Monaloca

Late last month we took the girls on a road trip up the coast to visit friends in Mendocino. Melina had only met Julia (almost 6) as an infant, and had never met Miranda (3). She met Cassandra, the fancifully dressed “purple princess” at Uncle Brian’s wedding last summer.

Before our trip I told her, “We’re going to hang out with the purple princess and her little fairy girls!” Melina, who has become quite logical and literal, told me, “She’s not a real princess. And little girls aren’t really fairies.” It didn’t matter. With all the dress-up clothes, the pink, and the dolls (especially of the Barbie variety), Melina was in heaven.

She and the Young girls played together fabulously, which gave Joey and me the chance to catch up with Milo and Cassandra and enjoy their new Fort Bragg house and its two gorgeous acres of land. Nalani, for her part, made do re-arranging their kitchen with tumbling Tupperware towers on the floor.

We also spent some time wandering through the village, contemplating Glass Beach (decided it was too windy and cold), walking along the bluffs, and eating brunch at a Wizard of Oz themed Fort Bragg diner. I even got a chance to meet up with my Mendocino-based cousin Michelle, who I haven’t seen in at least five years.

Since our trip was within a week of Nalani’s first birthday, I asked Cassandra – whose photography business is booming – if she could take some photographs of our littlest girl and the family. (I also asked if she could get photos of just the two girls. They’re ever-moving and in Nalani’s case not fully independent targets, so that one proved difficult.)

We are thrilled with the results (see the full set here), and Melina was thrilled to be able to flit barefoot in the woods with her borrowed wings and sparkly pink wand. Who says little girls can’t be fairies?

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