If a picture paints a thousand words. . .

. . . then hopefully these pictures will suffice in place of a real blog post. Since we brought Juno into the family, I have been impersonating a 'morning person.' I somewhat happily hop out of bed around 7am every day now to take a 30-60 minute walk with her, sometimes pushing Marley in the jog stroller for the jont. The upside is that Juno is responding quite well to 'doggie fat camp' here, and is also becoming even better mannered on the leash. The downside is that rather than being cranky until 9am or so, as has been my M.O. for the majority of my life, I am now cranky at night. No witty blog post tonight, just captions. Can't guarantee the wit factor on them, and they are out of order, but here you go.

We harvested some salad goodies from our tiny garden tonight. Our garden has steadily shrunk as our family has grown, but we had some nice spinach, cilantro, and also some beautiful strawberries(before the damned slugs ate them).






The Rigbys spent the 3rd of July here for an early Independence Day celebration. Marley showed Aunt Heather just how seriously she takes the notion of "independence." After an hour or so, Heather asked how it was possible that Marley had inherited my stubborn independent nature.



*"I have TNT and I'm not afraid to use it!"


We live at the pool in the summer, but this year it's been a little tricky to take pictures. I don't know, something about 3 kids, 4 towels, 4 lunches and a ridiculous array of snack foods, sun screen, flip flops. . .the camera just isn't making the voyage very often. Here are a few that I've managed to snap:




*These next two are of Keller in a Watermelon Eating Contest with the lifeguards and other kids at the pool. I love the look on his face in the second one, kind of like he's realizing the intestinal distress he has just brought upon himself.



Juno has fit so well into the family, and in truth, she is so much like Layla in some ways that Dave and I have agreed that someday when we're old, we're going to remember Layla/Juno as the pug mix who seemed to live forever!


*Now you never have to wonder why the cushion on our chair is smooshed flat. This is a move that she definitely learned from Layla through some strange communication from the doggy world beyond.

*Juno's old family had this humongous crate for her. It is big enough for two labs to fit in, and she kind of uses it like a doggy condo. We have a smaller one for her, as this takes up half the living room, but she looks so darn comfy in there that we hate to downsize. When I told the kids we were thinking of switching to a smaller crate, Casey's first response was "YES!! Then we can have this one just for us to play in?" (And no, he is NOT naked--he's wearing red boxer briefs that are somehow well concealed by whatever gadget he is holding)

*What's wrong with this picture??