California Dreaming

We spent Easter weekend in San Diego with my husband’s family. While I don’t mind visiting family, I did put one condition on the trip… that we go to the beach one day.

These little guys were in a wide band where the tide had left them. Someone who lives near the ocean, is this normal? They were all alive and wiggling around.

I can’t ever take a normal picture of my husband. I’m fairly certain this is because he’s not normal.

Of course, the baby wasn’t interested in anything except daddy’s keys…

and a seashell.

Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles hold a special place in my heart. They were the first cookie I learned how to bake. I can still see the page of the old Better Homes and Garden red and white cookbook that I pulled out hundreds of times to bake from (in part because I still have the cookbook :)).

Ingredients:

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup of butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla

3 tbl. sugar
1 tbl. cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl mix 3 tbl. of sugar and 1 tbl. of cinnamon. Set aside.

Next, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add vanilla, milk, and eggs and beat well. Add baking soda, cream of tartar, and flour until the dough is well combined and formed.

Make one inch balls from dough. Roll each ball in the mixture of cinnamon sugar.

Place cookies on ungreased cookie sheet and slightly flatten each ball with the bottom of a glass. Bake for 8-10 minutes until light golden. Makes approx. 66 cookies.

Little buggars

First, I noticed some gnaw marks in the pumpkins in our yard. Then gouges. Then HOLES in the pumpkins that just kept getting bigger. Either the zombie in the front yard was really hungry, or the damn squirrels were eating my pumpkins.

Casing the joint.

mmmmph nom nomph
pumpkin2

nom nom nommers nom
pumkin3

Little farkers.

Back in the saddle again

My husband and I took a walk with the dogs, the baby, and my camera. I think he underestimated just how much I missed taking pictures. There were several times when I had to hustle to catch up to them. (I have an awesome husband who handled them all while I was working the camera.)

I’m in love with the background of this picture. There was a huge stand of dill growing immediately behind these flowers which caused the bokeh to have so much texture to it.

So much texture in one little flower.

The yellow on these sunflowers was almost neon.

Something for me to work on for next time: Stop putting everything to the left of the frame.