some baby love on a monday

This is Baby Loch. I felt like looking at his cute little head this morning, so I decided to post.

I have posted about him before, and as I was finding that link, I saw that it was in August and I said I would post the rest “tomorrow”. I hate when I do that.

I guess it is tomorrow.

Baby Loch is the sweet munchkin love of our friends Brett and Billie, and the little brother of Gray. I photographed Gray as a newborn as well. Jeff has been friends with Brett since elementary school. I love and adore spending time with this family, and wish we lived next door to each other.

xo

Tara

This was the hottest day of our staycation and we chose to spend it on black asphalt with no shade. Go us!

We entered the fair and first thing first was getting our photo booth pictures taken so we could head over to the lockers and put away our sweatshirts for later, and store the photos as well.  That is called efficiency, and Jeff was proud of my planning. I asked the woman running the booths which one was the best. (Pro tip.) The entire family knows this is all I really care about, well, that and the Aussie fries, and thankfully they are all game to do it for me. Simple pleasures for the Momma.

Second in importance at the fair is the food. This was basically a fair food crawl. We tried as much fair food as we could stuff into our bellies. Usually getting one order of something and sharing it all around. Everyone got to pick the one thing they were really excited to try.

Jeff: chocolate covered bacon, and you can see how that went over. Not recommended.
Me: aforementioned Aussie fries, ranch AND cheese please.
Mckenna: chili cheese fries
Drew: funnel cake
Nate: cheese on a stick
Anna: turkey leg

Jeff and I came to the sad realization of how old we were, seeing as how going on any of these rides made us fear for our lives and rue the days we were born. I came this close to stopping once, mid ride, I thought I was going to die, that all of my insides were going to fly out of my mouth. Nathan and Mckenna are equally as cautious. Kenna waited patiently all day for the last ride, her carousel. Her glee was contagious. We all sat on the side and waved and made her laugh every time she came around.

I love the twin expressions of Drew and Nathan upon getting off the ferris wheel, lips puffing out, thankful to be back on the ground. Drew will go on just about anything – including the scariest ride in the park, the one that people stand around and watch and dare their friends to go on: Evolution. Anna is second fearless – she comes running off every ride with a huge smile on her face.

I love the shots I got of Jeff, Nate, and Mckenna laughing at the kids on the swing ride – the kids on the swing ride had faces of ‘dontdiedontdiedontdie’ that were priceless – we both laughed until we cried.

The clouds rolled in just about the time I was about to call uncle, and I was so thankful for the drop in temperature.

What the kids didn’t know, was that as the sun dropped in the sky and the lights of the fair came on, we had a surprise for them. We had purchased tickets to see Train – a family car favorite. They know every word to every song on the current album, thanks to Jeff. It was an outdoor concert, and we all stood together and sang and danced the night away. It was one of the most magical moments I will ever remember with my people. I have it tucked somewhere in a pocket of my heart, to pull out and unfold whenever I hear a Train song on the radio. It was such a treat to give this experience to them, and to watch them love music as much as we do. Such a treat.
I have always been afraid of this stage of life – when my kids are older and heading into the tweens and teens.

It turns out, this is my favorite time so far.

xo

Tara

We got up the morning of day four and had a slow and leisurely breakfast in our hotel. We hopped into the hotel pool and lazed in the jacuzzi. Then we packed up, checked out, got the car out of valet,  and headed to the beach. I have done many photo shoots in and around Mission Beach, and have always wanted to spend the day with my family there. So that is where we went.

Let me preface this by saying that Jeff and I both DESPISE crowds.

Can you guess where this is heading?

We got to the beach and it was packed. Sardines packed. Subway in rush hour packed. Fourth of July holiday packed. Kill me now packed. Blankets and people and towels and tourists and kids and surfers and grandmas covering every single inch of sand. To top it off, it was high tide, so there wasn’t a whole lot of sand to go around. Jeff was grumbling, but I could tell he was ready to take one for the team, and I was determined to be okay with it, so we managed to squeeze into a spot that was daringly close to where the water was reaching. It was the only spot for miles. He said we were going to get wet. I said we would be fine. We settled in for the day.

We sunblocked everyone up, and the kids raced into the water, only to turn around and look at us in shock. It was FREEZING. They were so disappointed. We realized that the only people in the water had on full wetsuits. We heard someone say, “The water has dropped ten degrees since yesterday!” They came back onto shore and we told them to figure something out. To entertain themselves some other way.

That is when the water rushed up and nailed us. I threw dagger eyes at Jeff behind my sunglasses. “Don’t you dare say a thing, mister. NOT ONE THING!”, is what they were saying to him. He didn’t. We scuttled and grabbed our stuff and managed to scoot back just enough to be out of the water’s wrath.

The kids made friends with some other kids near us, and everyone was happy. Mckenna took cover under our blanket, which is a typical Mckenna move at the beach. Jeff and I listened to music and let the sun warm our skin. The boys ventured a bit into the water. Anna searched for sand crabs and shells. We started getting hungry and decided to go grab some burgers. We ate and walked around and people watched. We went back to our spot and Jeff managed to convince Mckenna and the boys to go into the water with him. They will suffer in the freezing water as long as they can play with Dad. He is their favorite toy. They played for awhile and Anna and I cuddled.

By that time we were done with the sun and the sticky sunblock skin and the hoards of people.

I waved to my people in the water and gave them the sign it was time to go. We gathered our stuff and walked back to the car and stopped at my favorite Mexican drive thru, the one I always stop at after a photo shoot, the one that I don’t know what it is called or what street it is on but I can always find, and then we headed back to home.

xo

Tara