Napping is so wonderful

We're home from our beach vacation, and I'm up to my ears in laundry and the mountain of rubble that came out of the van. It was a really nice time, and we're all exhausted. Don't tell anyone, but I was in bed by 8:33 last night, about three minutes after we put the girls to bed. Eeesh. Alrighty, before I nod off again, here are the final trip pics: The girls had a fabulous time with the wagon. It was totally worth the trouble to lug it all the way to SLO. We used the heck out of that thing, and (surprisingly) they were actually a huge help with it. We spent hours and hours every day at the beach. The girls never got tired of it. We had to drag them away each time. TubaDad's concert was so fun. Hotter than blazes out there in the full sun, but really great. The girls enjoyed cheering for daddy, and daddy enjoyed seeing his happy tuba-loving daughters in the audience. Ro and Ree were thrilled with the beachhouse (and bunking with the grandparents), as usual. No one sings bedtime songs as well as Wela and BobBob. Well at least I don't. The girls still ask me to sing for them all the time, but I have to admit that sometimes they follow up my performance with "Wela and BobBob sing it gooder, mama!" Yep, they do. We stumbled upon a neat local farm on the way to turn in our keys and got to pet a whole passel of friendly animals, go on a hayride (that's what we're doing in this slightly crooked self portrait), and pick fresh apples and peaches. Then, right before heading for home, in the hopes of encouraging stupendous napping in the car, we ran the girls around on the beach a whole bunch more. In the video, there's something about Ro's jumping and arm circles that reminds me of the warm-up moves I've seen Olympic swimmers doing before the races: Our plan worked so well that the girls closed their eyes about five minutes after we got on the freeway, and didn't open them again until we pulled into the garage at home. Woohoo, that's got to be a world record or something! TubaDad and I were positively bowled over by the wondrousness of it. And, of course, we didn't miss the chance to sneak some icecream the minute they fell asleep. Alright, off to grab a few winks while the girls are napping. TubaDad left on another business trip a few hours after we got home last night, and it's going to be a long week... PS: I'm having a little trouble with my Canon point and shoot camera (that's the one I used for all of these shots). It has started emitting a little puff of smoke sometimes when the flash goes off, which just can't be good, can it? I don't know if it's just always done it and I never noticed or if it's a new/bad thing. And it seems like the flash alternates between overly bright and way underexposed. The pics are just not quite right... Has anyone experienced anything like this?