The Melhus Family: Birthdays and Easter

Sorry, it has taken me a while to get her 2nd Birthday pictures up. Now with Matt's nice professional camera, I don't take that many pictures on my little camera. His are a better quality and turn out much nicer, but I have been waiting and waiting for him to help me with his photos so I can upload some on here (you have to use a special prgram to view and save his photos. I am not allowed to mess with unless he is there to help me :)). Well that still hasn't happened, so I guess we will be using some of mine from my camera. (There aren't as many and I didn't get any pictures from the Easter Egg Hunt or the individual family pictures... When he finally gets them on the computer, I will put those pictures up.)

Avree's 2nd birthday fell on Easter this year, so we decided to have her party back in Iowa. We spent the weekend in West Des Moines at a hotel, went swimming and met up with some family on Saturday. Brian (Uncle Boo) and Chaeli came Saturday afternoon to WDSM and hung out with us (and stayed with us that night). Then that night we all met up with my dad, Barb, Shelly, Jack and Jay. We came to our hotel, went swimming and ordered pizza. A fun, relaxing night.
The next morning (Avree and my dad's birthday) we all went to church in WDSM (Hope Church- great service) then headed back to our hotel where Avree's birthday celebration was taking place. It was a great turn out and we are so thankful for our wonderful family who joined us to celebrate. I still can't believe she is 2 already!!
After we had lunch, opened gifts and ate cake, we all headed outside for an Easter Egg hunt. Kaiya was super fast and got the majority of the eggs. Avree by this time had had enough and was exhausted (way past her nap time) so she was cranky as could be. Didn't want to "find" the eggs and wouldn't listen to anyone. And of course we decided to try and get family pictures taken then. Ya, Avree wouldn't have it! Most of the pictures of the grandkids/grandparents are of her screaming crying. Poor thing! We did get a couple of her not crying (as long as I was in the photo, holding her).
After that we started packing up the car, and had put Avree in her car seat.. no more than 2 minutes later she was OUT! Slept the whole way home and even slept all night. She was VERY tired to say the least.

Swimming Saturday night- Cousin Kaiya and Avree

Grandma and Grandpa with the grandkids

Johnson Family

Daddy and Avree

Easter Morning

Party Time!
We had just showed up in the party room and Avree saw all her presents just sitting there and thought... I am going to try some of these out! It's my birthday and I can do what I want! So off she went on the tricycle... Little stinker (Thanks Gma and Gpa Hansch! She loves the tricycle)

Cake!

We can't forget about another special person's birthday. I think it is so neat that my dad and Avree share the same birthday. A special bond they will always have!