Eliot's birthday

So last week Eliot turned 27, and to celebrate we partook in one of his favorite activities: mini golf.

We found this sort of run-down, but perfectly functional facility out in Wyoming called Craig's Cruisers, and had a grand ole time.

Here are the pictures to prove it!

 Lauren checking out her putter.

 Spencer putting his game face on.

 Kelsey kept bumping her ball off the course.

I think this was the third or fourth time it happened. She just couldn't contain herself.

All in all, I think it was a very satisfactory birthday party. We laser-tagged after this, but that's obviously much less practical to document photographically.

Puppy Beach Day

About a week ago Eliot, Lauren, and I took Lauren's newly adopted dog, Armour to the beach. She's obsessed with water and spent most of the summer sitting in a kiddie pool in the driveway. So we figured she'd freak out over Lake Michigan.

She did.

 It turns out she really, really liked rolling around in the sand.

Chicago Playtime

A couple weeks ago my buddy Hannah visited our friend Matteo in Chicago, and since Hannah is one of my best friends, Eliot and I piled into the car and spent the weekend with them.

Today I finally got the film from that trip developed.

 

 Left to Right: Eliot, Matt, and Banana

 

 

I'm super pleased with them. My analogue camera has really interesting light quality. It's well worth the hassle of lugging it around and paying to get the film developed.

Missing Santa Cruz

I've been riding a wave of nostalgia for Santa Cruz for a while. It's remarkable how easy it is to take the things you adore for granted. Having the beach be a ten minute walk from my house, having amazing hiking and mountain scenery be no more than a twenty minute drive, and all the weird and amazing little quirks in between. While it's true that I've been missing just about everything lately, what I'm really pining for is the environment and how we used it (and wishing we had used it much more while we could).

Like flying Eliot's pirate kite at the beach in the middle of January.

Or going on river walks along the San Lorenzo river.

Or hiking at the Pogonip.

Just been thinking about these places more than usual lately, and how neat it would be to go to them.