Deer are being seen in our backyard again. They're welcome to come eat our weeds anytime and we hope they invite their friends to come along for the feast.
I've never seen a deer do this so I thought you might be interested too - she was scratching the side of her face just like a dog does.
Yesterday we took a road trip to Florence and stopped at the Muriel O. Ponsler state park before we finished the winding part of the trip - so the boys could rest their queasy stomachs. Carter and McKay could have stayed there all day throwing rocks into that little stream.
An hour later we made it to Florence and the beach. Florence's beach is famous for its dunes and infamous for the Exploding Whale Debacle. Hiking over those dunes was not easy as they are steeper than they look. The boys had a blast playing in the sand and searching for broken seashells. Right to left: Suzanne, Carter, McKay. 
McKay was the first to head for the waves and he lured us all in within a few minutes. Brrr! It was so cold! 
Quote from "What Spock Forgot" (a book about children): "It's called the great outdoors because it's free." We love this picture!
The beach had little puddles left as tide pools. They were about 20 degrees warmer than the sea and the boys played in them until they got too boisterous. I had a sudden mental image of a thousand-dollar trip to the orthopedist to get a new cast because this one got wet, then we decided it was time to do something else. 
We found these seashells on a walk after all our water play. We kept the three best shells, plus a sand dollar we found.
"McKay, you can choose your two favorite shells to take home.""Only two?"
In old town Florence before going home.
That night was the Elders' Quorom Annual Pinewood Derby. Once again I didn't remember to make my car until an hour before, so it was an aerodynamically-sanded block with 10 pennies glued to the rear end. But this picture tells it all! Nobody expected me to win! Here's me holding the trophy! The crowd was screaming!
I think what the crowd was screaming was, "Put down that trophy, you poser!" Here's the leaderboard. See #12 for yours truly.
Maybe next year.
We paddled the whole length of the reservoir. That's the part on this map with the names on it as well as the long tail going off to the right, then we paddled back. (Our house is straight down from the "+" and "-" and straight across from the word "Reservoir". Scroll to the left to see the ocean and eat your heart out.)
We cleaned out the cobwebs before we got in and picked out the 5 snails living in the canoe, but somehow this guy stowed away until we were out on the water. The boys and I decided to name him Boris. Picture by Suzanne.
The whole gang enjoyed the trip right up to the very end. This picture was taken on the last leg - our car is visible as a black speck on the shore.
McKay thought that was weird.
