Blocked Shot

In honor of NOT having two basketball games this weekend (hallelujah!), here's a quick shot of my little defender. I took my camera along last weekend and grabbed a few snaps of him in action. I'm glad I did, because I've been really bad about doing that this year...

Sleepy Girl

With the blown out spots, this doesn't qualify as technically great photography, but I do believe it's still a sweet shot. And one that's surprisingly tough to get, since this girl is a light sleeper (unbelieveable, given her heavy snoring) and pops up whenever there's the slightest movement around her napping self.



I decided to add an awake shot, too, since it shows clearly one of the funky little features that makes our sweet puppy unique -- the dark membrane around her right eye. I have to admit that it took me a good few months before I figured out why her eyes looked different... kind of like those kids' placemats in restaurants that feature the "find the thing that doesn't match" game...



Weird, huh?

Discovering Poly Canyon

A couple of weeks ago, our family took advantage of the crazy-good weather and spent a weekend afternoon outside. First on the agenda was a hike. (Well, technically, first on the agenda was a stop for lunch, because that's how we roll.) We've been making our way through a book of hikes around San Luis, and someone decided that on this occasion we'd hit the trail through Poly Canyon.

If you're local and haven't already discovered this funky gem, I urge you to seek it out. The "hike" is very mild -- about a mile up a gentle grade -- and dumps you into a canyon filled with hands-on projects tackled by architecture and engineering students and dating back to the 1970's. There are little spec houses and unusual sculptures... even things I couldn't name. Just... things. Cool things to see, for sure.

Our kids had a great time checking it all out and declared it an awesome family adventure. I only had the point and shoot for documenting the sights, but it did the job...

PS & MR

Last weekend, we cruised up to the Bay Area to check in with my husband's mom and her parents. Papa Sam and Mama Ruthie were troopers, allowing my rowdy crew to invade their house (with bulldog in tow!) and hang out Saturday evening and Sunday morning as well.

The visit was timely in that my 7.5-year-old needed to interview a family member this week for a school project. Since PS was 7.5 himself when he came to this country from Holland, we thought he made a fantastic subject. Again, he was a great sport and even posed for a photo to accompany the interview worksheet.



MR posed with her great-granddaughter:



The guys took a break for some Smashball action and goofing around:



And this little bugger raced around the yard like a maniac. (I don't want to hear any more jokes about my lazy bulldog. Does this puppy look lazy to you?? Crazy, maybe. Lazy, no.)



I know that Papa Sam checks the blog occasionally, so hopefully he enjoyed those images. Hi, Papa Sam!