Water water water

That's been the theme for these past few days, for sure.

The Girls and I have been hitting the beach in the mornings, but not quite as early since we are coming in to winter and I'm letting the sun take the chill out of the morning before we head down!

Dora is getting more active every time we go out, it seems. The two dogs really get into their playing


and sometimes I get into their playing as they plow through me with no regard for my well-being at all



They found a great "stick" but couldn't figure out how to carry it


There are even moments when they aren't trying to bump, nip and annoy each other - even if Tilly is still being a total goof-head

So much for me being the pack leader

but Dora can be a good dog

As the evenings have been getting cooler, Dave and I decided to ramp up the ol' hot tub for the first time in ages. It was so nice to just do nothing with some cold beverages under the stars


Dora waited patiently for us to be done...she's not very keen on the whole spa thing


Tilly used the opportunity to stand on the chair - after Dora got off of it - to explore the high table

Monday I took some time off to head out on my first Whale Shark Adventure of the season. We had a family on an exclusive, so I thought it was the perfect time to jump on board and have the fewest possible people. Turns out only two of them got in the water and only one of them got in for all the drops! It was great.
We had whale sharks popping up everywhere and I swam with five different ones before we headed back for the mooring - at 1130!! Our "regular" boat stayed with the whale sharks for several more hours, but the family were tired and ready to go home much earlier than expected.

Hurray! A baby's coming!

Scared ya, didn't I!

No, it's not Dave & me, it's a new facet of my business, Kristin Anderson Photography, that I am introducing properly. Exmouth seems to have a lot of pregnancies, so I'm hoping that maternity and newborn sessions will become a good part of Kristin Anderson Photography as it's such a joyous time and the moms-to-be are radiant.

Sunday afternoon I did my first ever maternity session with our friends, Steve & Louise, who are expecting their first child in July. It went so well that we added a sunset beach session on Tuesday so they could have even more photographs to remember this incredible time in their lives. They are both so thrilled and excited about the baby - it's totally infectious and their love really shines through in the photos.





There are more on the KJAPhotos Blog too...

Back in my normal life, it's still all about our dogs LOL They're just too fun. We had to move some buses around yesterday for the tours, so I took the Girls with me to Tantabiddi for a play on a different beach.
The rare "two butt Ridgeback"

MatildaLily frolicking as Dora prepares to charge

Dora strolling back after snuffling some tasty morsel out of the sand

During our morning beach walk, Tilly found another plastic bag. This one had someone's leftover nasty sandwich or something and it smelled horrible. So, of course, Til had to roll in it before giving it to me

Dora came to check it out, but both girls lost interest pretty quickly

There are no bins on the beach so we got to drive home with it - peeeuuuu! We had all the windows down and it was still barely tolerable. Gross.

It's been a long week already! Dave's feet are really bad so he's been quite restricted in what he can do for the past few days. I so wish there was something we could find that would help him beat this thing as not only is he in pain a lot of the time, but we just can't do so many things because some days he can barely even walk. You'd think that with the zillion tests he's had done someone somewhere could figure out some relief.

On the work-front, I've been super busy with emails and preparing new things for the cruise ships that are scheduled to come in throughout this year and into next year. The whale sharks have been awesome but I haven't had a chance to get out on even one tour yet! I'm hoping in the next week or so I can take a day just for them. The weather is beautiful with calm breezes, warm temperatures and flat seas - it's meant to be this way well into next week, so I'm hoping to get out of the office at least once!

The Girls and I took a few days off from our usual beach walks due to being too lazy to get out of bed on a couple of very cold mornings and then one day Tilly slammed into Dora so hard Dora ended up limping most of the day. We got back out yesterday and everyone's much happier now!




Til is always a good citizen on the beach - she finds plastic bags and after she's killed them, she drops them for me to pick up and carry home

She's very proud of herself

Yesterday we saw this stick. Someone has clearly stuck it in the sand and the tide didn't wash it away. It was very strange to see this thing sticking straight up out of the sand at the water's edge. Dora wouldn't share, even though it was well over four feet long


She is often quite proud of herself, too

All three of us are picking our pace up on the beach each day. It's just so glorious to be out there before the sun is up and just enjoying being for a while before the hectic day starts. It's all too much for Dora some days, and she sneaks a quick car nap in on the way home

or watches traffic behind us as MatildaLily happily destroys some treasure (in this case a manky old diving mask she found washed up on the beach one day)


Her attention span still isn't very long so she's here, there and every where in the six minutes it takes us to drive home!


Tilly is up to her tricks in the garden with a re-dug hole and a brand new one, too. Dave tried to fill them in the other day, but I don't have high hopes for regrowth!


Boof continues to believe that it's all a bad dream

Inside, it's a good thing she's cute - this used to be a chair cover

Usually both Girls have a little afternoon siesta together

and some days Dora really seems to love having Til near


Other days, I get the distinct feeling that she'd be just as happy by herself on the mat

Going buggy!

Some days I don't have too much free time to get out and about away from the office, so it's a good thing our backyard provides some great photographic subjects! The downside is that these stupid grasshoppers are putting ugly holes in all the leaves of one of our hibiscus bushes, but there doesn't seem to be any way of stopping them.

I find them gross, but intriguing - especially with my 100 2.8 macro lens to really showoff the details



And the colours against our brilliant blue skies are kind of cool

Cheeky buggers will prepare to eat a new leaf even when you're standing right there


Ultimately, though, they're just icky

Caterpillars have completely stripped our neighbours tree of leaves - I wish I had a photo of the beautiful, huge canopy it used to have, instead of just the aftermath.

There are hundreds of them still on the branches and they have migrated to the neighbours palm tree now. Every now and again you see or hear one fall off into the underbrush...it's very creepy.





I don't know what this fly was doing, but he'd land on a branch then feel the caterpillar for a while before heading off again.

There are a million cocoons throughout the branches

We also have the strangest spider. He likes to hang upside down with his body bent backwards.


He's also got a few little tidbits wrapped up and waiting for dinner