this is going to be long. buckle down.

So I just spent like an hour sending myself all sorts of pictures off of my phone. Of course they're mostly of Hazel, with the token one or two of other things, like my house. I'm going to just slap them up on here with little captions - have fun browsing.


My little hoodlum.




At the zoo with Rae Ann and the girls.



My favorite zoo picture. Too cute.





At the beach! Her first time swinging alone. I could have spent all day watching her and snapping pictures - she cracked us up. She kept kicking out her little legs, dancing in her seat. She's been in a swing on my lap before, but this was a totally different experience - she was gleeful!



If you know us at all, you know that we're huge fans of coffee. And the beach. Put the two together, you often find us at Bella Espresso in Cannon Beach. Oh, but we've found even better coffee. Bella has disappointed us our last few trips so we thought we'd find a new coffee joint to try. Head south through Cannon Beach to the second turn-off to 101 (by Doogers) and you'll find this little coffee roaster and storefront called the Sleepy Monk. Yum in the extreme. So good this Starbucks girl even bought a pound of their Fiddler's Fusion (Nate, an even bigger coffee critic than me, was ecstatic). Oh, and they make really good buttermilk doughnuts. So this picture is from their little cafe. And here's a shocker: They're only open Friday-Sunday. Stop in, though - it's worth it!



If you've ever been to my parents' house, you might recognize this picture as their driveway - then again, you might not. I was shocked to drive down it the other day and find that the construction crew from across the street had ripped down about a third of the trees lining their driveway. I guess a cul-de-sac is going in.



This is the field next to our house that I've kinda been posting about. It's been totally cleared now. There are no more trees, shrubs, or blackberry bushes, and it's been raked flat. Grass is going in next...and soon.


I suddenly can't find a picture I took of my garden. I'll have to find that and post it - or just take another one. Yes, that would be easier. I'll do that. I'm sure lazy today! And I'm quickly running out of time. Hazel is in the third hour of her nap so my minutes are limited. It's been wonderful to get this done, though - I'm sitting in my nice clean kitchen at my nook table (one of my favorite pieces of furniture), staring at a vase full of peonies from the local farmer's market and drinking coffee with hazelnut creamer out of my favorite mug. And it's cool and slightly rainy outside, with occasional breaks of blue sky. Mmm. Perfection.

Now I'm going to post several videos. I'm really not sure what kind of quality they'll be - they're from my phone also. They've all been taken in the last few months, so they're not incredibly recent. Although the one with my dad holding Hazel at the picnic table is from this past weekend. Enjoy!