Patriotic Cousins

Sophie, Ava and Annissa at the 4th of July parade in Murray.

Wardrobe Independence - The Sequel

Prior to Ava's first 4th of July holiday, her mischievous friend Lily Mae had tried convincing Ava to wear a silly outfit. For Christian's first Independence Day, Lily Mae put her cousin Lyle (pictured below) up to the same shenanigans.

At first, Christian was happy to oblige Lyle by trying on several ridiculous (albeit patriotic) headpieces...

...including this silly little number which Ava had rejected so many years ago.

Like his big sister, however, Christian was too smart to fall for Lily and Lyle's froggy tricks. So Christian cowboyed up and decided to wear this ensemble for the 4th of July instead.

Lyle's going to have to try harder if he wants to play Christian for a fool. Besides, this wasn't his first rodeo (okay, so maybe it was). Ava was dolled up for the 4th of July as well, but was not in the same good spirits has her little brother.

Sometimes it's tough to be three.

Who Needs Carnival Rides When You've Got a Lollipop

We broke tradition slightly this year and went to the Provo parade on the 4th of July rather than the Murray parade. The floats were throwing tons of candy to the kids as they passed by. Unfortunately, we arrived a bit late and were therefore outside of candy throwing range. So, Larry's brother Jamison took Ava and wormed his way through the masses to get Ava a front row seat and all the candy a kid could possibly want. However, as soon as she got this lollipop she was content to return to the safety of the sidewalk.

Larry's brother Danny and (Danny's then girlfriend/now fiancé) Patricia came down from BYU-Idaho to attend the 4th of July festivities. Here's the happy couple practicing for their engagement pictures.

Larry's aunt and uncle from Washington D.C. were also in town to help move in their daughter Katrin (Larry's cousin), who is starting her freshman year at Utah Valley University. Here's Katrin along with Patricia, Danny, Ava, and Jamison.

After the parade, we all headed over to the Provo carnival to take Ava on some rides. There were only two rides which Ava was big enough to go on. The first was an inflatable obstacle course. Ava was very excited to go on it at first. However, she didn't make it very far before getting stuck. She quickly admitted defeat and asked to get off (it didn't help that the rubbery plastic was very hot to the touch due to the extreme July temperatures).

The other ride was a giant inflatable slide. Ava quickly shied away from what looked to be too scary of a height for her liking, thus forfeiting her tickets to Danny and Patricia and reclaiming her lollipop. Later that night, we hosted the annual 4th of July party, which is now permanently held at our house due to the fact that our backyard provides an excellent view of the Thanksgiving Point fireworks.

Summer Dresses

Since most of our readers don't get to see Ava on Sundays, we thought we'd share some pictures of her in her dresses. First up is a little dress she wore the Sunday before Independence Day.

Ava is just like her mom in that she loves the 4th of July. Krista's favorite 4th of July activity is singing patriotic songs during church.

Larry's favorite part is getting a day off from work. Ava's favorite part is the fireworks.

This next dress Ava wore to the second annual 4th of July party at our house (our backyard is the best seat in town for the Lehi fireworks).

As you can see, Ava was very happy on this day. She just couldn't get enough of playing in the sprinklers; and was also very excited about all of her family coming over to visit.

She wasn't so happy on this day, but the she still looked cute in this red dress from Granny O.

Lastly, is this brown dress that Ava wore the second-to-last Sunday in July. It comes from a collection of Gap outfits that Krista had her heart set on from the moment she saw it. Always the thrifty shopper, Krista waited until the collection went on sale, at which point nothing was left in Ava's size. So, Krista enlisted the help of several family members in a search for Ava's size that covered several Gap stores both in Utah and Pennsylvania.

The dress you see above and below was found by Krista's sister Lauren. Grandma Furr found a second dress from the same collection at a Gap in Pennsylvania. Ava wore it the last Sunday in July, however, we don't have any pictures of Ava in this dress as it turned out to be a very traumatic day. While we were exiting the chapel, Ava (who was trying to yank herself free of Larry's hand so that she could run wild) managed to dislocate her arm at the elbow.

Sadly, it took awhile for us to realize what had happened. (We thought she was just crying because she was tired.) So we took her home and put her down for her afternoon nap. When she woke up, Larry walked into the room to find Ava lying perfectly still in her crib (never a good sign). She just looked up at Larry with tears streaming down her cheeks and said "uh oh". After examining her, we confirmed that her arm was hurt. We rushed her to an urgent care facility and the doctor popped Ava's arm back into place. Needless to say, we were all relieved to have Ava all put back together again.

Wardrobe Independence