I've been "chasing" the perfect beach photo of my daughters all summer long. It's a tricky catch with bright sun and windy conditions. I was very excited when we arrived at Capitola Beach last week to overcast and windless conditions and I really like what I got! I love these girls and I love having a photo like this. Photographs are like gold to me.

Some more photos from our day. I loved this beach! Totally kicking myself because this was the first time we've been there! I'm planning on going back one more time before we move and when we come back to visit the Bay Area, I'm hopeful that we'll be able to spend a few days at the beach. It's the cutest little beach town with a very yummy bakery!

We're savoring our sunny days at the beach. They're coming to an end. In less than 3 weeks, we will no longer call California home. We're beginning a new chapter in Washington. I'm at both ends of the spectrum emotionally. I'm excited about Washington, happy to be closer to family and I'm in love with the home we're buying. And I'm going to miss California something fierce - the place, the people, the whole dang thing. Living in California has been an amazing gift. Our family, our marriage has done a lot of changing while we lived here. We climbed so many mountains here, our most known one was paying off our debt. California is the only home our girls can remember - they were too small when we left Colorado. We are going to miss just about everything about living here (our dear friends are at the top of that list!) and I'm already planning next summer's vacation in this golden State!

We celebrated Holly's 6th birthday this weekend. Six years old. That feels like the big leagues or something. It's very grown up, very much passed the "toddler" and "preschooler" age. Holly is full of energy and a generally very happy child. She loves reading "Biscuit the dog" books. She loves playing with her sister - the intensity at which they play is impressive. Every day, Holly and Greta are thrilled to be together and they play with passion. It's adorable and I'm in awe of their amazing sisterhood. Holly's Holly! She a wonderful kid! It was a fun, busy weekend. We went to the San Francisco Zoo on Friday. It's an okay zoo. The most recent zoo we've been to is the San Diego Zoo. If that's the zoo that I hold as the standard, I think I'm going to be very disappointed every time we visit a zoo. It was fun and I'm glad we went. I don't plan on visiting again. On Saturday evening we had a very small birthday party. And now it's over. But the entitlement lives on.

I love the fourth of July! Most years that we've lived here in CA, we've gone to the Rose, White and Blue Parade - a local parade that's really close to where we live. It's so fun and I think I love it the most. When the army reserves come rolling through, I barely hang on from bursting into tears. My heart is so grateful to live in the USA. I love living here. I love the people, I love the diversity. I love the opportunity. I don't fully understand what a big deal it is to have lived in North America my entire life, because I haven't experienced any amount of my freedom being removed from me. Undoubtably I take it for granted to some degree. It's a white woman's luxury that feels a little uncomfortable to type, and yet I'm so grateful.

A trip to Half Moon Bay with Conor! Traffic is seriously so insane here these days. It can be painful to get to the beach. We were planning on going to Santa Cruz, but there was a couple accidents on the 17 and early Friday afternoon traffic... so change of plans! Half Moon Bay was cool and breezy and beautiful.