San Diego zoo

Last weekend we drove down to San Diego and spent some time with our good friends who were visiting from Michigan. Cory was Joe's best man at our wedding. We are lucky if we get to see Cory and his beautiful family once a year. This time 2 years has gone by since our last visit. We were very excited to see his family. Cory and Rebecca have 2 little girls, Julia ( who is 3 months older than Audrey) and Caroline who is 15 months.


We decided to take a trip to the San Diego zoo. We went in the late afternoon due to the heat. Olivia had one request, she wanted to take a ride on a lion. Hmm... Lucky for her they had a statue that she was able to ride on.


Once we got into the park the girls made a b- line to the face painting kiosk.


Julia and Audrey had to get the same pattern. They saw each other earlier in the day and their friendship clicked immediately. Julia was also very nice and loving to Olivia.


The girls were painted up and ready to go see the animals.


The Julia and Audrey both in braids studied the map in detail and informed us of where we were to go.


We were traveling in a group of 11; 7 adults and 4 children. Frank and Cathy White joined us as did Shelby. Shelby walked around the park holding Julia's and Audrey's hands. At the end of the night Shelby knew more about mermaids and princess than he ever wanted to know. It was very cute!


Julia took time to give Olivia an extra special hug.


At the end of the night the girls were eager to climb the eagle, and ready to take off!

We had a fantastic weekend!

Location:San Diego, CA

Favorites from the past month

 A group shot of Olivia's summer classroom; room 4 with teachers Brooke and Darlene.

 Olivia wanted to show me where my sunglasses belong.  She loves to put stuff into her "pocket".

 Mom & Olivia at SPLASH in La Mirada!  We wanted a picture with the parrot!

 Posing with daddy!

 Birthday dinner at Islands Restaurant.  It was their first Kona Pie!

 Happy Birthday Audrey!! Love Teacher Melissa!

 ROAR!  Fun at the Leavens' home!

 Posing with their new swim caps in the girls locker room at YMCA.  It was family BBQ night and this is the night I got tricked into buying 3 swim caps!

 Audrey waiting in line with Mauve & Luisa!  Audrey's last day of school at CK was August 3rd.

 Audrey riding ponies with her best friend...Olivia! When she told me this my heart grew 2 sizes!

 Pony rides at Celebration Kids was a treat this summer!

 Having fun at Sarah's & Jake's birthday party.

At last, Audrey sat still last Saturday afternoon and let me french braid her hair! She calls them friendship braids.  So cute!

A day without daddy

Joe left for New York yesterday at 5am. The girls and I had a very busy day planned. But Olivia decided to throw a wrench in our day and got sick on the way to the YMCA.
I took the girls home, cleaned up the car and Olivia looked as good a new. She ate everything in sight and was acting like nothing was wrong. 4 hours later the girls asked go go swimming...so off we went.




The girls have new swim caps with monsters in the side. Very cute...but we must thank the YMCA who installed a vending machine with them inside.


Olivia was excited for swim to start with teacher Jordan.


After swim Audrey had an appointment with the doctors for a few shots. She was a very good girl. On our way back to our house we passed the Oinkster. Audrey was very excited and asked to go to the restaurant. I gave in...


Blue lemonade, a burger and a side of fries makes every girl happy! Yes this is the girl who was sick in the morning. I like Audrey's expression in the back ground of this photo.


Olivia is growing up...her facial expressions are changing again!


Audrey wanted to pose with the tiny hat too. We had a great day yesterday that ended with a bath and an application of glitter nail polish.

It was a great girls day!

Location:N Avenue 52,Los Angeles,United States