a few more just for fun

the grounds at Northcoast Village are unreal

when i grow up i want to be a photographer

day five

Family photos at the beach are a real pain. We always do them on Sunday morning and really no one wants to do them. But we did it and I think we got two pictures that we could possibly put in frames.

I have never done a red white and blue theme, but I tried it this time just to do something different, I think it turned out ok.

Happy 4th of July everyone. God bless America!

day four

So it's taken me forever to post day four. I know I shouldn't attempt such sequencing of vacation days. I'm really not a reliable blogger.

Day four was different because it was overcast for most of the day. I love overcast days, it's like having a giant softbox over the earth and it softens the world including all photographs which is so cool.

Kite flying at the beach is a must. Dave and I could hardly keep up with two kites and four kids but I think by the end of flying kites Arden and Spencer were pro kite fliers.

I already want to go back, what else can I say.

Love.

Ocean Day Three

I am alway enamored at the amount of excitement two boys can have with a ball, specifically brothers. Gavin had me enthralled with his endless brother calling, "Shpencer, Shpencer, Shpencer!" with his raspy like voice. I think they finally had to end this game when they lost the ball in the ocean.

Not normal. I woke up but couldn't get out of bed. I slept till noon. My body felt completely wasted. The stomach bug that had been throughout the rest of the family finally got to me. Alexis slept with me all morning in the kind size bed upstairs, she must still feel sick also. When I woke up I found Arden asleep and Alexis and all the boys had abandoned us for the beach. We were sick, at the beach, how horrible. So I drug Arden down to the beach, she sat on the boogie board for a long time and just watched the waves. Everyone once and a while my stomach would turn and I felt sick, but more than anything I just felt wasted.

You can tell a good Dad when you see one, it looks something like this; launching a six year old in the waves on a boogie board over and over again until the six year old finely gets it and loves it! Spencer and Dave had the time of their life in these waves.

You can tell an over confindent Dad when you see this two year old launched into a sandy, salty wave on a boogie board with absolutely no sucess at all.

Ocean Day Two

 I looked forward to this everyday. I don't really like cold swimming pools, but I rarely pass up a hot tub. Spencer and I see eye to eye on this, although he can last for hours in the cold pool without me.

When I agreed to this thing I do called "motherhood" I didn't know I was getting this angel. Everytime I asked Alexis to look at the camera she did and she smiled and gave me this look, well if the ocean isn't heaven, this is. Love you little one.

Ocean Day One

I look forward to this trip every two years since that is our schedule for ocean vacations. But more and more I feel like it should become an anual event in out family. We talk about it for two years, dream about it, anicipate it's arrival. The sand beneath our feet beckons us, the smooth ocean rocks, the endless miles of seashells that my children collect by the gallons in ziplock bags. The ocean seems new to Gavin, who doesn't remember this trip two years ago. He is not sure if he really likes the feel of the seawater on his legs, but he plays in it anyway. I photograph everything my kids do. I am obsessed with the sound the shutter makes when I push the shutter release button. I am in heaven on the beach tweeking my camera and watching my kids. I am convinced Heaven isn't Heaven unless there is an ocean there.

 A sand dollar. A precious find in our family. Every morning before anyone was out of bed, before anyone was on the beach, in the breaking dawn hour, Dave would get the girls out of bed and take them down to the beach in search of sacred sand dollars. If you get there before the seaguls do you might find one perfect unbroken gem. It's the hunt my girls have been waiting for all spring.

In retrospect I am not sure really which day was day one or day two. My mind has already lost track of events and blurred them altogether.

There is a jetty on the northside of our beach condo, it goes out about a hundred yards. Dave and Spencer are in search of a crab.

On the jetty the kids found different colors of starfish attached to barnicals. Arden caught about nine small crabs, although they outsmarted her and got away, crawled right out of her container and jumped back in the ocean. She was devistated at first until she realized that she can't keep them anyway, they aren't exactly like sand dollars now are they.

Take me out to the ball game!

This post is long overdue. I have been feeling somewhat guilty for not posting it sooner. Spencer has had a great t ball season, one with lot of excitement and not tears. I am really proud of him for getting out there and giving it his all. Game on Spencerator!