We took our first family vacation! We went to McCall Idaho, snow country, for their winter ice festival. We had such a blast! It was the best trip Phil and I have ever been on! We left last Wednesday January 27 (Ava turned 6 months!) and we drove to Boise where we stayed the night in a hotel. We met up with the other Wozniaks, Steve, Billie, Luka and Juno. We went to dinner and then Ava went swimming for the very first time.
Her cousin Juno got in the pool too. Ava loved the water. She splashed and laughed and squealed. It was really cute. She enjoyed herself.
Later, the Marco's (another family with three children) met us at the hotel. We went to sleep (Ava slept almost 8 hours). Phil and his brother Steve left and went snowboarding for the day. I packed up our room and got ready and went downstairs and ate breakfast. I met the Marco family downstairs, and Beck was great and held Ava while I ate breakfast. It was so nice!
After everyone was awake we caravan to McCall, which was about two and a half hours from Boise. The drive was beautiful. There was so much land. And we saw the Cascade Mountains. It was wonderful. The kids were great. Billie and I took our car with the three kids in the back seat. It worked out perfect. Juno's cry is not nearly as loud as Ava's cry so it was easy to "ignore" but when Ava started to cry Luka was able to help Ava play with some of her carseat toys and that made her stop crying. All the kids were such troopers. We got to McCall on Thursday, the day before the ice festival started. When we got into town we went by the rental place and picked up the keys to the beautiful house we rented for the weekend. We got a map and found our way to the house. It was absolutely amazing! We unloaded the cars and got set up in our rooms. There were three bedrooms upstairs (it was a tri-level home)each with their own bathroom (although not attached). There was also a living room upstairs, complete with a fireplace a couple of couches. In the main entrance area was the kitchen and dinning area. The kitchen was beautiful complete with a sub-zero fridge and granite counter tops and everything you can imagine in the cupboards (cook wear wise). Downstairs was kid heaven. There was a beat up couch, a card table, TV with surround sound, cubbys full of toys and games. There was a big room with two bunk beds and a small room called the bicycle room with two twin beds. There was a bathroom downstairs for the kids it was totally DECed out in red, red shower, red toilet, red sink and red towels. It was very cool. The laundry room was downstairs as well. It was huge! It had shelves full of towels and a sink with a big counter and a front load washer and dryer. It was great!
The first day we got to town we spent going to the store. For dinner we had spaghetti made by Billie. It was wonderful! We also went in the hot tub.
That night after the kids went to bed the adults decided to play a bunch of board games. It was interesting because we didn't understand the rules very well so we sort of made them up as we went (we also drank a little so that might of had something to do with it too...). It was a lot of fun!
Friday Phil and I went on our second date since Ava has been born. We got stuck going down the driveway but once we made it out, we went to the Pancake house. It was so awesome spending time, just the two of us. It was so nice!
After breakfast we went back to the house and all of us went sledding. Billie and I hung out with the babies but it was fun watching the kids sled and Steve and Marco snowboard down a small hill.
After sledding I think we went in the hot tub again. Then we relaxed and ate an early dinner.
Beck made a wonderful dinner! Around 6:30 there were fireworks. So we watched the fireworks. I've never in my entire life been to fire works like that! We were so close we had fireworks falling on us the entire time! It was spectacular. The fireworks lasted a really long time. Ava really like them. I covered her ears and she had two hats on.
Saturday was a busy day! We went to the senior pancake breakfast. Phil and I were standing next to the mayor of McCall and Phil shook his hand. After we walked to the car to drop off the babies carseats and got the front carriers. Then we walked around looking for ice sculptures.
Then we lined up for the parade. We got almost the entire way through the parade but the parade was really long too. Its amazing that a town of 10,000 can have such big productions! After standing for almost an hour and a half we decided we were done. We went back to the house. We hung around. Then I went out with the boys because we were hungry. Almost every place we went was packed so we ended up taking a few back roads and seeing a few more ice sculptures and then the boys went to a store called Ridleys. Phil got my favorite wine. They only sell it in Idaho. He also got two sandwiches.
I made meatloaf for dinner. Steve made mash potatoes. My meatloaf didn't turn out the way I wanted it to but it was my second time making it and I had to make a bigger one than normal. Oh well.
Phil got gutzy and asked everyone to clean that night so leaving in the morning would not be a huge hassle. We cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. Almost everything was cleaned before we went to bed that night. The grownups stayed up and talked for a little while. Then we went to sleep. Phil and I got up at 6:30. We had mostly packed the night before. I just had a few things to get ready and then Phil started taking the bags out to the car. It had started snowing so we sort of made some noise and eventually everyone else got up too. We were out of the house by 9am and on the road.
We had such a great vacation. We relaxed. We enjoyed the families we went with and we really had a great time.
I can't believe Ava is almost 7 months old! I've fallen behind on my posts this month. Ava is getting so big...well developmentally anyways! Ava is such a happy baby. She is happy most of the time. She only fusses when she is over tired, hungry or hurt herself. She has been very very busy! She is starting the teething process. She has two tiny bumps on her lower gums and you can almost see the teeth popping through. She is very vocal. She loves to squeal and blow very wet raspberries. She spits or blubs her lips together, especially when we are eating. She has more control with her hands and her leg movements. She can stand for a few seconds (up to a minute) holding on to something. She enjoys walking when we hold her up. 
She can now flip from back to front and front to back (it was only back to front before). When she is on her tummy she can do a complete 360 on her stomach. She can push herself backwards on her back. She can sit up pretty well on her own. She can hold her own bottle, grab for it and put it in her mouth all by herself. She can grab her pacifier (nuk nuk) and put it in her mouth all by herself. Last weekend (February 13) was her first adventure to the park. She loves the swings! She enjoyed the park. I took her three times last weekend. It was fun. And we had such nice weather. 
Last weekend we had a short visit with my Uncle Jamie! Ava enjoyed spending some time with him and getting to know him a little better since he was able to hold her this time! 
On Valentine's Day we made a surprise visit over to Uncle Steve and Aunt Billie's house. Ava had a great time playing with her cousins, Luka and Juno. 
