I love taking photos of my girls. It makes me really happy. Recently, I was printing photos and saw that's it's been a long time since I've taken a proper photo of them together. I grabbed the soonest opportunity. Holly is finally cooperating with photos (most of the time) and I love the photos I took of her. And Greta is hit or miss. Taking pictures of children is like a box of chocolates... 

I like Holly and Greta's room. It's far from perfect and all the furniture but the glider are cheap, but I like it. It's not super stylish, but it works for us. I haven't photographed all of the spaces we've lived in, and I want to be better at that. This space needed to be photographed because at some point in the near future, It's going to be different. Holly will need a bigger bed (she's so tall!) and Greta will need to upgrade from a crib. We recently had a stay-at-home day and I had the opportunity to tidy up and take photos. And I took it! 

Some notes: I love our glider. I have spent so much time in that chair. Every night we have a cuddle before bed and of course there's lots of other cuddles inbetween. I bought ours second hand. I also love the gallery wall. I love looking at it and thinking about my girls. The girls love their frame with the photos of them and their grandparents. I think it's important to be reminded of the 4 people who love them most (after their parents) especially since we don't see them very often. The artwork is definitely a favorite. Holly has noticed the art more recently and she likes to talk about it. Little things like, "I like the giraffes." One of the pictures is a drawing Greta did on a scrap of paper and gave to Holly. Holly was so thirlled with it that she wanted in on her wall. It's been there for months now. The jar for jewelry and hair accessories is the best idea I've ever had in my life. It has saved us so much untidiness! 

Conor is great at playing with the girls. Anything that involves building, he's game. One recent Sunday, he built a 14 foot duplo bridge with the girls. And Holly built a "die bed" for Snow White. How pleasant. 

The bridge was quite impressive and I just love seeing my family play together. Makes me happy!

Conor has a new bucket list item: build a mile long bridge from duplo/legos. Ha!

We went to a Santa Cruz beach, Twin Lakes, with a big group of Moms and kids and it was great! I love going to the beach with other people - the children always have so much fun playing together. Twin Lakes (south of the harbor) is so great for parking. We literally parked right there, practically on the beach. I love that it was a very short walk with my children and all our beach things and no hills! Unfortunately, the wind picked up rather strongly and so our beach day wasn't quite as long as hoped for. We grabbed ice cream on our way out of town at a spot that is apparently favorited by locals, Mariannes Ice Cream. A great hurrah for a friend who is moving to SoCal. 

After our lovely camping trip, we decided to take a scenic drive home. We wanted Holly and Greta to nap as long as possible in the car and we wanted to enjoy the ocean and chit chat. We drove from Santa Cruz to Half Moon Bay and then east. And the drive did not disapoint! I loved it. California is beautiful! I love living here! Feels like home. 

One of the beaches we stopped at was a hub for kite surfing and wind surfing. Just watching these guys ride the waves and fly was a thrill and so I can only imagine that doing it is amazing!