Court and Ava's 2nd and 3rd visits

Court was last Thursday to see whether or not Ava and Sarah could move to Milwaukee to be with Sarah's new fiance. The court decided to let them move since Sarah has been her primary caretaker and Ava has had no contact with Cirdan the last few years. Cirdan is okay with Ava moving...he is just really excited that Ava knows him and that she will be able to spend time with us during the year. The only thing that irritated Cirdan was the judge making it seem like Cirdan just now wanted to be in her life and made a comment that she was glad that Cirdan had a renewed commitment to be in his daughters life. That was a BIG joke since he has always wanted to- and he was the one to pursue the relationship in the beginning but Sarah has stonewalled all his efforts. Here in the State of Washington they don't seem to understand how important fathers are.
So the plan is that Ava was able to come over last Saturday 10-6 and Sunday 10-8 (yesterday) and then on Wednesday we will go to Tacoma and pick up Ava to take her to dinner. They will move to Milwaukee the end of this week. Ava and Sarah will fly to Washington the 3rd week in August for a 3 day visit with us. Then in September Cirdan flies to Milwaukee to spend 3 days with Ava and to check out where she now will live. In October Ava and Sarah will fly back up to Washington for another 3 day visit (possible an overnight one) and then they will go to trial the week of the 12th to figure out the rest of the parenting plan. Sarah's original plan was proposing they fly here for Ava to only spend 24 hours with us... so this is wonderful that the judge ordered 3 days with us. There will be a lot of back and forth. Cirdan also is going to try and get some holidays.
The visit on Saturday was fun. We started the day with going to the mall to try and find matching outfits for the girls so we could take them to get pictures on Sunday. Kaiya and Ava both came out of Kaiya's room with their sunglasses, purses and stuffed animal dogs ready to go.

When we got to the mall we went to about 6 stores and after about 20 outfits they finally found ones that worked. Ava is really picky...just like her daddy. It was a long but fun experience. Every couple stores the girls would have to trade purses...this included taking everything out of their purse to make the swap. After the mall we got some food and headed home. The girls ate their late lunch outside and then the rest of the afternoon they went from playing outside on the trampoline, swings, slip and slide and sprinkler to inside to play with dolls and in Kaiya's room to back outside to do it all over again.

On Sunday Ava got here at 10 and the girls played inside until they had to get ready for their pictures. There was a little wait at the picture place and Ella hadn't had her nap yet...not a good combo. The first few pictures went well then they took some pictures of just Kai and Ava so that Ella could take a little break. It was funny to see Ava watch Kaiya and do what she does. If Kaiya likes something Ava will like it...if Kaiya doesn't like it Ava wont. Kaiya loved getting her picture and so Ava fed off of her. We told the girls that whoever was good got to get a toy when we were done. I think I walked up and down the toy aisle at least 10 times trying to find the perfect toy under $10 (there isn't many toys under 10 bucks these days). We then came home, made some lunch and played outside and inside (same as the day before). At the end of the night Cirdan, Kaiya and Ava played the Wii. Ava had never played so they did Wii sports and bowled. Ava loved it!! Sarah came to pick her up and she didnt want to leave again. Sarah ended up staying for about 40 minutes while Ava played some more. It was sad when she was leaving she wanted to come back tomorrow...Sarah had to tell her that she would see us on on Wednesday but it was great to hear that she wanted to come back and that she had fun. I am going to blog the pictures from Sunday on a new posting...there is a lot!

Ava's 1st visit

I was waiting to do a post about Ava until after Cirdan went to court, which was last Thursday. The Wednesday before Ava was going to come over to our house Sarah (Ava's mom) and I met at Starbucks. We have talked over myspace the last couple years but have never met in person. She wanted to meet with me so that it wasn't weird Saturday when she was to bring Ava to our house. The meeting went well and we were there for about 2 hours. We talked about the girls and I was able to get some insight on what type of girl Ava was.
Ava came over on July 18th to meet Kaiya, Ella and I. When she first got here she was shy but warmed up in about 10 minutes. Sarah stayed for about 40 minutes to make sure Ava was comfortable and then left. During Ava's visit we fed the horses, jumped on the trampoline, ate lunch, played on the swings, and her and Kaiya played dolls. It was good to have her with us and it seemed like she fit perfectly into our family. I kept staring at her and watching her, still amazed that she was finally able to come over to our house. This has been a long 4 years of wondering and wishing.
Kaiya and Ava talked about how they were sisters (step) and how Ella is their half sister. It was one of the best days our family has experienced.
Ava had a lot of fun, when Sarah came to pick her up she didn't want to leave. Sarah stayed about 15 minutes so Ava could show her how she jumped on the trampoline and played on the swings.

No Doubt

When April (former co worker) and I found out that we were getting laid off last February we treated ourselves and bought No Doubt Concert tickets. It was a blast! We were a little late...the concert was sold out so the traffic out to the White River Ampitheater was insane. Paramore opened and we only caught a few songs (bummer!). It was a fun night!

Fan for life - NKOTB

New Kids on the Block came back into town on July 7th so I HAD to get tickets. I was such a huge fan when I was little and it's so fun to go and hear the songs I grew up loving. My sister Kaylee and friends Erika and April went with me. Kaylee had never heard any of the songs but decided it would be a fun girls night out anyways. It was fun sharing with her some memories I had of listening and loving their songs. She ended up coming out of the concert with a crush on Joey.

The NKOTB concert wasn't as good as the one in the Tacoma Dome last November but it was the first concert that I had been to at the White River Ampitheather and it made me want to go back for more!
The openers were Jabbawockeez and then Jesse McCartney. The Jabbawockeez weren't as good as I thought they would be and Jesse McCartney was....well Jesse McCartney. I'm not really a fan.

The night was fun and it was nice to have a night out with the girls!

In the car trying to convince Kaylee she would have fun...

Kaylee at the beginning of the night trying to act like she was bored (sleeping)...

By the end of the night she was having a blast! Proof!!!