Isn't it supposed to be autumn?

Well then how come it's still 90 degrees at 9:30 in the morning when we go to the park?

We had an impromptu park day last week.

My poor little over-heated toddler.

I always consider Gianna's hair blond, until I see Benjamin!

Swinging...

Ambushed by surprise visitors...

Looks like someone else might be ambushed...

Scarlett

...swinging in the cool swings that we would all totally own - if they didn't cost $700!!!!

Isabella

Ben sharing snacks

How cute is THIS little chick pea?

Kate's Army Man trying out his parachute...

I think she's looking for autumn....

...I hope she finds it.

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Did you ever have to write Haiku in school?

I remember doing it in 2nd grade and then again in high school.

This post inspired me.

Autumn Haiku

By Maria

Craving crisp, cool air.

Crunching leaves ~ blowing breezes

Where art thou, Autumn?

One Hour Vacation

This morning when we awoke, I had a thought of taking Gianna to the beach.  She loves the idea of beach and water, but didn't get much play time during our Galveston birthday trip.  Even though we have lakes and beaches around here, they're not exactly what you'd considered stellar. Swimming in the lake water with all the chemical plants in view always freaks me out quite a bit, so I knew swimming was not going to happen.

So we packed up her sand toys and drove twenty minutes up the road to the I-10 beach.  It was 8am - and we were the only three souls on the beach.  Gianna was beside herself.

"Ocean!" she kept saying.

And finally she stopped long enough to play in the sand...

Packing the pale...

Building the castle....

Demolishing the castle!

"Hey, this sand sticks to my hands!"

Cool!

She was cracking herself up by jumping in the water.

I caught this one in mid-jump.

Check out the water pouring out of her Crocs.

Here she is calling the elusive bird she befriended.

Oh, you want to hear her calling the bird?

It was actually a pretty great morning with little time and effort in planning.

I'm glad we took an hour vacay to the local beach.

Long-Ago Trip

In 1987 my best friend and I went on a Youth/Young Adult Pilgrimage to Medjugorje in (then) Yugoslavia.  I recently came across these pictures that were taken with disposable cameras during this very week all those years ago. I edited them with http://www.picnik.com/ and they came out really good. 

One day, when I have time, I'll go back and add the stories to the pictures.