The Veldmans: 18 months old

Ava turned 18 months old on Thursday! Where have the past 6 months gone?!? Friday evening Grandma B, Great Grandma S, Aunt Virgie, and cousin Sara arrived. Aunt Virgie had a conference in St. Paul on Friday evening and all day Saturday so Ava didn't get to see her until this morning. Everybody else rode along though to see Ava (Nate and I were just an added bonus).

Saturday morning Grandma, Great Grandma, and I went to the Farmer's Market after dropping Aunt Virgie off at her conference. We got there around 7:30, just before it got really busy. I haven't been to the farmer's market all summer. I love all the fresh produce and beautiful flowers. The weather was gorgeous all day long. After we got home all of us (except Great Grandma) headed to Como Zoo to get some pictures taken. We had my mom take Ava's 18 month pictures, and asked her to take a couple of family pictures while we were at it. We quickly learned that it's hard to catch Ava smiling AND sitting still for more than 3 seconds at a time. We did manage to get some cute pictures though. Thanks mom for taking them! I thought that it be fun and make for a cute picture if Ava rode the antique carousel at Como. Well, she was not a fan! She clung to me the whole time, and only smiled when Nate started running around the outside of the carousel to keep up with us. Oh well, maybe next year!

Saturday afternoon I took the Grandmas out looking for garage sales while Ava took a nap. Once Ava was awake we were off to the park. That evening we had a fabulous dinner! Nate worked hard all day smoking some of the most delicious ribs that I've ever had. Everybody went to bed with very full tummies last night!

The IA clan loaded into the minivan this morning and headed home after a game of cards. Ava and I took a nap to recover from the weekend before heading to the gym (we needed to burn off some of the many calories we consumed this weekend). Nate was busy wiping the entire house down with his new Norwex cloth (Aunt Virgie was here for her Norwex conference). Nate is sold on the new cloth. After listening to her talk about the many products that Norwex has to offer, and how they work I too am quite impressed. Having a little one in the house makes me think a little more about all the chemicals that we use to clean, and how effective (or rather ineffective) they are. Anyway, we started to wrap up our day with a short walk before dinner. The weather has been just perfect this weekend...sunny and high 70's.

I'm off again tomorrow and will look forward to cleaning bathrooms and grocery shopping. That's alright though. We had a great weekend and enjoyed the time that we got to spend with my family. The time always goes by far to quickly. Thanks for coming ladies...we love you!