Madison meets more family

Wow, it has been a while since I posted. Madison is doing well and Shelly and I are settling into our new routine now that Shelly is back at work full-time.

Madison is growing and doing all the things babies are supposed to do; and she's met more of the family over the last month or so.





Shelly's mom and grandmother were here in July so we had four generations of the Tyler/Donegan/McAvoy women on hand. The trip over was primarily to meet Madison so we didn't do much traveling. We did play a lot of Ma's favorite card game - Sets. I swear you have to be over 65 to be any good at Sets.


My sister and the kids arrived in Europe in early August to join Chris in The Netherlands. As it worked out Shelly had a 3-day weekend the week after the Ballard clan arrived so we packed up the Escape, dogs included (think Sanford and Son), and made the 3 hour drive up to their place for the weekend.





Here's Maryn and Will with Madison. I thought we had a picture with Sean in it too that would have all 4 of the Ballard/McAvoy grandkids but I guess my sister has that one. Sean was probably off reading a book or instant messaging his not-girlfriend. Looking at this picture now it is amazing how much Madison has changed in the few weeks since this was taken.
























We snapped this group shot before we rolled out for the return trip home; somehow managing to get everyone standing still.

The Ballards have a really neat place - the house portion of a farmhouse on a working farm with a lot of space both inside and out. The dogs all got along and took advantage of the running room to keep themselves occupied and out of our hair.

It was good to see Tracy and the kids and Tracy was eager to meet Madison and give her lot of lovin'.