Little Ava Big Texas: April 2021- For the Beauty of the Earth: A Trip to the Tulip Festival

April was pretty slow for me work-wise, so we were able to enjoy the beautiful area we live in with a trip to Silverton!

Audrey finally let me do her hair- I figured out if I sit her on the bathroom counter and let her play with the water in the sink, she'll let me do anything.

Coen playing Nintendo Switch at his friend's birthday party.

Ava had her first day back to school after we got home from Utah. She was SOOOO excited. The day before, she laid out her outfit, had written her plan for packing her lunch (which included skittles) and wrote a post-it note for herself at the end of her bed that said "School today! Get up!"

She has come a long way with wearing masks. A year ago, I couldn't get her to put one on, so she never went anywhere. Now she puts one on without a second thought and is happy to do it if it means she can go to school!

I dropped her off at school with a big lump in my throat, as I watched her jump out of the car, so thrilled to be back to school after 13 months of being away. The pandemic has been so unfair, and its effects wide-reaching, including my little social butterfly who has had a pretty rough year without her school that she so desperately needs.

When she got home from school, she said "I'm never going to say I don't want to go to school ever again!"

We had lots of beautiful weather and went on so many walks to enjoy the sunshine.

Audrey is such a goof. She naps late, so she doesn't go to bed until 9:30 or 10pm, which is really hard since we don't get much break without kids! Here we are just hanging out in the 9 o'clock hour.

I'm not sure how it happens, but Audrey continues to get busier and I cannot step away from her for even a few minutes. She discovered how to push a stool over to the sink, climb up the handle of the stool, and turn on the water. We had to hide all the stools in the house.

Coen had a fundraiser at his preschool and he drew some pictures that we could purchase. This was just a cute little picture of him as an artist.

Coen's preschool teacher sent this to me- he loves his school so much, and I do too! It has been a HUGE blessing to have him go there this year. He goes Mon-Thurs 8:30-12:30. Coen saw me writing a check for his preschool tuition and he asked me, "Why do you have to pay for me to go to preschool? Because she's poor?"

I took my girls to the doctor for their checkups. Ava was completely horrified at having to get down to her undies there and put on a gown. She weighs 62 lbs (is in the 67% for weight) and is only in about the 30% for height. Audrey is basically opposite on her proportions (30% weight and 60% height) and weighs 22 lbs. When we were at the doctors office, every person from both receptionists to the nurses, to the doctor remarked how we looked SO similar! After the doctor appointment we drove to Silverton, which is about 1.5 hours away.

We walked around the town and I thought it was all just so adorable. I loved it!

Here's Coen at one of the covered bridges.

Silverton is right next to Silver Falls State Park, which has 10 huge waterfalls.

This was the cute hotel we stayed in. We found a cafe down the street that we just loved, so we went back the next day for lunch (and Brent got sweet rolls from there for breakfast!).

Of course the kids' favorite part about the hotel was the TV in their room!

The next morning we had tickets for the tulip festival in Woodburn. Thanks Cher, for telling me I had to come see them! It was so sunny the day we went (almost too sunny, to get very good pictures)! The tulips were in something like 90% bloom.

There were a few carnival toys there and we bought some tickets and let the kids do this trampoline ride, which was the most exciting part of the whole day for them, since looking at flowers isn't that exciting for kids.

It was so beautiful everywhere you looked!

We discovered that the main thing you do besides look around say, "Wow this is so pretty!" is take lots of pictures. So sorry about all the photos...

After the tulips, we went to a monastery. I told the kids about monks and they were excited to see a few real life monks walking around! (As was I, not going to lie). The place was beautiful, and I hope to go back next time and hear the monks chant.

That evening we went to a park in town and the kids had a McDonalds picnic. We were pretty sad our hotel in Salem didn't have their pool working, since that was the reason we booked our second night in a different hotel.

We walked across the bridge you can see in the background there.

Audrey went a little crazy, jumping at the hotel.

The next morning we got up and went to Silver Falls State Park. We had been the previous summer, but since Ava wasn't with us we thought she should go! She wasn't too happy about having to hike around and was being a bit grumpy, trudging down to the first waterfall. After she saw how magnificent it was, and even got to walk behind it, she said to me a bit sheepishly, I want to see more waterfalls.

I think we saw 5 waterfalls this day.

Quite a few of them have the path carved behind the waterfall and it's a cool experience to walk behind it and be sprayed by the mist.

Can you see the tiny people on the path?

Snack break on a log.

Audrey kept pointing to the waterfalls and doing her sign for "water." I thought it was pretty smart that she recognized this was the same stuff as what she drinks in her sippy cup.

Coen got tired so Ava gave him a piggy back for a few minutes. We walked over 4 miles here.

This is one of the waterfalls on the north side.

On the way home from Silverton we stopped in Brownsville and ate at a Mexican restaurant. Brent has been wanting to check out that town because it's where they filmed Stand By Me. It was such a fun little vacation! It was just two nights and not far away, but I love seeing the kids be so excited about things and making memories as a family.

We go on lots of walks around our neighborhood- just about every day, and sometimes twice a day!

My little baby growing up! She is always SO excited when I take them to the park. She squeals when she sees the toys!

Coen's teacher wrote this on his evaluation:

The Spring is so beautiful in Eugene. Everything just flowers like crazy! This is the front of Coen's preschool.

My little miss really wants to push the stroller instead of be buckled in it.

Audrey is so crazy about Dumbo! She watches it while holding her Dumbo stuffie. Ava built a little cage for Audre to try to contain her!

Ava and her friend had a drawing session one afternoon.

After being on the phone for hours with our dental insurance and dentist offices, I couldn't get them switched over to our pediatric dentist friend. So we went back to our same old office, but at least had a better experience going at 7am on a Saturday morning. The kids were very good and brave.

I gave my boys haircuts and this time around they turned out good!

Coen's new cut!

Ava loves her new shirt from my mom. She is still obsessed with Harry Potter. I don't think obsessed is a strong enough word to convey it.

We went on a walk at the Delta Ponds with our friends one evening.

It was such a beautiful evening and everything was so pretty. I love how there are SO many gorgeous places to enjoy nature within a few minutes from our house.

Audrey was looking so big, going into our backyard alone.

She even blew me a kiss. But then she came back in about 10 seconds because this girl still is very attached to mommy.

I bought myself some new shoes at Target!

I was helping Ava with her homework and then heard Audrey saying "shh, shh." I looked up to see she was kind of bouncing her baby doll, that she had wrapped in a blanket. This little girl is going to be a good mommy some day!

Coen's preschool teacher lives across the street from us. She and her husband are the sweetest people. Her husband had a stroke and was finally coming home from a care facility after a month, so we decided to make a welcome home sign for him on their driveway and sidewalk.

I discovered that there's another person working remotely for Haynie here in Eugene (although she's connected with the AZ office). She saw my pictures of the tulips on the Haynie page and said she was there the exact same day we were! We met up at a park and talked while our kids played.