We attended another pool party today. This time for an adorable little 1  year old. The boys had a fabulous time in the pool and Isaac even mastered jumping into the pool without anyone holding his hand. Yah buddy!

[portfolio_slideshow: thumbs-true] Inspired by my friend, Ashley, I decided to do a series of images capturing Grayden as he woke up. He’s not the happiest of wakers… but after a few minutes he started having fun playing peekaboo and rewarded me with some smiles.

[portfolio_slideshow: thumbs, true] I spent some time out on the driveway this morning talking to a stucco contractor (boo to house issues) and noticed that the leftover water on the grass from the sprinklers was sparkling in the sunshine. And this pink grass was catching the early morning light in a gorgeous way.

[portfolio_slideshow: thumbs, true] Isaac is quite the expressive little dude. In this set we have “angry, surprised, excited, annoyed and happy.” Not in that order…

Grayden is part monkey, and apparently part owl. He’s so in touch with the social movements of the time that he has moved on from planking to owling. Google if you don’t understand :) The unfortunate part of these tendencies is that he tends to get stuck on top of things and fuss until he

Today he could have taken or left the camera. More likely, left it. Far, far behind.

The time that Dada comes home in the evening is often the happiest time of the day.

Noni brought Isaac a new game called Zingo. He loves it! Equal opportunity picture day. An image of each kid.

We attended a fun pool party today for two little guys who are turning 3. The theme was Cars and we were served the most adorable “McQueen” cupcakes. As you can tell, Isaac thoroughly enjoyed his.

I don’t generally like spiders. They serve their purpose in my vegetable garden though, so I leave a few webs undisturbed. It’s probably not logical to think that a spider is going to jump off of its web and bite me, but that is what went through my head as I was taking this shot.

I love when they cooperate. Just a silly snap. He’s a goof.

Isaac played dress-up in a sailor hat this morning. We only have one, but he found a white sun-hat for Grayden, put it on him and told me “we’re sailor boys, Mama!” Later we worked on writing some numbers. Oh, my little perfectionist. Mistakes are ok, little man.

The checker at TJ’s volunteered a $1.00 discount on the tulips because one of them wasn’t perky. For my purposes, it didn’t matter, but if a bungled flower is cause for a discount… who am I to argue?

If he can do it, he wants to do it himself. “I, I, I” is a constant chorus. He’s a busy one.

“The time after sunset and before dark.”

[portfolio_slideshow: thumbs;true] We’re still catching up on sleep around here. Isaac took a 4!! hour nap this afternoon. Grayden is sleeping a ton too, as well as working really hard on his molars. Poor kid.

Laundry is done, gear is put away, children are no longer stinky, my hair is mostly clean and I’m all caught up on blogging. Woohoo! The sweet face above actually took a nap today. It did him well.

Headed home today. Grayden had just finished his pre-drive inspection of the wheels and tires.

The kiddos absolutely loved the beach. It was a gorgeous day, as far as NorCal coast days go :), and we all enjoyed a picnic lunch and some time playing in the sand and water before heading back to camp. We also visited a “Drive-Thru” tree today. That’s our truck heading on through.

@170mm @145mm @200mm Back to my macro. My sister in law and I traded toys for a little while today. She has an 80-200 2.8 that I got to play with while she took my macro for a spin.

We drove for 6 and 1/2 hours up to the very northern most part of California to camp in the Redwoods. The boys handled the trip pretty well except the time that Grayden drank too much water too quickly during the 130 miles of switchbacks and other tight curves. Miraculously, both boys slept through the

We spent the day packing for our 3 night camping trip. We were exhausted before we even left!

In other words (non-Isaac words) the daisys are wilting.

When Dada works a 12 hour shift, sometimes we just have to do, what we have to do.