New test subject

Look what my husband came home with on Saturday...
Her name is Ally (Preston named her after a girl at school who he secretly likes) she is a 12 week old cocker spaniel who Mike saw for sale on the side of the road. He said he fell in love at first sight, turned the truck around and went back for her.

Cracks me up!

I caught Bella (my photography partner in crime) taking a self portrait when she thought no one was looking...


This is what I found when I downloaded her photo shoot...

Catch me if you can

We haven't had the best of weather here lately, really windy and over cast skies but we did manage to head outside and blow a few bubbles this weekend. Bella's favorite part is catching them after she blows them away. With the strong winds, it proved a difficult challenge but she did manage to catch a few (check out her deep concentration).

New Bike

We are a little late in getting this for her (she has had so much fun on her big wheels we just sort of forgot about it). It took her a few days to get used to being up high and the balance thing but I think she has the hang of it now:

super excited!

I am off work this week and have a little activity planned each day. Today was the beach with Mike. He took a half day and on his way home from work today at lunch time we decided to swing by and pick up Bella and take her with us. We decided not to pick Preston up early as he has never missed a day of school and we didn't want him to loose a perfect attendance record (and it's not too often that we get some alone time with just Bella). It was really cloudy and windy so I was covered up most of the time with my towel but it didn't phase Bella at all! She chased sea gulls and built sand castles and tried to pet every dog that walked by. We were fortunate enough to see a whole heard (not sure what you call a group) of dolphins playing really close to shore... I mean flips and riding waves! It was like being at Sea World! Here are a couple of snaps:



The news I am so excited about is I was lucky enough to get registered for Karen Russell's photography class this June. She is really the reason I decided to start on this journey! I love her style and her blog. Hopefully I can absorb everything she can teach me to improve my photography skills. I don't plan on taking over the world or anything, just very excited to be learning about this new passion.

Sundays

Life seems to be a while lot easier when you have a schedule. We have lots of events that need to be marked on the calender in our kitchen but one faithful day a week we know not to make any plans because we do the same thing each week...on Sunday! Glorious Sunday! No work, no school! We go to church in the morning, eat lunch at home then head to the beach for shark teeth collecting. It's almost scary how many we find. The last two weeks Mike has found at least 20 each Sunday and everyone else finds about half of that each. We keep a mason jar with them all in it, trying to fill it by the end of the summer. After about 2 hours at the beach we head to my parents house for pool time and dinner. My Dad is in charge of the cocktails, Uncle Brian is in charge of keeping the kids happy, Mike is in charge of any "fixing" Mom and Dad need around the house and us girls work on decorating Mom's new house. Bella is attempting to swim without her swim vest but mostly she is clinging for dear life to Mike while she's in the pool. I normally forget to take some shots on Sunday because I'm in relax mode but I caught a couple yesterday.

My Nephew

Isn't he the cutest? His name is Radar and he is my big sister's baby! He has a pretty elaborate room for a dog...just kidding, his room has turned into a dreamy bedroom for a little girl my sister and her husband are trying to adopt...but Radar isn't ready to leave his favorite spot!