Hot, Hot, Hot!

We Bears are pale, pale people. The sun is not our friend. Summertime for us means sunblock by the gallon (and still, sunburn), but we're still managing to have a good time!

We've been hitting up new parks (especially those with water play areas and/or lots of shade)...




...and recently had our first real beach trip (complete with roasted hot dogs and marshmallows) as a family of four:

"Sand on my hands? Check. Arms? Check. In my hair? Check. Face? Yup. Eyelids? Got it. In my mouth? Plehhhh...yep. In my diaper? Unfortunately, yes..."


"It's beauu-tiful, Daddy!"


Both girls show an alarming tendency to twirl around poles lately.


I've quickly learned that letting Ells skip naps in order to soak up more fun and sun results in this, come evening (I took this photo with my crummy cell phone camera while she sat on my lap, screeching with rage about absolutely nothing):


Doesn't she totally look like one of those cats in the "I hate Mondays" posters? Poor Bug.

In other hotness-related news [sorry, Bear, but you should really a) feel honored to be included among the following men, and/or b) start your own blog to revenge-gush over pretty ladies, preferable ones whom I can also mock for one reason or another], Bittle and I had ourselves a little date with these guys Friday night:


That's right: New Kids on the Block again, baby! There were a few tag-alongs (namely, the Backstreet Boys--ugh--and several thousand screaming fans), but really, it was all about her and Donnie, me and Jordan, and the very hot hotness created by the crowd, the pyrotechnics, and did I mention the men?

I could try to hide my boy band love, but I already came out a couple of summers ago, and have publicly admitted to watching "The Bachelor(ette)," so what dignity do I have left to preserve? Anyway, it was awesome, and Jordin Sparks was a perfectly decent opening act...but then we discovered that this guy would be taking her place starting tomorrow night:


Um, yeah. To paraphrase NKOTB lyrics, can you picture us, all over that? "That" being the opportunity to attend the show? Not because of the abs, but because he is a talented individual? We are there for the talent. We are connoisseurs of musical talent. Musical boy band talent...now with bonus abs. Ahem.

Tickets have been purchased (second row for pretty cheap, as if the gods themselves hath commanded that the Bittles should experience this ultimate joy close enough to catch sweat droplets from the stage...not that we would, because we wouldn't even notice in our rapt attention to the talent. The TALENT!!). In less than 24 hours, our second date will commence.

Sun, shmun. Summer 2011 is definitely our friend so far!