soaking up summer

One of the things I missed dearly while living in Berkeley was a "real" summer. July and August in Berkeley can be dreary and cold, thanks to the fog rolling in from over the San Francisco Bay. We lived under several huge Monterrey Pine trees, and every morning - in July, mind you - I could hear water dripping off the pine needles like rain.

I'm a beach girl at heart. I grew up in Southern California, about 15 minutes from the beach. I spent summer after summer boogie boarding, eating ice cream on the pier, watching the sunset while roasting marshmallows, hanging with friends. I have no shame in admitting I have thin skin and I don't like the cold - and to me cold is 58 degrees and foggy (although I suspect that this winter my cold will be more like 68 degrees, now that we've been back in So Cal for almost a year). I found "summer" in Berkeley depressing at times - fall in Berkeley, on the other hand, is fabulous.

And with my oldest going back to preschool today, I can hardly believe summer is over. We decided to spend an afternoon at the beach - our last "official" summer day - at the beach, soaking up the sunshine and the very warm temperatures.



Love the Seal Beach Pier - one of my favorite places to shoot portraits in my neck of the woods.





Fun in the sun with my girls.



My almost 4 year old's footprints as she dashed for the water. As you can see she prefers running on her tippy-toes.



My supermodel - with sand on her face.



This could be a picture of me at this age - a lot of people tell me she looks JUST like me, and I have to admit when I look at old photos of me, we do look an awful lot alike.

I'm so glad my girls love the beach as much as I do - and I'm looking forward to many more days just like this one.