July

I had captured some memories of July in photographic form and didn't post them in July. I'm not sure what the hold up was, but I figure I should at least try and keep up with my meticulous record keeping, so here it goes:

Early in July (around the 4th) I ate this cupcake. It was delicious.

A few days later the family went camping at Sunset State Beach on the Monterey Bay with my brother, his kid, his wife, and her parents. The point that I'm trying to reach is that I ate this:

It too, was delicious.

This campground was positioned between this

and this

Yeah! That's the ocean! I love the ocean. What I did not particularly like was the smell of that dead whale. Yes, look again, you will find a decaying whale in that picture. Miraculously, the smell didn't reach farther than 100 yards, so we never really smelled it except when we walked that stretch of the beach.

Seeing how we went to Sunset State Beach, it was natural that we should view a sunset or two.

This one hit me in the eye, and I haven't quite forgiven it yet.



Audrey and Paul walking on water.

Audrey's Grandparents.

Her Aunt, doing yoga on the beach.

I love the mother-daughter matching. I'm in full support of matching, but this was not always the case. I have vivid memories of pure hatred when Mom would make me wear matching clothes with her. I remember one Sunday sitting in Primary absolutely fuming because Mom and I were wearing similar dresses. Sorry, Mom, I don't think I meant to be a punk. If you want, we can go shopping and find matching shirts. It'll be great!


Marissa's Mom has some excellent braiding skills that she whipped out the last night.

Once we got back to Atascadero, I gave Audrey some broccoli to gnaw on,

and we checked out the garden!

Strawberries,

grapes,

purple peppers (green on the inside),


and my first carnation!


My cosmos went wild,


I found a peanut blossom,


and my quinoa is doing swimmingly!

Bonus points if you can find the spider.
The same day that we got back from camping, my other brother showed up! It was a weekend of brothers, and it was great! The day that Paul and Marissa were going to leave, Mom suddenly had a panic attack because we hadn't taken any pictures as a family. I had just rolled out of bed, and suddenly it was photo shoot time! Who doesn't like a good photo shoot?

I love that picture.

After the sibling shot, I was setting up the family photo.

Here we have Mom practicing, and Brandon bonding with Audrey.

This next picture really just captures the spirit of our home, so I had to post it:


And the real deal!


Oh man, I'm exhausted. You must be, too.
Go get some electrolytes or something.