Busy week!

It was a very busy week at the Stoddard household. Mommy gave her Fellow's Research meeting (FRM), hosted a colloquium speaker including taking her to dinner on Tuesday night, and gave a platform talk at the CCR Retreat in Hershey. Daddy had his big hospital meeting and his last day at the health department in Baltimore. Ava got to spend 2 days with Grandma Heckman while mommy was in Hershey.

There was a last minute change in plans and Grandma drove down and got us on Wednesday after FRM. We arrived in time for the poster session on Wednesday night at the retreat. Ava's first night at the Hershey lodge was fairly successful. Thursday morning Grandma came to pickup Ava and take her to play with cousin Kayden and Aunt Danielle. They had lots of fun and it was such a beautiful day they took a walk to the park. Mommy gave her talk at 1pm and it went well. Grandma brought Ava back to the Lodge at 7:30 so mommy could give her a bath and do the nighttime routine. Mommy was too tired to go to the poster session so we called it a night. Ava woke up at midnight and it took until 2:45 to get her back down in the pack'n'play...night number 2 less successful but still ok. Friday Grandma came a took Ava to her house to meet the men from Grace who were installing the counter tops in Grandma's kitchen. Grandma was very excited because this means she finally has a sink! The renovation are going very well and we are so thankful that there are wonderful people to help Grandma with the house. After Shannon and Alexandra got out of school we headed back to Rockville.

We got home right before Daddy who had been a rockstar at his meeting. They are very sad he is leaving but we are very excited he can now spend those 2 hours with us instead of in the car driving!

We quickly unpacked and then repacked for out trip to North Carolina. Aunt Alexandra was nice enough to come with us to watch Ava while we were at the wedding. The trip there was a little rough...Ava was great but there was soooooo much traffic...remind me NEVER to move to NoVA. We finally made it to the hotel just before midnight. Night number 3 out of the normal routine was definitely a fail! Ava was wide awake when we got to the hotel and it was very difficult to get her to settle back down. She eventually did but Mommy felt like a zombie the next day. Saturday we tried to go to the Duke campus for brunch but this was unsuccessful because there didn't seem to be a cute area like there is at Udel. We ended up at the Cracker barrel next to the hotel. Ava sat in the highchair at the table like a big girl! After successfully trying to get Ava to nap by walking back to the hotel we went for a car ride and to the mall...success NAP! We returned to the hotel to find Daddy napping as well. We got ready for the wedding and went to the Duke Gardens. The day couldn't have been more beautiful! Kevin and Virginia picked a great location. Highlights of the wedding were definitely seeing old friends including Steve who took fabulous pictures just like he did at our wedding (He took the pictures posted here) and the photobooth. I took Alexandra and Ava back to the hotel after the ceremony and put Ava to bed. Alexandra read in the bathroom to keep the room as dark as possible. The reception was lots of fun but being the parents of a 7 month old we tired out quick. we returned to the hotel around 10pm so unfortunately we didn't get to see the karaoke or have burgers form the burger truck. Sunday we got up and had bunch with everyone before hittting the road to drive home.