the marina

after a year & a half of not coming home to cali, we finally made the trip! i went into san fran my first day in to see some of my favorites.

can i just say that the palace of fine arts in san francisco is one of my top 5 places on earth?! seriously ethereal.

we started at courtney's darling apartment & chased the sun a few blocks til we were at the palace of fine arts. whenever i let the beans just run wild someone gets gross. this time it was coke getting bird turd all over her bum. haha

this creeper turtle was obsessed with us & followed us around the pond.

they love auntie courtney. :)

 they like me too.

 usually.

later we met up with ali & bill & grabbed dinner & went back to their loft. they were awesome while my girls explored/tore apart their house. i love me some ali girl.

always fun to hop into the city real quick & see fun people. :)

bike pump

after a hard ride on the trike cossette likes to hook up to her self pumping oxygen...

 she'll do this for 15 minutes & just giggle at how funny she thinks she is.

in her defense, she is pretty dang hilarious.

little sister besties

my gramsy (& namesake) & her little sister mary were the best of friends. fun fact: once mary was a widow, she walked up to her sister's house for a sleepover every night for nearly 20 years. sadly i don't have a picture on me but i'll see what i can scrounge up...

my great aunt june & her little sister, my grandma joycie, were the best of friends.

my mom & her little sister camille are the best of friends.

me & my little sister stephanie are the best of friends.

ellery & her little sister cossette are the best of friends.

i mean, inseparable.

nearly all the time.

i quite like this family tradition.

gardening

there's been some successes:

do you SEE this mom??!! for that matter, do you see this renée?! hahaha i am effectively growing something besides kids!

but there have also been some failures: (look away moms...)

this was supposed to be this cool, vertical herb pallet garden. i suck.

the beans loved helping plant everything & constantly are going out & watering/checking out their veggies & flowers. :)

new friends

since moving to cs we have been busy with vacas, visitors, checking out our latest city, enjoying the club, working on house stuff, & making some awesome new friends.

the beans have such a blast with all their little buddies & we are happy to be in a great, friendly neighborhood!

springs zoo

we went to the cheyenne mountain zoo with some friends of ours that were crazy nice & offered up their guest tickets for me & elles from their season passes. thanks leslie & julie! it's set right in the mountain & so you kind of hike around the sections. very unique & really pretty cool.

 we saw all sorts of animals,

 rode on the kiddie train,

& held hands.

ellery renée has a slight obsession with peacocks. i think i've talked about how her uncle logan does a peacock call & goes on long, fake peacock hunts with the girls. they were roaming around the zoo & she chased after them & squealed & was just thrilled!!

 but MY favorite part was the giraffes!

 they are so friendly & come right up to you & you can actually feed them lettuce!

ellery thought they were rad & before i knew what was happening she had made buddied up with some strangers & was mooching lettuce from them. this kid & her over friendly nature is seriously hilarious. (& sometimes a little embarrassing)

 the baby one was a fan of e's.

 coke was incredible with them. they all flocked to her & i only got nervous & pulled her away once. ;)

my little giraffe whisperer.

cañon city

just over an hour away from us in the royal gorge region of colorado.

the first half of memorial day weekend we headed down for me to be the number two photographer & shoot a gorgeous wedding!! it was a blast!

it was a traditional catholic wedding followed by a reception at an incredible old victorian mansion. such a cool experience & something i'm confident i'm getting better & better at. i'm loving working with this company as much as possible. should post a few pics from the wedding soon.

we also played a lot in the hotel pool, always fun. i particularly love the pic of jellybean & austin.

the men watched the 5 kids; milly (4), ellery (3), harper (2), cossette (1), beck (0), while miriam & i worked. quite the teamwork :)

cousins

we live less than an hour from my cousin christopher (fer) & his wife liz & their 3 darling, smart, well behaved chillins. i could go on. haha i've been a slacker about getting any pics with them but was snap happy when they came down & hit garden of the gods with us at the end of march.

 jocelyn

 brooke

ellery

cossette. can you see that she's sucking her cheeks into an almost fishy face? i think girlfriend knows that's the widest part of her body...

 dane

aren't they too cute?! liz's brother matthew is a total stud & it's always more fun with him around.

the kidlets play well together, especially the older girls. makes us miss having lexy & lena around.

ye chief was there too. my eye candy.

daner is my little buddy. i may or may not have photoshopped some clots of dirt from his face.

fer & jocelyn use the climbing wall at their gym all the time so she was super excited to rock climb for real.

cossette was cranky she didn't get a turn.

i love this part of colorado springs. always unique & beautiful while i scan the rock face for climbers.

when i put this photo on fb, my cute aunt kathy mentioned that my new shade matches the red rocks. :) camouflage baby! i blend right in!

we play with fer & liz when we can & they are always fun to hang out with. after living a country away from family, it makes us feel connected. & i love that.

& there is probably another cousin moving to that same town... oooo intrigue. :)