more september

(i have a hard time with this editor, because it's hard to move photos around. i don't know how to make it easier, but otherwise, blogger works for me--that's why i am not just continuing in one post.)

we bade farewell to some lovely friends with a last romp on the beach. it was a fabulously beautiful day, a touch bittersweet because the friends are moving pretty far away from us, and the ocean. but we didn't let it get us down.

we explored a new beach near the yaquina bay lighthouse, and there were fun dunes to slide down. it was so warm and sunny and so unlike both of our other trips to the coast this summer.

gus was intent on building a sand castle, and managed to get close enough to the break for it to happen this time. i don't have a good photo of that but, i assure you the fun they had cannot be captured. we all brought gobs of extra warm clothes, and then decided mom was truly crazy for thinking that (no matter that the last two times we went to the coast we froze our tukuses off.)

eleanor filled her whole skirt with sand, and asked me to carry it home for her. ha! we didn't manage that, but gus seemed to somehow get enough sand in his bed somehow that it seemed like nearly as much as ella wanted to bring home. a day playing on the beach was just the ticket, as it always is for getting us worn out, happy and better able to manage the little things that drive us crazy on other days.

oh btw, i dropped my camera, lens down, into this lovely soft white sand. so far, it's okay but it is making some funny noises, perhaps saying 'i have sand in my eye!'

September, you lovely thing, you.

each year, when september arrives, i just want to take big gulps of the sunshiny air, the coolness that is saying goodbye to summer, the hint of apples and crunchy leaves in the air. this year is no different.
after a brief and fun trip to san diego, where i had much fun, but was made ever grateful for my northwest home, i was blessed to be able to make it to another birth, and now we are having 'not back to school time.'
here is some of what we have been doing lately:yes, going on a school bus. no, make that a COOL bus. see the sign? how exciting for my young pals, to get to ride on a big school bus--they have ridden on a little one, since our friend hosanna has a biodiesel bus. and where were we going? here's a hint:yes, it was the zoo. somehow i managed to take several giraffe and hippo photos, but none of the main attraction, which was cousin hope. it is so lovely to see the cousins love each other up. poor hope gets sort of smothered with affection by her two girl cousins, who like to lift her up and down places she is perfectly capable of getting up and down herself. still, it's great to hang with cousins, and their parents. after we left they all said, 'when can we see hope again?' it is always interesting to go to the zoo. gus is a die-hard follow the map sort of guy, and wanted to make sure we saw everything. we did NOT see the new baby elephant, because i nixed the idea of standing in line for 40 minutes in the sun. perhaps another time, pachy. apparently the children really love to go through the turnstile, because when we were headed out they all raced to get a chance to go through. i remember thinking it was a cool thing when we used to go to the zoo in sioux falls with grandma and papa, too.