in Clear Lake to eat and change a diaper. We thought this was great until we arrived at Grandma & Grandpa Beckers at 10:00 and then Ava was up until 2:00 am. Oops! It was ok though, I would have much rather had her up crying at the house than in the car for 5 hours. Saturday she was back on schedule and went down at her usual 10:15 and was up at 3:00 and 6:45. She likes to stay on schedule just like her mommy!

Saturday was a busy day for Ava. She got up and ate, played with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Lisa, and cousins Reece and Zackery for awhile. Then she and I went and picked up Aunt Darlene and cousin Sara and went up to Hopes Bridal so that I could get fitted for a bridesmaid dress. We headed back home to decorate Easter cookies. Ava wasn't really interested so Daddy decorated instead (he decorated some beautiful cookies, it just took him a long time to do one masterpiece at a time). Ava had lots of visitors. She got to meet Karen and Linda in the morning. After we got back from Hopes she got to meet Grandma Great and Great Aunt Lori for the first time. Grandma Schutterle, Virginia, Marilyn, Kristin, Carl, and Matt also came to visit on Sat. You can see in the pictures below that people didn't mind holding her, as she was very seldom put down!

Sunday morning Miss Ava put on her beautiful Easter dress (which lasted the whole day with no blowouts) and went down to see what the Easter bunny brought her. We then headed off to church and came home to look for our Easter baskets that were hidden outside at Grandma and Grandpa's. Everybody came over at noon so that we could have lunch. Then we had our big annual Easter egg hunt put on by Aunt Darlene. Thank you very much Aunt Darlene for another wonderful hunt (too bad the younger kids had to help me find my last egg yet again). That afternoon we headed up to Grandma Great's. Ava had yet another Easter basket up there. We had dinner there and then headed back to Grandma and Grandpa Becker's, as it was time for Ava's dinner. Uncle Rick stopped down to meet Ava that night before headed off to work. By the end of the day Mommy, Daddy, and Ava were exhausted!

We headed back home Monday around 11:00. Once again Ava slept almost all the way to Hollandale where we stopped to see Nana and eat lunch. She enjoyed her time with Nana and even managed to stay awake and look at her for awhile. We got home around 6:00 last evening. Ava was a bit fussy as her schedule was once again all messed up due to the long drive. She was asleep again at 10:00 and up at 3:00 so I'm glad she was able to sleep last night!

I think it will be a pretty low key day today. The weather is supposed to be kind of yucky so I think we'll stay in for the day. We have plenty of stuff to do with things to put away and what not. We hope that you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!