I can't believe my baby girl is five months old today! Seriously, that's almost half a year - how could that much time have passed since this baby was born? I know you've all heard me say this (probably multiple times!), but it's really sad how much faster your second child grows up. So unfair! Anyway, sweet Abby continues to be an incredible source of joy for our family. She is a very happy little girl (except right now; today she's pretty miserable from the nasty cold she caught from big brother) who is very social and can't wait to be able to do everything big brother does. She absolutely lights up every time she sees Eli, and has recently begun to react to Zoe very similarly. :) Here's a photo of our darling daughter enjoying her new favorite pasttime - this girl really loves to bounce!
After...
It was definitely scary, but the nice thing about the clippers is that you can't really mess up (except using the wrong comb and getting it too short, of course). Ryan has been lobbying for years (literally) for me to start cutting his hair, and I've been way too chicken to do it. I figured this is a good starting point. The problem with Ryan's is that it involves clippers and scissors - which means I could totally mess it up! Ryan says he doesn't care, but I'm still hesitant!
While in CA we stayed with my uncle Harold (aka "Unkie") who happens to have a great playground just a few minutes' walk from his house.
Our second night in town was 
We spent the third day of our trip in Napa with my dad, sister, and grandma. We spent three hours in the pool at my dad's apartment complex. Words can't even describe what a great time Eli had in the pool!
Abby got to go swimming for the first time, too.
While at my dad's house, we noticed a photo of Eli on the wall...check this out:
Crazy, huh?! :) We had a nice visit with dad and Laurel
Day four was our visit to Sonoma's 
Abby's first train ride
Eli absolutely loved feeding the animals at the petting zoo!
And our little man shocked us when he asked to ride the airplanes. This was a carnival ride that only kids could go on - no parents allowed. We were really impressed with him choosing to do this...I have to admit that I almost got misty realizing that he's really growing up!
To break up the drive, both down and back, we stopped at lots of little parks along the way. On the first day of our drive up, Eli again impressed us with how grown up he's getting. We were driving through this tiny little town in the middle of nowhere talking about finding somewhere to stop for lunch and some play time. Out of nowhere Eli says, "I would like to play at the park with the firetruck sometime." We had no idea what he was talking about, so we asked what park he meant. He said, "The park that we just drove by with the firetruck." He told us a little more, so we turned the van around to see if he indeed knew what he was talking about. Sure enough, we soon came to a park with the firetruck!
That evening we found a motel with a pool just for our little waterbug.
After a lot of fun in the pool, our little man showered and needed some down time. We laughed about how much he resembled a business man traveling for work, eating leftovers in his motel room and working on his laptop! :)
Little did we know that the train would take us to the most gargantuan playground we'd ever seen! 
Ryan, Abby, and I relaxed while Eli played.
Oh, and did I mention that it was also our 7th wedding anniversary? We found it a funny commentary on our current life stage that we spent our anniversary at the zoo!
