Elliora: DADDY I NEED RAISINS.

Troy: You’re supposed to ask nicely, like, “Daddy, can you please get me something?”

E: Daddy, can you please get me something?

T: No, you’re supposed to say, “Can you please get me the thing I need?”

E: Daddy, can you get me the thing I need?

T: I mean, you say the thing you need, like, “Daddy, can you please get me raisins?”

E: Daddy, can you get me raisins?

T: Can I get a “please” in there?

E: Please in there.

T: No, I mean, can you say, “Daddy, can you please get me raisins?”

E: …DADDY I NEED TOMATOES.

Where we live, we have a great view from our backyard, looking west.

That means we get to see a lot of gorgeous sunsets and beautiful night skies and dramatic cloud formations.

And many airplanes, which makes Elliora happy. She loves airplanes.

I can’t seem to stop taking photos of the sunsets and Instagramming them.

I should really get out the DSLR and take photos with it more often, though. I mean, look:

The phone pictures are pretty, but the real camera captures the light and clouds and colors so beautifully and effortlessly.

No filters necessary.

I’m still way behind on Flickring photos, which is probably why I rarely use my good camera these days. Instagramming with my phone is so easy and, well, instantly gratifying. And it doesn’t put me even farther behind.

I am determined to catch up, though. I’m almost done with May. And it’s not like I did much over the summer, or anything.* Just hung out on the deck with the girls while they played in the water, went to Hawaii and met up with Lauren, visited family and friends in North Carolina, went to Omaha for three weeks, went to a Harry Potter fan convention, moved from DC to San Diego…just the usual summer stuff.** Only a few thousand photos to catch up on.

*I’m being sarcastic here.
**Totally, totally sarcastic.

Not that I have anything against stripes; as you can see, both Bonnie and I are wearing them. But stripes don’t have anything in particular to do with Raiders of the Lost Ark, which I saw at the theater today with Bonnie, her friend Kathy, and Katie.

We agreed that (1) Harrison Ford is hot; (2) Raiders has held up remarkably well, considering it’s more than 30 years old; and (3) the “scary” part at the end isn’t so scary anymore.

When I was a kid, **SPOILER ALERT** the melting faces scared the pants off me. Today, we had to laugh at how much the effects in that scene resembled Ghostbusters. And the melting faces weren’t nearly as gory as I remembered. Those special effects were the only part of the movie that seemed dated to me, though. All the practical effects in the rest of the movie were fantastic. Even the lengths of garden hose that doubled as snakes in the map room scene.

Later, we went to the beach with the Jay family, who—in a marvelous bit of synchronicity, or serendipity, or something-ity—are back in San Diego now too. The photos above are actually from our beach visit two weeks ago, though. When we all lived in Virginia Beach, when Joe and Nina were younger than Annalie is now, we often used to go to the beach together on Sunday evenings in summer. Someone would pick up a party pack from Taco Bell, and someone would bring drinks, and we’d eat and play and it was a lovely tradition. We’re hoping to keep that tradition going here in San Diego.

Today I mostly took photos of things silhouetted against the sunset.

And then we went to Krispy Kreme, because if you go at that time of the evening you’re usually rewarded with hot doughnuts.

Tonight we had the fun of watching a bunch of mangled doughnuts try to make it to the glaze shower. None of them did, sadly.

Old friends and old traditions in a new city with new little kids. I’ll take it, with a full heart.

And then Elliora rode home in Aurora’s carseat, which we still have not taken out of the minivan. It was an adventure because it’s front-facing, unlike her own carseat. (Elliora is old enough and big enough to legally ride in a front-facing carseat, but we’re leaving hers rear-facing for now because it’s safer.)

It was way past Elliora’s bedtime when we left Krispy Kreme, and just about Annalie’s bedtime. They had been running around on the beach and playing in the waves, so we weren’t surprised when things got very quiet within minutes of heading home. We assumed E had fallen asleep, but eventually we realized we hadn’t heard a peep from Annalie, either. Close to home, Troy jokingly asked, “Annalie, are you asleep?”

We both had to laugh when Elliora’s completely-awake little voice answered, “Yep. Annalie’s asleep.” I’m only surprised she didn’t say, “Annalie is, like, totally asleep.”