some beautiful days

The weather around here has been pretty amazing lately!  With 3 Summers in NC and last year in AZ, I had accepted my new normal of closing the windows around the end of May and not opening them again until about mid-September!  AC and ceiling fans on 24/7.  Since we've been here we've had one pretty nasty heat wave and random days of high humidity .... but for the most part I really feel like I can't complain!  We have had some down right pleasant Summer days complete with cool breezes and open windows!  Someone pinch me.

All that to say .... we've been busy playing .... outside!  On one of these beautiful days the kiddos and I decided to take a little walk to the neighborhood pond.  We lived here about 5 months before we even knew about this place!  And it's only about .5 mile away from our door.  sheesh.  Anyways, it's a great little lake {or large pond?} full of fish, turtles, ducks, geese, and we even saw a heron once.  It's got a lovely walking path and tucked way back in is a sweet playground and spacious open field.  First up: feed the mama duck and her ducklings.       

This was Kayla's first outing she brought her new camera on...

For as adventurous as Kayla is ... she still gets a little nervous climbing certain things on playgrounds; I continue to think she's going to have a real fear of heights as an adult :( ...  and this was Gavin's first time taking on the fireman's pole all by himself.  He was very proud!

After a while, with her brother cheering her on, she finally did it!

Round two; feeding the geese.

So these next 5 photos are compliments of Kayla!!  It's so FUN to see what she sees!  I've thought a lot about if and how I'm going to edit her images .... I want to 'alter' as little as possible.  SO.  I've decided to crop sparingly, if at all.  But I thought, 'well, I edit my photos for white balance, contrast, color, etc.' so why not hers as well.  I think it's a good middle ground.  While I won't drastically alter her overall image ... I will give it a little ... pop.  :)

On another similar day we packed a lunch and hit the ever popular park!  {we both left our cameras at home so these are my cell phone photos.}

She said 'mommy can I hold your hand?'.  I could never say no.  It happens less and less these days, so I'll take it when I can.  School starts back up in a few weeks ..... I'm going to miss having her around ALL day!

... and simply because this needs to live on forever .... I give you Gavin ..... 

There's a Day In The Life for you! lol