The many faces of Ari (and more)

We spent today at a state park with my parents and my brother Pete. It was an absolutely gorgeous day--sunny and warm, yet cool in the shade. Perfect picnic weather.

Of course I brought the camera, with the intention of getting some pictures of Ari. But lately, when I ask if I can take her picture, I get either this...



...or weirdness like this.



So I have to resort to some devious tactics. Lately, she's been obsessed with making faces--asking us to make happy/sad/mad faces and practicing them herself. So I asked her to go through her faces for me. First was her mad face...



Then her surprised face...



Then her happy face...



And, last, her sad face (which looks a lot like her mad face)...



A few minutes later, Tony got her to pose for this picture by prompting her to stick her tongue out at me.



I'm not sure what she was doing in this picture, but it's still a sweet picture of her with her Gramma.



After lunch, we went for a walk along the shore. Tony helped Ari walk out on the rocks, and they spent several minutes throwing rocks into the water.



We asked her to sit on this wall and pose for us, and she insisted on facing the opposite direction. She thought she was pretty hot stuff with her feet dangling over the edge.



My mom took this picture for us. Aww.



And I returned the favor. Double-aww.



Ari was playing "Ring Around the Rosy" with this tree.



Time for another haircut, maybe?



Lookit... they are mirror images of each other...



She was all proud of herself for scaling this rock, and I thought the bush made a cool backdrop. This was the best pose I got out of her, though.



And that was our Memorial Day. We headed home mid-afternoon, and a few of Tony's friends came over in the evening to mooch our grill. But one of them did all the cooking, so no complaints here. And then I made brownies for the boys because I'm cool like that.

After Ari was in bed, I went for a short walk in the cooling evening air. I love that the days are long enough now that it's still light out even after Ari's bedtime.

I fully plan on being lazy the rest of the night now.