This and That...

I realized I never blogged my pictures from our weekend in Grafton over Labor Day weekend. For the 2nd year, the Bettis group (my mom's side) has met in Grafton, IL at Pere Marquette Lodge. On our way home, we stop in Kampsville, IL to eat at the Kampsville Inn (my great-grandparents lived in Kampsville before they passed away). We rode the ferry, an old tradition, and stopped off at the waterfall where my Grandpa Bettis was baptized as a child by his father, my great-grandfather--it has become a photo op for the family.

My Grandpa Bettis passed away 4 years ago after a long battle with cancer and we've all missed him so much. This tradition is in honor/memory of him. It makes me sad that he never got to meet Ava but I think it's so neat that our whole family is able to gather at this special place and feel close to him.

I don't know the exact year but I'm guessing around 1947!

2009

We aren't actually standing in the water like they were but I think we are right in front of the spot they were. Travis and I got in last year (along with my cousin Nathan and wife Megan---pre-babies). :) It's quite slippery and rocky!

Another shot...

"Super Ava" with her Daddy

Hanging out at the pavilion.

We cooked hot dogs, smores, and sat around while my Uncles played their guitars and sang. Reminds me of the good ol' days growing up. I grew up camping---"actual camping in tents" until my grandparents bought a 'cabin' as we called it near Shelbyville, IL and our whole family would go there for all of the summer holidays and stay all weekend. Everyone that had a camper would bring it and my Uncle Darren would usually get a campsite so we could go to Lake Shelbyville to swim. It was soooo fun! Brings back a lot of memories of sitting around the campfire singing songs. My family is very musical so we had tons of fun! Now we all stay at the lodge in the cabins there and we joked we saw more bugs there than if we had actually been camping. I guess I was a little preoccupied this year but last year I got pictures of the HUGE spiders that are lurking all over the place and not to mention the mosquitos. I think Travis' legs are still covered in red dots.

Shopping in Grafton

I thought the "Not a Shop" sign in someone's yard was pretty comical. Don't go knockin' on their door!

Well, I figured I might as well make this one Loooooooong post. It's been a B.U.S.Y. couple weekends for the Cunningham's. We left right after school on Friday to head back to Jacksonville for Trav's cousin Justin's wedding. Another chance for Ava to wear all those cute dresses she has! We stayed at Travis' brother Rob and Abby's. She's the other blonde holding Ava. Someone said we could be sisters and I guess I never really noticed how similar we looked until looking at these 2 pics. Must be the hair. :)


Far left--Proud Grandpa!

The next morning, we got up and headed to see Travis' Grandma in Winchester. She is very ill right now and we just pray that she isn't in too much pain. After hanging out there for about an hour or so we were back in the car heading to Decatur for a family get together with the Bettis fam in memory of Grandpa B. As I said earlier, my family is very musical and I think it all started with my Grandpa (and his parents). He produced records with various quartets and I have fond memories of him and my uncles playing guitar and singing at the Decatur Opry. The service Saturday evening was in honor of him. The money raised will hopefully help support a young person someday who is interested in pursuing a career in music ministry. (Thanks Megan, I couldn't have described it any better!)

Here are a few photos from the night. There are now FOUR great-grandbabies in the family all under the age of 1! From the left:

Macy/Landen (3 weeks old)

Steph/Ava (almost 4 months old)

Abi/Dasani (almost 6 months old--I THINK!)

Megan/Reddington (almost 7 months old)

and the babies with their Daddies!

Brock, Travis, Donovan, Nate

My Aunt sang, my Uncle sang and played guitar, niece Isabelle played piano, cousin Brock played piano and my great Uncle sang and also played saxophone (ok, not at the same time), and his wife, my great Aunt, played piano and sang and my cousin Megan B. also sang. Whew! I think I got it all!

After the celebration, Travis, Ava and I stopped to see my friend Casey who was in town at her parents. She now lives in Chicago area and it just so happened she was in town the same time we were. It made for a late few nights for us but was great to see her! I am very happy to say that after all of the traveling, we stayed home today and just chilled. Ava slept until after 9 (after only getting up once in the night, and then at 6am) and then took a nice morning and afternoon nap. I guess she was recovering!

She has been so much more alert and aware of her surroundings lately and I swear she watches me when I'm eating saying..."Give me some!" so we decided to give her rice cereal for the first time tonight (one week early...shhhh!). Not to mention, the tries to drink out of the cup I use to rinse her hair in the bath. :) Anyway, she seemed to really like it! Gotta love the SPAM bib--her Uncle Jeff works for Hormel in Austin, MN and we've visited the SPAM museum (yes, SPAM has a museum) on a few visits to see them.