horsing around

Over the Memorial Day weekend we went up to Greagle, CA to hang out with my husband's family at their cabin. It was a quick, little "get out of town" trip with a beautiful drive.

The weather had been cold and wet, with snow showers on Saturday leaving a dusting of white when we woke up on Sunday morning. It cleared up enough by 10:30ish for us to take the kids down to the stables so they could have a ride on the horses.

O was really cute as we drove down to the stables and asked,
"Did we bring any treats for them"?

pretty details

I hadn't even thought of doing that. It made sense for him to ask since we usually visit the neighborhood horses when we have leftover carrots or apples to share.

O watching from the sidelines

Buddy riding Merlin

It took a little encouraging (and some cousinly peer pressure), but he eventually put on the helmet and got on the horse named "Kid". The horses are so mellow and the cowboys(and one cowgirl) leading the rides were really great with the kids making them feel comfortable with these wonderful animals.

introducing himself to Kid

an unsure smile (how cute is that ca-boy?)

hobble-de-hoy, hobble-de-hoy

O and his cousin B taking a ride

Last night, as we were getting ready for bed, O randomly spoke up and told me ,
"I love horses. I want to ride again."
I think this summer we could arrange that. And, I would like to take one of the trail rides that are offered- I haven't been on a horse since I was probably 9 or 10 years old.

good reminders

She came over with soup made from Saturday night's turkey dinner. 

We finished off the bottle of left over wine.

Later, I mixed up a batch of brownies

A perfect Tuesday evening.

~~~

My new specs came in, perfectly nerdy.

You can't really tell here, but they are a wonderful, dark purple with blue on the inside.

I love them, and guess what? I can see when I am on the computer!

~~~~

Had a date night with my best girl.
Beers, burgers and Bridesmaids.

Driving home I knew that no matter what happens in the next few weeks,

I have a really good friend who will be there no matter what.

And really, isn't that all we need, people who love us.
~~~~



On Friday, an unexpected package came in the mail from an ex-coworker and wonderful friend  who now lives in Santa Fe, NM
(Hi Vern! I miss you tons).
She made Fifi a dress... with birds on it.
Oh, and check that card, I think she needs to get a flickr account of her own.
just sayin'.

~~~~

Up at the cabin.

My niece and my father in law (her grandpa) have a running joke/competition...

girls rule, (obv.!)
She was making these signs and hiding them all over the cabin for him to find.
(update! this photo was "Photo of the Day" over at Maternal Lens!)

how to...

How to really love a child, by SARK
"Be there. say yes as often as you can. let them bang on pots and pans. if they are crabby, put them in water. Read books out loud with joy. Go find elephants and kiss them. Encourage silly. Giggle a lot. Remember how really small they are. Search out the positive. Keep the gleam in your eye. Go see a movie in your pyjamas. Teach feelings. realize how important it is to be a child. Plan to build a rocketship. Stop yelling. Invent pleasures together. Surprise them. Express your love. A lot.

Children are Miraculous"

Post processing...

Here are some photos of my best friend's little girl. I took them while we were camping in Santa Cruz the other weekend and they are just too sweet to not post. L is a shy, adorable and goofy little girl (or boof-ball as she likes to call herself). She and O are good friends and play well together-it helps that they spend all week at daycare together so they get lots of hang out time on a regular basis. Fifi is already pretty smitten with her, as are we.

Getting to watch the three of these kids grow is such an honor.

The afternoon sun in our camp ground was so perfect, filtered by the big trees and reflecting up from the ocean, which was just over the cliff were we camped. Even with that great light, I wanted to mess around with these shots a little once I had gotten home. Sometimes I wish I could just leave this step out, but I feel like it is part of the creative process for me and I love watching an image go form,
"I like it" to "I LOVE IT".
For these shots, I used actions from the Coffee Shop blog, this is a great resource full of tutorials and freebies. I am a little bit in love with her actions right now- I especially like the Barista for a nice, clean, simple edit as seen above in the photo with all three kids, as well as the Irish Cream from the Coffee Shop bar set. That one is fun to adjust the saturation in and move the photo back to color from black and white. I don't really like the 'softening' part of the actions, but I do love the tones and the depth these give my shots. It is what I feel my images have been lacking and it makes me ridiculously happy to see the images in a way that I have been striving to get. 

I have been learning so much lately just from using these actions/presets. It makes me want to take the leap and purchase a newer version of PS Elements and maybe PS Lightroom . (I have been using my work computer that has CS on it to do the edits and it's really hard to go back to my very old version of PS Elements when I want to process my photos!) Do you post process? What software do you use and do you have any favorite presets/actions that you utilize?

Fun no? I have to get these printed out for her mama!

kites and kids

This was not the photo I thought I would fall in love with from the day.

I went to the kite festival with the grand idea of taking a photo like this one or this one...

I did do a lot of shooting up into the sky. I also did a ton of people watching and snapping.

But when this little girl tapped me on the leg and asked me to take her picture, I about melted.

She ran over to her kite and started pulling these adorable poses.

She remined me of a kid in a catalog.

The mom apologized.

Why? because your kid is cute and not afraid to ask for her photo?

I love that kids aren't shy to the lens like adults....

when does that go away?

141:365, Happy Birthday Jojo

My mom's birthday was on Saturday.

She requested a turkey dinner and apple pie.

It was Thanksgiving in May.

Happy Birthday Mom, we love you SOOO much.

At the Boardwalk...

I love.love.love going to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.
My very first roller coaster ride was the Giant Dipper. It is still one of my favorites. The only ride I went on this time around was the Pepsi Truck on a track.  This was due to a certain little girl hanging out on my back in the ergo.

But O, Mr. O fully embraced the amusement park. He hit up all sorts of thrills and chills with Daddy-O by his side. I still can't believe he was game for the all the rides and honestly, I am not sure if he realized what he was in for on a couple of them.

He started the day off simple on the boats and dragons.

 

do you love the name of the boat?! tee hee.

But by the end of the day he was SO brave, and splashed down on the log ride.

He ended the day on the Ferris wheel, a la Go, Dog, Go!

Besides the rides, there were $5 hot dogs, a trip to the photo booth and one very sad, ice cream cone melt down.



We all slept well that night after all that excitement-
Thanks Santa Cruz! We had a blast.

life...

We have been waiting patiently on Spring...

Soaking up the afternoon sun when it does come out to say hello.

prepping for (and going) camping on the coast.

Snuggling, nourishing and loving each other.

clinking our glases to another year of marriage, 8 to be exact.

Life has been good, life has also been crazy and uncertain.

It has us thinking and dreaming.

Wondering and hoping.

But most importantly, life has us living.

To The Aquarium

On Friday we headed to Monterey. The aquarium there is one of the best in the country, and the kids seemed to be old enough to actually enjoy the exhibits.



It is a little crazy to visit there on a week day, but we braved the bus loads of field tripping elementary school kids. I am really glad I had dressed O in his plaid fedora, it made keeping track of him a lot more easy.
I was a little disapointed that the jelly fish exhibit was under construction. That was one of my favorite things last time we were there, but the kelp forest still held its magic and the sea otters are way too cute.

I am going to let the photos do the 'talking', enjoy!

The obligitory family shot! Thanks to Em for shooting this one for us.



After lunch, a beer and and a exhaustion induced meltdown... we headed back to camp. But not without stopping at one of the farm stands for some freshly picked produce (and a really good Chai tea!)