DAY 51 (SQUEEZING OUT EVERY LAST BIT OF SUMMER)

A few weeks ago, I took Avery to the library where she found a table full of Legos.  She sat next to two brothers building towers.  I sat and watched for a while and during that time, the younger brother said to the older brother, "Andrews, we have a big life.  Don't you think?  Its pretty good, right?"  The older brother didn't answer.  So the younger brother stated, "I think we have a big life."  He continued to build his Lego tower with a big grin.  I've been thinking about that for some time now.  This little boy must have heard someone say something about living large or something to that effect.  Though he didn't quite know what that entailed, he was fairly sure that he had it.  After getting no reassurance from  his older and wiser brother, he relied on his own interpretation stated that he truly was living big.   

I've tried to think of that boy for the past couple of weeks when I start to think about the end of summer.  Its coming to an end for me as I count down the days that I have to go back to work.  I don't know if that little boy is really living large in a grown-up sense of the phrase.  But my two cents don't matter.  Its all relative.  So as my summer ends, and I think about how much less time I will have to find adventures with Avery when I go back to work, I will try and remember that we do have a BIG life.  And to make the most of the time I have left of summer, I am going to live BIG.

On that note, I'll start to tell you about our adventures we had today.  As I said before, Scott had to go back to work today.  But he too is trying to squeeze every last drop out of his vacation.  He did that by joining us on a trip to the zoo before heading off to work.  We went with Amanda and her two kids.  It was Breckin's first birthday today, so we celebrated by feeding giraffes.

Avery was so funny on this train.  After it started, she covered her face with both hands and kept them there for 3 whole rides.  She peeked out from behind her fingers at us.  She wasn't scared, but I think she noticed that people were looking at her and she was embarrassed!

After the zoo, we drove around a bit near the mountains.  Avery fell asleep, and so I kept driving until I found Helen Hunt Falls.  We spent some time checking out the water.  It was really cold, so we only waded for a few minutes.

My camera died after that, so the rest of our adventure is undocumented.  But here's what we did anyways.  We drove down to Manitou Springs and had some adventures there.  Avery rode a mechanical airplane about 10 times, we ate spaghetti in a restaurant, and sang songs with some hippies!  Nighttime was drawing near and we didn't really want to leave, but bedtime was calling. We got home at about 8:30 and we both slept like babies.