got zucchini?

{*** i am holding a beer bottle for a reference}

this came from our garden. no joke. i laugh every time i look at this monster zucchini. its huge!

apparently you're supposed to pick them sooner to get more flavor! who knew?!

obviously we didn't. 

we're newbies at growing 'em. 

battle brownie.

last week, the hubs & i had a brownie throw down. he challenged me to this battle because it was his turn to bring snacks for his weekly meeting! hahaha! so we had a little competition. we both baked a pan of brownies and his co-workers judged them. they had to judge them on chocolate-yness, taste, & texture.

RJ even made them score cards! ha!  

Brownies:

Mine: Double Chocolate Espresso with a white chocolate & raspberry compote drizzle on top.

His: Vegan brownies {secret ingredient = purred black beans!} 

AND THE WINNER IS...........

MINE!!!!!

I won 8-5.
Most liked the raspberry flavor combined with the chocolate of mine.
Most thought the texture of RJ's was better, more fudge-y.
Some thought the coffee in mine was a tad much.

yippeee! i gots some braggin' rights around here now!

{for the record, RJ's brownies were actually really good, you couldn't taste the black beans at all. & they were more healthy than mine!} 

park

we had a little impromptu photo shoot at the park this morning. check out more photos on my photogblog
sooooo adorable! :)

its August?

how did that happen? 

it seriously fills like summer has never really arrived. 

the weather is weird & feels un-summer-like.

some of the trees in our neighborhood are beginning to change & fall. what?!

i swear it's August, right?

not the end of September. 

at least we've enjoyed some summer-y activities so far.

playing in the pool, going to the park, & eating ice cream during our picnics.

this is my fav photo!

sleeping in tents....

last month we went camping with a huge group of folks we used to camp with every summer. the last time we all went camping as a group was 15 years ago! so this summer we decided to do a camping reunion! it was super fun to camp with them all again & now that i have a family of my own, it was even more fun! needless to say, the kids LOVED it! for weeks C would ask daily if it was camping day yet!

when we arrived, it was 104°F! 

my camera loved that warm golden glow

there were huge rocks to climb! heaven for C!

the first morning, when we were heading down to the boats, C yelled out, "HAPPY WATER DAY!"

rolling on the PARTY BARGE!

going for fast boat rides!

sissy would yell, "go faster Papi, go FASTER!"

slide!

we did lots of swimming!

makeshift bath tubs for the happy campers! 

we woke up to this view daily. 

since we were camping during the World Cup final {no tv! gasp!} we had to drive in to town to find a place to watch it! thankfully we found a pizza joint that agreed to let us watch it! {whew!}

¡viva España!

took boat rides around the three rivers & looked at waterfalls & humma-moose 

{we saw a white goat on the side of the rocks & C claimed it was a humma-moose!}

sissy found a lizard.

we ate good food nightly

the kids built a "camp fire" to "roast" their marshmallows.

C swam, swam, & swam some more. i think he was waterlogged by the time we left.

the crew. 15 years later :)