fun at the beach!!

We recently spent a super fun afternoon with our friends, Zachary and Wendy of Stillwater Cinematography who captured the three of us hanging out and having fun in Cayucos. We love their vision and have a good time whenever we meet up, like in this photo session we did of them some time back! We are sooo happy about this fun video and watching Avi's colorful personality and know it will be a family favorite for the rest of our lives!

Aveah Dove's Name Etomology

So, this is the story of how Aveah Dove (Avi Dove) got her name. But first, here is a list of all the names she could have been named: Kaya, Aurora/Rory/Ary (mom's favorite), Eden/Edie (dad's favorite), Aria, Charlie...

So, about 6 months pregnant we still didn't have a name for her. We wanted to have about 5 names selected that we both liked and then, once she was born and we saw her little face, we would pick from those names. Well, the problem was we didn't even have one name we both really liked, let alone a list of five names! So, we would ask everyone we knew for name suggestions: friends, family, random waitresses serving us food...  One particular person, Amy Leach, who was our neighbor and also someone Maren worked with, would come up to Maren everyday and place her hand on her belly and say a name, but none of them ever stuck.  Then one afternoon, Amy stopped by our house and she had her 10-year-old daughter, Rachel, with her.  After Amy gave her daily name to Maren's belly, Rachel casually said, Why don't you name her Avi Dove?  This was the first name Rachel had ever suggested.  Michael and I didn't say anything right away, but after they left we looked at each other and said, I sorta like that.  So we wrote it down on the name list.  After several more months, we still liked the name. We had it in "first place" amongst all the other names, but we were keeping it secret because we didn't want other people's reactions to taint our impression of it.  Moreover, we wanted to see her face and see if she looked like an "Avi Dove".  

In the meantime, Maren looked up Avi in her Baby Name book.  Avi was short for Aveah, and we liked that it could be a nickname, while Aveah was more of a full name.  We figured she could pick either to use when she becomes an older child and adult.  Aveah means "the Lord is my father" and is Hewbrew.  It turns out Rachel liked the name "Avi" because she was reading a young adult novel by an author named "Avi" (just one name, no first/last name), and she had a best friend named "Dove".

Well, needless to say, on June 27 when our first girl child was born, we looked at her and agreed that she was a Dove, an Aveah/Avi Dove!

10-year-old Rachel

next-door neighbor to Avi

name-giver of Avi

Block Party

 Avi is becoming very skilled at stacking her blocks.

The Park in Red Gingham.

Just some photos to remember the journey.  Avi is about 22 months old here.  She loves playing in the sand and exploring new playgrounds.  Her attention span is about 10 seconds to 2 minutes.  

 Oh, and her tongue sticks out when she's deep in concentration.

 She's getting much better about wearing and keeping a hat on.  She even started asking to wear her sunglasses now, too!  Yea!

Hanging with Uncle Dee-Dee

 Uncle Dee-Dee went to the store for half and half and came home with a HUGE balloon for Avi!  Avi was quite pleased, and was patiently waiting for Brant to finish blowing it up.

 A turtle found along the way.

Cali, Brant, Dax, Avi, Michael, and turtle.