First night at El Capitan State Beach

Posted on July 1, 2011 by Allison

Setting up camp is always a little fun — where to put things and (for the moment) everything is clean and ready to use. If only packing up to leave again was half as exciting… Ainsley was all too happy to sit idly by, but Avery was impatient waiting for the trailer and the Jeep to be unloaded…

Avery and Ainsley found a pile of left-behind rocks and shells from previous campers. This inspired them to look around our site for more…

Then Avery happened upon this one way over behind our tent that looked just like a heart! I was going to tell her she should keep it right as she chucked it into the canyon behind our site, so sadly, the heart-shaped rock will have to stay in El Capitan…

The girls wake up so early that we had to resist the urge to stay up late and play too many rounds of dominos. I was kicking some serious booty anyway…

Posted in Camping Trips, On the Road | Leave a comment

From the Passenger’s Seat…

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Allison

We spent the last few days up north of Santa Barbara camping at the beach. It was a great time — the girls had SO much fun. I love helping to give them experiences like this… I know they will appreciate it when they’re older :) I tried not to overdo it with my camera because that many days of dirty, sandy, smoky camping isn’t good for camera equipment, but I did lug it around with me quite a bit. I can’t help it — I see the world through my viewfinder too often! Here are a few pics just from the front seat. I have SO many to go through :)

We broke down and bought a car DVD player for the girls…. 9+ hours of driving for this trip, 12+ hours of driving next week, 6+ hours of driving the week after that… it’s not fair to expect kids to sit in the car for that many hours.

El Camino Real :)

I asked the girls to also take pictures with their iPhones, but have yet to go through all of those pictures. Here they are shooting me shooting them.

“Are we there yet? Are we there yet?”

300mm through the driver’s side window, moving at 70mph on the 101 freeway — Love my VR lens!

Posted in Camping Trips, On the Road | 1 Comment

Jammin’

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Allison

A good friend of mine is like this crazy good cook, baker, and gardener. She jarred so much jam from the fruit in her backyard that she had to ‘force’ me to take some home ;) But seriously… I wondered where she gets the time, and then she confessed to staying up until 2:30am one night this week to get it all done. I have yet to try some, but I’ve got big plans for the kiwi! I also discovered my true passion — product photography! It doesn’t squirm and blink and tell you it doesn’t want to look at your camera anymore… the last photo just cracks me up — the steps she has to take to keep little hands off of her ‘goods.’

Posted in Food | 2 Comments

Hamsterland! AKA, free ways to entertain your kids during summer…

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Allison

So, the girls were wandering around lost and whining about summer being SO boring. Clearly they do not yet appreciate summer as it should be appreciated. So, my quick fix was to whip out a long sheet of paper, tape it to our mobile tabletop, and draw “HamsterLand.” Of course! I started them off with a few spots in their imaginary land and then told them to fill in the rest. What they came up with was pretty fun :) They scrounged up every little tiny toy figurine they could find to “live” in HamsterLand. The hamsters are apparently very welcoming and allow creatures of all shapes and sizes into their gates… they proceeded to play volleyball, water the flowers and trees, and swim in the river. And it just took some paper and crayons :)

Posted in Crafts, Home, My Girls | 3 Comments

IE Food Truck Fest, 2011

Posted on June 18, 2011 by Allison

I went to a local food truck fest today with my fella and brother, dad, and some good friends. What a cool concept — group all of these AWESOME food trucks all in one location and give people like 50+ choices for what kind of gourmet food they’re interested in trying and/or buying. It was delicious! It was also hot, though — not enough shade and not enough places to sit. It was the first of its kind near me, so I’d be willing to bet they’ll take some criticism and make an attempt to make things a little more comfortable for patrons next year, if there is one next year!

Just some snapshots :)

Truffle Popcorn… it was interesting….

Overall, a great day. I’d go next year in a heartbeat :)

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Summer Fun

Posted on June 15, 2011 by Allison

The girls needed to have some space from each other today, so I put Avery to work with chores (she’s earning allowance to buy a scooter, I figure it’s good for her to ‘work’ for something occasionally) and Ainsley helped water the grass :) This, of course, was more about running in the sprinklers for her, which was obviously the plan ;) She ran around like a crazy person for quite a while and it gave the two of them some much needed space from each other! Ainsley kept wanting me to take pictures of her jumping over the sprinkler over and over so she could see how high she jumped on my camera afterward. I don’t know what the temps were in So Cal today, but it was a hot one!

Posted in My Girls | 3 Comments

Moms’ Night Out :)

Posted on June 15, 2011 by Allison

I’m so thankful to have wonderful friends that I share so much in common with! I have many teacher friends who I love and adore, but I think sometimes they think my photography obsession is a little annoying… It’s nice to have a group of friends who are equally obsessed with photography, and love to be silly and have a good time, too :) We’ve all grown so close over the last several years. It’s fun to see each other grow and change and succeed at our individual endeavors. And a plus is, if you’re the stupid one who brought your $2,500 camera to karaoke night, someone is always sure to grab it and start snapping away :)

Posted in Friends, Photography | Leave a comment

Meet Domino

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Allison

Maybe, anyway. I have definitely decided to commit to thinking about possibly perhaps adopting this kitten. Naming him means I’m probably not going to be able to say “no.” Avery made a list of possible names tonight and I agreed to listen to them at dinnertime. Her list included what I expected: Fluffy, Whitey, Snowball. BUT, her list included names I really loved: Simon, Frisco, Razor, and Fragile, pronounced “Frah-Gee-Lay,” of course. Oh how I love my children… they keep me laughing all day. But, one name really stood out to me, and that was “Domino.” How can I say “no” when she made such a valiant effort to give him a great name? Ainsley’s submissions were pretty much the same as Avery’s, just with “Mr.” added to the front of them — Mr. Fluffy, Mr. Fluffles, Mr. Snowy… you get the point ;)

We went over to my friend’s who’s fostering them to help play with, feed, bathe (they started eating some kibble and get FILTHY…) and snuggle up the three kittens for a nap. Both girls loved every single minute of it. Possibly a little too much, as they wanted to carry them around like ragdolls, and it’s hard to tell a little girl to put down a sweet, furry kitten :)

So anyway, here is Domino (maybe) and his siblings.

Posted in My Girls, The Cat | 2 Comments

Squared

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Allison

Most of these are photos I’ve taken with my iPhone using the Instagram app and a few other photo-editing iPhone apps — I love the little Instagram community, so much fun :) Here’s a square of squares — I’m working on a set of squared circles too. It’s kind of freeing to give myself permission to use my phone for pictures occasionally…

Posted in Photography | Leave a comment

Preschool Graduation Party!

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Allison

Ainsley had her end-of-preschool pizza party today. I have to be honest, I was kind of dreading the big party field trip because I’m just ready for it to be summer! But, it was actually lots of fun – the girls have been talking about it ever since we got home :) I’m so proud of my girl — the beginning of the year this year was tough for Ainsley. She cried going to school every single time for months and months. It actually never got better from when she was three, and after turning four, she continued with the separation anxiety. It was hard for me to take her there, even though she wasn’t spending tons of time at school since I only work part time. I was VERY thankful that once we went back to school after Christmas vacation, she realized she actually really loved school, and we’ve never looked back.

Here are some pizza party preschool sendoff pics. The kids all made miniature pizzas, took a tour of the facility, and then ate and headed off into the arcade. We had a great time, and I even rode the bumper cars! (sans camera, of course…) The girls fell asleep in the car on the way home, which rarely happens anymore. It was a fun day!

Posted in My Girls | 4 Comments