The dogs are alright. *

I'm not terribly good at taking pictures. I've not actually owned a camera of my own since my parents bought me a cheap little Kodak in the 80's. But now that I have a camera in my phone, I take pictures all the time. They are mostly for me to remember a moment, or document something, and share with friends and family on Facebook or via text or some other such nonsense. My point is, I take a lot of shitty pictures, and I really don't care, because they're for me.

Like this one. Max is loving have a BFF. They are tired at the end of each day, and so glad to see each other in the morning. Sometimes they play fight, jumping and attacking and chasing, but in this moment, they were just laying next to each other in the shade. He will miss his buddy when we get home, I presume. The two labs have each other, Max will go back to having just his people to entertain him. It should be interesting to see what happens.

I take pictures of my dog all the time, but they rarely come out very well. It's hard to take a photo of a black dog with black eyes when you don't know what you're doing. This one I managed to mess around with in iPhoto to clarify his features a little bit. Blonde dogs are much easier to photograph.

We are coming upon our last weekend here at the beach. I feel pretty good that we've done everything we wanted to do, seen everyone we needed to see, except of course the people whose home we are staying in while they travel in Europe. I think it's been weird for Drew to sleep in his buddy's bed every night but not actually spend more than a few hours with him on this trip.

Next Wednesday we take this show back on the road, two adults, two kids and a giant poodle in the family truckster. I'm kind of ready to go home again. I love this town, I love the beach, I love the lifestyle. But we have things to do. My grandmother is not doing well, I miss her. I need to see her before I miss her forever. We need to start getting ready for school and soccer and work and other post-vacation necessities. But it's been lovely, truly lovely to chill out here at the beach, where shoes are optional and the wine is plenty, the dogs are welcome on the patio, and the temperature hasn't reached 76 degrees the entire time. That...doesn't suck.

My life is good. I am thankful.

 

* Grammar Girl comments on the use of "alright" . I choose to use it anyway. Hey, at least I'm informed.