Traveling!

We are still trying to recover from our trip to California.  We had a great time, but the girls have had a bit of a hard time trying to get back on schedule.  The girls both really enjoyed seeing their family, but Audrey had an especially great time with her cousin Adele.  They played so nicely together.  We can't wait for them to come see us in July!

Because of our trip I didn't get to do an exactly 4-month photo shoot, but here are Audrey & Lillian modeling their Daddy's company's shirts just before Lillian's 4-month birthday.

 
Lillian's first swim!

Lillian enjoyed relaxing in Palm Springs in her cousin's swing.

We went for a really neat hike while we were in Palm Springs to n beautiful oasis.

Audrey and Adele having a slumber party.

Audrey and Michael on Father's Day - the day after we returned from California.  Audrey had her first dance recital.  It was pretty darn cute :)

We've been busy since we got back from California, and I have many more photos to upload!

It feels like we have been at the doctor almost constantly in the last two weeks.  Unfortunately, Audrey had her first visit to the ER (just 5 stitches thankfully) and both Audrey and Lillian had their check-ups, good reports on both of them.  I was so proud of Audrey, the pediatrician was really impressed with her development and said she was "off the charts" for her verbal skills and I was also excited that she is now 31st percentile for height!  She is really growing!  Lillian is also doing really well.  She is becoming more vocal every day, and she just loves to grab everything and try to put it in her mouth :)  She weighed 15.6 pounds this week - down to the 75th percentile for weight.

I will try to post more photos soon :)  

Family Fun

 

We had a really nice trip to Canada.  Audrey enjoyed spending some extra quality time with her Canadian family.  Especially with Avo and Nana.  Lillian also seemed to enjoy the visit, but she is generally happy anyway.

After spending a day with the girls' Avo, we had a fun lunch and quick visit to the park with Auntie Ashlea (or Aunt-lie Ashlea as Audrey has been calling her).  It was great to see her so soon after our last visit.

I apparently missed the instruction to make a silly face :)


Next we headed up to Wasaga Beach to stay with Nana & Manny.  Audrey enjoyed all the attention.  We had fun touring around and Audrey got to make cookies with Nana and even got a chance to go to the beach!

Storytime with Manny:


Pretending to be a cowgirl:

At the Elmvale Jungle Zoo:

This giraffe came running right up to us:

This was pretty neat for me!  Audrey didn't like the deer-slobber on her hands.

Lillian's first bath in a sink:

After a relaxing visit in Wasaga Beach, we headed back to Toronto.  We had a quick visit with Aunt Vivian, Uncle Bryan & Fernanda:

 Audrey was playing with the camera and took this one of Uncle Bryan:

We also had a really nice family party with Avo.  Here is Michael with his newest cousin, Luis.

 And another new cousin!  Christian.

On our way back to Philadelphia we made a quick stop for Audrey to see Niagara Falls.  Lillian and I stayed with our illegally parked vehicle, and Lillian had a snack.

Back in Philly, Papa and his family came to visit.  We went to the zoo on one of the hottest days we've had so far.  I had to wet Lillian's head to keep her cool  - here she is showing off her slick hairdo:

 Lillian is really getting stronger and now enjoys sitting in her bumbo:

Audrey was very excited that the pool at our apartment was open when we got back from Canada:

 

We had a really wonderful time this weekend.  The girls went to sleep early on Friday, and Michael and I had a chance to see a non-kid movie.

Then, on Saturday we headed down to Rittenhouse Square for the Fine Arts Festival.  We wandered around Center City and I enjoyed seeing some areas that I've been wanting to see.

Here is Michael at our picnic:

One of my favorite buildings in Philly:

 
Near the end of our walk, we enjoyed the fountain in Love Park.

 Audrey enjoyed the fountain a little too much and fell in!  Thankfully I am (almost) always prepared with a spare change of clothes.

Today we had a really action-packed day!  We drove down to the museum and parked our car across the river from Center City.  Then we caught a trolley bus to the Art museum...we didn't want to even try to drive downtown because the Philadelphia International Bike Race was going on.  We had lots of fun.  There was a family fun zone, and Audrey had a beautiful facepainting done, and got to play all sorts of free carnival games and wine prizes.  Lillian won a blanket for being the youngest person there... or at least the youngest person with a parent willing to use her to win prizes!

We were able to get right up to the race.  Here the racers were about to come by for water:

After the bike race we went into the Art museum for their free/by donation First Sunday where Audrey got to make another art project.  When Audrey got tired of the museum, we headed back on the bus to our car and then on for another adventure!  We made a stop at Penn's Landing for the Irish Music Festival.  One of Michael's coworkers is the drummer with a popular local Irish band.

We made our way home by driving a route we don't normally take and ended up going through some very rough neighborhoods...it was a reminder of how lucky we are.

I hope you all had as wonderful a weekend as we did!  Now I just need to find the energy to pack for California next week!