We got so spoiled with an amazing May and June. The sun was shining more than it wasn’t, and we kind of forgot what the “norm” was… Now that it’s July, we are all expecting super warm sunny days! And then, the last few days, I’ve had to dig out some winter wear!
Not that I’m complaining. I kind of like the break in the weather. I bought this faux fur vest off eBay for $16 back in April, and I didn’t think I’d get a chance to wear it for a while. I honestly wasn’t sure I’d have the nerve to wear it at atll… I broke it out for the 4th of July, and then turned around and wore it again the next day for this little outing. It’s so fun!! Oddly, it kind of goes with everything, and Maya likes to snuggle up to it, so extra bonus!
It was actually pretty cold and windy when we first got to the park. We ate a picnic lunch, and then decided to explore around the low tide.
Once again…I had issues with my remote trigger. I made sure to change the batteries right before we left, but didn’t check the batteries. Turns out, one of them had been sitting in our “battery drawer” for a while, and was totally corroded ;{
So, it was back to the self timer, which meant me running back and forth like an idiot. THANKFULLY the beach was pretty empty!
Then it started getting a little warmer…
haha. This totally cracks me up. Again….SO glad there weren’t very many people here.
I set up the camera behind Maya, hit the shutter, and then ran out in front to push on her feet. Love that she’s looking back at the camera!
Maya could literally spend the entire time swinging if I let her. Honestly, in my more honest bad mommy moments, I usually try and go to parks that don’t have swings. She won’t run around and play if they are there.
But…the joy? Hard to say no to that face!!
This face is so her. Trying REALLY hard not to smile 😉 
Although, this is even MORE her….
LOVE!!
On me…
LOVE HER!!
One of my favorite shots from the day… Although, I have a few! 
OMG! Both of our faces here hahahaha.
Another favorite… 
The camp Maya went to was 1.7 miles from our house. She walked there every morning, and 3 out of the 5 days walked home too! SO proud of her!!
She wants to pet just about every dog we see. This owner was nice enough to let Maya throw the Frisbee for her dog a few times 🙂 
I had this idea of shooting through the hanging branches, except it was pretty windy, and half the shots are like this… 🙂
My girlfriend’s teenage daughter curled Maya’s hair while we caught up. I’ve never curled her hair before, but it looked SO PRETTY!!
On me… (no time for links, sorry!)
Getting her to come to me when there’s all the open space from low tide, is practically impossible! Although, I tried to take a bunch while I was holding her, but my remote trigger was acting up-GRRR! 
Our shoes didn’t stay on long 🙂 
And, she’s OFF! 
LOVE this next one!!
hahaha. 
I had to get in the water for this shot, and let me tell you. The water was COLD!!! 
I took these the day before I left on my girls weekend over a week ago…
For a sizing reference. I’m 5′ 8″, and I got a small. It’s actually almost too long! Nothing a little knot doesn’t fix!
Because…twinning is winning! haha. 
Maya wanted to “Make me look beautiful” by putting weeds in my hair 😉 
You can’t really see them, but…so sweet! 
I can’t even handle her sweet smile!!! LOVE HER!
The low tide was SO cool, but it was SO slippery out there on the rocks. We ventured out a little bit, and then came back.
I thought about messing with this image in Photoshop to enhance the beauty, but decided to leave it exactly the way I took it in my camera… 
Same with this one. I’m not much of a landscape photographer, but I couldn’t help but take a picture on this day. 
And, I’ve always wanted to capture Maya mid jump. Oddly…when I finally did, I realize it wasn’t exaaaaaactly how I pictured it in my mind 🙂 
There may or may not have been some wine before we took these… 😉 
Sadly, I left my tripod leaning up against a building in Portland when I was loading my car up, and left it there. WAHHHHH!!!! I had all these plans to get a bunch of pictures of us together.
On me…
Earlier we saw a purple sea star (that I took a video off, but spaced on taking a picture of!) and a live crab, but it quickly hid under a rock. Later we found a baby crab that was sadly not alive anymore…
We had a little “Pretty Woman” moment, where I pretended the crab bit her 🙂 
Seriously…that face!!! 
I literally want to eat her up!!
It’s hard to get Maya to come anywhere near me, because she just wants to run and play in the sand.
Yup…this view is only a few yards away from the above shots! Honestly, not even that! I could have pivoted from the above shot to get this!! 
She honestly face planted in the first 5 minutes!! 🙂 I’m SO glad I thrift all her clothes!!
EXCEPT for the fact that once she’s down there…she doesn’t want to get up ;{
So, I have to offer to play with her (which is really all I want in the first place!) 🙂 
And….back to playing in the sand.
Until I gave her permission to just jump and play! 
But….
So, I ordered another shutter release, but it’s on back order. SO…the last few shoots have been all with the self timer. I CANNOT WAIT for the new shutter release to get here!!
And…her chasing me to the spot 🙂 I love this little pocket of sunshine and all the shade around it…
Wanting up…
Once again, I hadn’t planned on throwing her, but she came running full force at me, and we caught it perfectly. Well, not perfectly because I chopped off half of her body. Love that I still got her face…in the shadow and all.
Bubble gun that we got from the dollar store. So cool, because it doesn’t require batteries. NOT so cool, because you have to push the trigger a kazillion times to get a lot of bubbles. That’s hard for her, so she usually gets one big bubble… 
This next shot is totally blurry, and I don’t care!! I tried “gunning” some bubbles for her, and then attempted to run back to catch her chasing them. Well, the wind was too strong, and… 
You can’t tell, but it was 75 degrees. We were both HOT! And I was totally sweaty from running back and forth between the camera, and then chasing her. SO…we made the executive decision to leave and go play at the indoor gymnastic free play. Always sad to leave… 
On me…
and the back of this top?? LOVE!
If there is one thing I consistently love (besides an interesting back on a top haha), it’s a red shoe! LOVE the pop of color that instantly makes any outfit 10 times cuter!! 
I decided to play around with the 
Ladybug! 
It’s been a long time since I’ve captured this, but it’s one of my favorite sights!!! Maya running in for a big bear hug (which usually knocks me over, haha) 🙂 
I still cannot believe I got so lucky to have such a sweet happy little nugget…
On me…
Oh, and note to self. You have to stay within the sweet spot when shooting with a Lensbaby 😉 What you can’t really see is that Maya is desperately reaching down to tickle me on the way down haha.
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