Audrey's birthday

Oh how life has changed in four quick years!




Not everything's changed though, Audrey still has great big lips.

We had a really fun party with Audrey's guests, she requested that we invite her best girl friends and their families.




We played a somewhat organized chaos party game, with just a few tears.











Audrey loved her cake and I loved making it.





For a little extra Audrey there are videos here and here.

Visitors

We love it when folks come visit us, so if you were thinking about it you should probably go ahead and make some plans. We had some fun filled visits from family and friends this summer and fall, see below.

Julian is Two

Birthday party pictures:













Enjoying some presents:



















It's official, Julian is two years old, and now that he is over a month into being a two year old I thought it high time to post marking the occasion. Julian can say "two"and a handful of other words. He has not been using many words so he gets to have speech therapy which for him is special one on one play date where a grown up pays sole attention to him for half an hour or so, which he loves!

Julian still loves to play with balls in addition to horses and cars. He enjoys playing with big sister Audrey and mostly follows along well with her directions. He is getting bigger but still on the smaller end of the percentiles, which seems surprising looking at him. And even though he is getting big, he still has adorable baby finger dimples on his hands. He is very observant, likes to point to things and now with a nudge and some modeling he names what he sees. He is clever and cooperative and sweet and active and a bundle of joy, same as he ever was.

River rats

We had an awesome time on our first overnight family river trip. The water was fastfastfast because the river was very full (30,000cfs), so it made for quick time on the water and lots of time on the riverbanks. The weather was very hot (forecasted high of 101*), so that made for lots of shade time and beer drinking. It was so fun it convinced us that we need to get a boat of our own...better start saving up!

Julian's first haircut

Clipped by Dada

May: Month of the grandparent

The kiddies got to spend time with all their biological grandparents this month. We had Grandma and Grandpa visit from Michigan for two weeks and the went to Denver where we spent time with Grandad, in town from Texas, and saw a bit of Gammy too.



















Grandma noticed the kiddies like to ride the broom and mop so when she happened to spot some horses at the thrift store she put two and two together.






































We have a lot more pictures of our long weekend in Denver than of the two weeks of visiting grandparents at our house, probably we were inspired to take more photos being around Aunt Lisa with her camera, her lovely pictures of our time together can be seen here on her website, and check out her blog to see some fun short movies she made.

Mexico '15

We had a fantastic trip to the Puerto Vallarta area for Alex & Aline's wedding on March 14. They got married at Villa del Cielo, in a lovely civil ceremony officiated by a Mexican civil official and translated into English by a friend of Alex's. The mariachi band entered just as the paperwork was notarized and the novios kissed. Audrey slept during the ceremony so that she could save energy for the dancing. Her strategy for finding dance partners was to stand next to and stare at her intended until they let her cut in. Alex and Aline did an awesome performance of bachata dancing, there was some line dancing that I missed out on while putting the kiddies to bed, and then the dancing really heated up so the bride and groom decided to cool off by jumping in the pool!

More wedding pics here.

We stayed at the villa with family for a week and had some fun adventures including a couple boat outings to remote beaches, snorkeling spots and hikes to waterfalls. One of the hikes was serviced by lots of horses for rent so Audrey and Grandma took a ride together. We enjoyed a few trips into old town Puerto Vallarta to visit some restaurants, check out the beach and malecon and swim in the river. The area of the villa was called Conchas Chinas and the beaches there were little sandy spots surrounded by rocky outcroppings that were easily hopped along to get to the next sandy spot, so that made for some fun exploring and playing.

After everyone else went home we moved along the coast to a resort in Bucerias. It was an all inclusive resort complex so it was very easy. We had a huge kiddie pool just outside our room and the beach was nearby. I got to go on a quick catamaran ride right from the beach. We took one big adventure away from the resort when we went to the sought after Playa Destiladeros, where I had the unfortunate opportunity to meet una agua mala, or jellyfish, other than that it was lovely.

At one of the resort restaurants

At the resort beach

Dancing on the beach

One of the resort's resident iguanas

Family self-portrait attempts

View from our room

The last of our beach time before heading to the airport