3 peas in a pod

How cute are these lil munchkins?  

(Don't let their innocent smiles fool you.  Moments later they were involved in a turf war with three older girls who kept calling them babies and took over "their" playhouse.  I'm proud to admit the "babies" held their own!)

A visitor

Guess who came to visit us last week?

Nanny!

Lily had the best time.

Especially when Nanny whipped out some new dress up clothes from her suitcase.

Nanny has a bad habit of spoiling our girl.

At one point, Lily turned to Nanny and said "I need a toy now please."

Smart kid.

We gals had a fun, busy week.

Our first stop was the zoo.

Because it was a cool 95 degrees...feels like fall! :) 

While visiting the elephants, the zoo keeper stopped by.

She let Lily throw a few treats to her favorite animal. 

We also spent one morning at Imagination Avenue.

Lily first played nurse and then fireman.

(Side note: At one point on our San Diego trip, Lily got very tired of being in the car and started begging to take her seat belt off.  Since she doesn't know what a policeman is, we told her the fireman would come and we'll get in big trouble if we took off our belts.  That scared her, and since then, will often say, "I leave my belt on, or the fireman will get me." Good parenting, I know...)

Nanny and Lily spent some time in jail... 

...played trains and dress up... 

...but the favorite was making a building to hide in. 

She is a bit obsessed with hiding right now. 

Such a fun week that went by way too fast.

Thanks Nanny for coming to visit!

(And thanks for babysitting so Mom and Dad could have a date night...

even though we were home by 9pm...lame).

Lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my!

A trip to San Diego wouldn't be complete without a visit to the world famous zoo.

Our favorites were the koala bears...

the monkeys....

and the elephants.

We loved all the other animals too!

This was our family's first vacation, just the three of us.  

We truly had the best time together.

Multiple times, Ryan and I would look at each other and say "today has been the perfect day."

Can't wait for many more family vacations in our future!

Take me out to the ball game

Another destination during our vacation was the Padres baseball game.

A friend recommended buying $5 tickets to the park and sitting on the hill.

Perfect idea for a crazy, busy toddler!

We were surrounded by numerous families with small children and Lily was in heaven.

Mommy was pretty happy too.  She had beer and hotdogs.  What else does a girl need?

After a few innings, Daddy had to run back to the hotel for sweatshirts and blankets. 

Apparently one year in Phoenix has made us weak.  We were freezing!

Our view into the stadium.  

Lily didn't seem to mind the chilly temperatures one bit.

She loved the game and can't wait to go again!

The Beach

Labor Day weekend, we took a family vacation to San Diego.  
Six hours from home, it was an easy destination for a long weekend. 
Our first major stop...the beach!

Though we were only five minutes from our hotel, our girl crashed on the drive over to Coronado.

But when she woke up, she was thrilled to see the ocean!

We've been reading "Wave" and Lily loved seeing the real thing.

We also saw a group of dolphins right past the break!

One little fin, but there were six to eight dolphins.

It was a little cloudy, windy, and cold at first.

So we decided to rent a bike and explore the area, while waiting for the sun to shine.

Ryan and I had fun searching for our dream home (once we win the lottery)!

After our ride, the sun was shining and it was time to hit the water.

Building a "city" with Daddy.

Family vacation was off to a great start!  

What was your good day?

Ryan typically does Lily's bedtime routine, and they have the sweetest conversations after turning out the lights.  He starts out by asking if she had a good day.  To which she always replies 'yes Daddy'.  They then spend a few minutes talking about her favorites activities from her day.

Apparently these conversation have made quite the impression on our girl. 

When she wants to have an intimate one-on-one conversation, she will ask "what was your good day?"  

And wants you to respond with a favorite thing from your day.

She often asks this question at the dinner table.

We then take turns answering, starting out with "my good day was...."  

I love hearing her answers.  

Most of the time, she tells us her good day was coming home.  

Sometimes she'll ask me what Daddy's good day was, if he isn't home yet.

I ask her what she thinks and she'll say "Daddy's good day is coming home to see me."

These sweet conversations have quickly become my "good day".

Love our girl so much!

Sweet friends...

Lily and I paid a visit to our neighborhood splash park for a little water fun.

It's hot right now (ha, that's an understatement).

So we spend as much time as possible in the water.

We were joined by our sweet friends, George and Henry.

Lily loves these boys.

She often asks for "my George and Henry" first thing when waking up.

And talks about them all day long.

Henry is in her preschool class, but George "not in my class. He go to big boy classroom."

We spend lots of time together being ornery and having tons of fun.

Very thankful for such sweet friends!