Avery at 12

 

Physical Stats 
Weight –  102lb (70th percentile)
Height – 61.8" (78th percentile)
Nicknames – AA, Ave, Beannie, Goose, Bitts

Likes 
Favorite Food – Pasta
Favorite Activities – video games, listening to music, watch TV

Favorite Color – Mint Green and lavender
Favorite Toy – Squishies
Favorite Animal – Sea Otter
Favorite Thing to Wear – PJs
Favorite Book – Everybody Poops
Favorite Game – Roblox
Favorite Song – Anything by Freya Skye or Katseye
Favorite TV Show – Banana Ball Games
Favorite Activity at School – Theater
Favorite Activity Outside – Play with friends in the cul-de-sac
Favorite Sport to Play – Basketball
Favorite Movie – Pitch Perfect or Parent Trap

 

Random Facts 
Best friends – Piper, Caroline, Erin

What do you want to be when you grow up – Backstage Theater Crew
What do you sleep with at Night – Pink Bear, Yellow Blankie, Jellycats, Pluto
What makes you happy – Watching Banana Ball and not having school
What makes you sad – When people yell at me

If you could go anywhere in the world – Disney Tokyo Japan and Disney Sea

Least favorite food – Fish

Least favorite things to do – Watch wrestling

Family Facts 
Favorite thing to do with Dad – Watch Banana Ball
Favorite thing to do with Mom – Watch Banana Ball
Favorite thing to do with Carter – Lego's
Favorite thing to do with Parker – Play Video Games

July

July was short at home with our long trip but we managed to survive the Atlanta heat and fit in some fun before school starts next month.

World Cup and Braves nights at the pool

Yacht Rock Revue in Smyrna

Avery (11 years, 11 months) - In probably a bigger update for her parents than her, Avery lost her last baby tooth. The Tooth Fairy has officially retired from the Holden house. She spent the few weeks we had at home with friends and doing a one week Creativity Camp where she did lots of different craft projects, particularly enjoying photography (not so much Letter Printing).

Some of her Creativity Camp work

Cow Day at Chick-fil-A

Parker (14 years, 8 months) - Parker fit in a few more volunteer hours with YMSL but spent most of his free time at the pool and tennis courts with friends.

Carter (16 years, 2 months) - Carter spent the first 2 weeks of the months at Georgia Tech doing a summer program on Urban Planning through the College of Design. He has been very interested in studying this area in college so this was a good opportunity to let him experience college life and confirm his interests. Carter loved the program particularly hanging out with friends every evening and came home ready to immediately go to college. His class was well done with tons of activities including getting to visit different areas of the city to see Urban Design in process, meeting with the City of Atlanta Planning department and completing final presentations on how they would develop various transitional areas of the city.

Siblings - And of course we fit in some time at a Braves game!

Costa Rica - Monteverde (part 2)

On our first full day in Monteverde, we went to TreeTopia for a hanging bridge tour and ziplining. Being up in the cloud forest, it was quite cold and windy at the top of the mountains making zip lining a chilly but exhilarating experience going through clouds with limited visibility.

We started the trip with a one mile guided tour over 5 hanging bridges. The bridges were around 150 to 750 feet long and over 150ft high. The first bridge had a glass bottom and several required you to walk like on a tightrope to avoid swinging.

Glass bottom bridge

Sometimes they still let her hold their hands

Photography by Carter

After the bridges, we got suited up and took a tram ride to the top of the mountain to start the zipline tour. There were 7 ziplines plus a monkey drop at the end. The ziplines started at the very top of the cloud forest going through the actual clouds. It was cold, wet and crazy to watch people disappear down the lines. Avery paired up with people on the longer lines to make sure she was able to make it across. It got warmer as we made our way down the mountain but we were all glad a hot lunch at the end before heading back to the hotel.

After drying off and warming up, that evening we took a night hike around the hotel property and found a lot of insects, some birds a salamander and pregnant scorpion (didn't try to get a picture of that last one!). Carter once again did a great job with his new photography skills.