My husband remembers building his boat for the Raingutter Regatta when he was a cub scout. He just pulled it out of a box (note to self: should snap a picture of that). Most people have heard of the Pinewood Derby, but the Raingutter Regatta is a little less known. The premise is: boy assembles and accessorizes boat. Boy places boat in water filled track. Boy blows sail to advance boat to finish with hopes of accomplishing this before his competitor.

Here's our story:

It was a GORGEOUS night for it.

Have I mentioned that sister has always wanted to be a "Pub Scout." Dad let her build a boat as well. Of course she customized it to be a water craft for her Littlest Pet Shoppe pup.

He won some and lost some. Event was a success. And did I mention that the

SKY WAS BEAUTIFUL!!!!

It was so fun to see you this summer!!!

I think that he LOVED that he wasn't supposed to climb up there. He was grinnin' ear to ear the whole time.

A couple weeks ago we went beach camping at Doheny State Beach in Orange County. Southern California has such a nice variety of beautiful beaches. We stayed in tents and cooked over a fire, in a dutch oven, and on a propane stovetop. Three cheers for yummy and super easy BBQ chicken in the dutch oven and delicious fajitas from foil dinners.

My kids were filthy most of the time - filthy and happy. We went for a family walk along the shore, so I decided to snap a quick family photo.

I have been working on designing an album featuring my kids from this year. Most of the images are the ones I've featured in my Mine On Monday posts. Here are a few more favorites that will soon be sitting in my album:

So... I'm speechless. My camera fell in love with her immediately. Let the images do the talking.

This sweet beauty looked like an angel in her white dress. She has plenty of personality to fill loads of frames in the camera.






A quick grab of her brothers who were running around in the background and exploring the pond during our little photo shoot.

Three years ago I abandoned the chain store photo studios. You have to understand, I faithfully brought my children to them for birthdays, Halloween, and annually for a group shot. I was consistent and diligent and am still grateful to have those regular captures of my children. But they didn't capture mine as I see them. I don't usually set my kids on a table covered in a black cloth and wave a feather duster in their face, so there was nothing truly genuine in the ending photographs.

My lil girl had just turned three when I set out on our first big photo shoot. I drove to Huntington Botanical Gardens in Pasadena. Just before we went to the gardens I stopped off at Wild Oats to get some grains and organic sunscreen (which didn't work by the way). Something triggered my girl in the check out. I don't remember what. I do remember that I carried her back to the car kicking and screaming while all the other customers turned to stare. What ensued was the biggest toddler tantrum in our mother/daughter history. She was screaming, arching her back, and escaping her car seat. I pulled over multiple times to get her settled back in. Eventually I was in tears and called my husband. She was hysterical. I was hysterical. We certainly weren't going to have success taking pictures. I was afraid to get on the freeway with her climbing out of her seat. It was horrible.

When the storm was over, she appeared to snap back into the little girl I remember. She wasn't extremely excited about looking at my camera either, but I ended up getting an image for my wall. She has been my most difficult to photograph for years. When she turned five, we rounded a corner. She decided to accept my doughnut incentive program, and I agreed to make our photo sessions less than a millennium long. My butterfly emerged from her chrysalis. Look at her now - my most agreeable photo subject; my most beautiful little girl.