I think most women gravitate towards black when they are feeling…not so thin, have no idea what they want to wear, or have zero time to think of what to wear.  Basically, it’s a no brainer, yet it’s a total win pretty much every time!

All that said, I almost threw in the towel on this shoot before it ever even happened…

A) The minute we set all our crap down I heard a snap.  My hair tie broke.  Mom bun down!!!  Did I have a spare in my ginormous beach bag?  Of course not.  So, I tied my hair in braids (every 5 minutes…)  And for those of you that have naturally curly hair.  You know that there is NO just leaving it down if you haven’t showered.  No…I hadn’t showered yet. haha.  I knew we’d be needing a shower after the beach, so why bother? 🙂  Thankfully I had been straightened it a few days earlier, which made it behave a liiiiittle better 🙂

B) Maya was feeling a little off (edited to add, she was getting sick).  I kept asking her if she wanted to find sea glass (no, thank you), balance on the log with me (no thank you), play “chase me” (no thank you), go run on the beach (no thank you).  I’ll admit, it was nice of her to be polite, but ugh.

C) It went from overcast and chilly to totally sunny and HOT in about 5 minutes.  That all black being a win every time?  Not so much.  I was sweating like a pig.

But…for F’s sake.  I lugged all my camera crap down there, so I was taking a few pics! 🙂 But…then she came around!  One of my favorite things is how enthusiastically Maya runs in for a hug! hahaha  Um, dramatic much? At 40 lbs, I think the days of me throwing Maya up in the air are numbered.  But…I’ll keep trying as long as I can, and as long as my back lets me 😉 Because she freaking loves it!!  And, I love hearing her laugh and say “Again!!!”And, she’s OFF!Seriously…every 5 minutes.  Rebraiding or retwisting my hair into a bun.  I even stabbed a stick into it to try and make it stay.

And, yes…that would be some baby butt crack you see.  It doesn’t matter if the jeans are too big, too small, just right.  She sports butt crack at some point during the day.On me…

And….here are some of the throws that I didn’t catch so well with the self timer 😉

 This was such weird day weatherwise.  It was sunny one minute, and than it started raining about 10 minutes after we got there!  But…then stopped after 10 minutes!  All the while, with blue skies up above? I’ve been wearing these shoes so much since I scored them thrifting.  They are ridiculously comfortable!!  And…finally a close up of Greta’s paw and Maya’s footprints 🙂 I was SO impressed that she was able to balance on this!!  Not only was it thin, but it kept wobbling due to the angle.  GO Maya!We made a run for the car, and then as soon as we got to the steps it stopped raining.  Maya found this butterfly/moth in the grass, which was pretty cool.On me…

This was one of those days where Maya wanted nothing to do with me haha.  She just wanted to dig in the sand, balance on the logs, and chase butterflies… Didn’t stop me from TRYING to pick her up 😉

 I’m so loving that it’s staying lighter later.  It’s especially nice because our weather has been so bipolar lately!  One minute we have sunshine, the next it’s raining!  You never know when you can go outside and have fun!  On this day, it suddenly got nice later, so we ran outside to play with some bubbles.

And when I’m brain dead…ripped denim and a tee are what I grab.

It’s hit or miss on her actually blowing the bubbles 😉 And…then she got it! LOVE THAT SWEET FACE! So, funny story.  Our neighbor was outside throwing a ball for his dog.  He kept making noises at Maya, and she kept making noises back at him.  They went back and forth, and back and forth.  I got a little nervous that they were waking other kids up that don’t have such late bed times… ;{ On me…

I don’t even know what was going on here hahaha.  Maybe our neighbor made a better sound than she did 😉

 I love dressing one way on top and then another way on the bottom.  For some reason, I think it just works perfectly.  On top, I feel like a preppy PTA mom, and on the bottom, not so much.  🙂 I can’t even handle how cute she is!!!!My mom gave Maya this flower the other night, and I’ve been dying to take her pictures with it in this dress.  They match perfectly 🙂Collecting more “beach eggs” for her collections.Hahahaha.On me…

I couldn’t remember where I was supposed to stand 😉I guess she didn’t want a kiss?? 😉

 We are getting to that time when a LOT of our posts will be down on the beach.  We are super lucky to live so close to a gorgeous beach, and I loooove that Maya just runs, and runs, and runs!

I’m a liiiiiittle pissed that I messed up the focus on these first few, but whatever.  That’s the downside to the beach.  There are always people watching and wondering what the heck I’m doing with the tripod, and then I usually end up kicking whatever marker I had for my spot or it gets buried in the sand!  First world problems for sure 😉

Thankfully the images are pretty small, so you might not even be able to tell.  I can though, and it peeves me off!! On me…