August 2012

We had a great visit with David's family at the beginning of the month.

Dad Choules had bought these cute traditional outfits for Josh and Shannan on a business trip to Asia.  Josh and Shannan were great little buddies and played really well together!

Mom, Julie, and I took the kids to the Phoenix Zoo.

It was a really hot day, and we spent most of our time at the zoo's wonderful splash pad.  Josh stood under this little waterfall for the longest time!  

We had dinner one night at Organ Stop Pizza.  It's a fun restaurant with this massive Wurlitzer theatre organ; the organist takes requests and plays really amazing arrangements off the cuff!

Josh was more interested in his new number flash cards than he was in eating pizza or listening to the organ!  :)

Being in my first trimester of pregnancy, I was really struggling with the Arizona heat in August.  The high temperature was in the mid- to upper-110s!  Since I was feeling so bad, we told David's family our exciting news a bit earlier than we planned.  After that, we planned activities more close to home.  Josh and Shannan had a great time making play dough together.

Josh was so cute in this little apron.

Josh, Shannan, and Julie cutting out shapes.

We had a fun pool party and barbecue with all of David's family plus Uncle Bill's family.  Josh, Shannan, and Shawn were a cute bunch to watch play together!

Before David, Josh, and I left to hit the road back to Philadelphia, we celebrated Josh's 2nd birthday!  

Josh loves this book Mom and Dad Choules gave him--"The Artist Who Painted A Blue Horse" by Eric Carle. 

David with his siblings before we left.

David's family.

The little cousins bid each other a fond farewell.  It was so fun getting to spend time with David's family!

Our trek back to Philadelphia went pretty smoothly.  Day 1 started in Gilbert, AZ.

Josh is such a good traveler!  We are so grateful for his easygoing personality!

We made it to Albuquerque, NM that night and spent the night at Matt and Dionne's home.  It's so fun to play with all of their kids!

The next day we drove from Albuquerque to Tulsa, OK on Day 2.  Josh loved playing in the pool with David at the hotel.

Day 3 we split a milkshake at lunchtime in Springfield, MO.  We were making great progress!

We stopped for dinner in Indianapolis and ended the day in Vandalia, Ohio.

Day 4--our last day on the road home--we drove across Ohio and Pennsylvania.  The Pennsylvania countryside is gorgeous, but we were so anxious to get home to Philadelphia.  I could hardly stand being in the car and had horrible nausea; we had to pull over for me to be sick many times.  I just wanted to get home!!

I was so happy to see the beautiful Philadelphia skyline and darling Boathouse Row--we were home!!

Josh was so happy to get back to all of his wonderful museums.  Here he is working on a car at the Please Touch Museum.

Counting swords at the Museum of Art.

Making faces by the Museum of Art. :)

We had a fabulous time spending our summer with our families in the West.   We also were grateful to get back to our own home and routine in Philadelphia!