It's A Shore Thing ~ Week 3

Lots of visitors to the beach this week.  We started out with our cousins, who joined us for three days, then ended with Grandpa, who came for the last two days.  The weather, although not really that cold, was somewhat hit and miss.  Clouds and fog, then sun, then back to fog, then sun for minute, then clouds again.  It made for some real exercises in camera settings.  It's amazing how bright clouds can be.  Of course, following these kids around was just about "How fast can you shoot?"  Jeez oh man, they move like lightening....Too many pics from the week that I just loved, though.  So, settle in.  This is kind of a long one.....

I saw an image on TV once of a statue of Jimmi Hendrix.  It was just a portion of his head and I though it looked so cool.  We found this statue of a family while we were walking around town and I thought I'd give it a go...

Some of my favorite pictures of week didn't have anything to do with the beach.

Taking Babeleah out to the sand took a little bit more effort than just "Okay, get your flip-flops and your digging stuff!"

Grandma bought kites for all the kids.  Of course, it was the one day that there was no wind.  They had to run up and down the sand to get them up in the air.

I was so glad that my son finally had a friend to dig with...

My nephew introduced himself to some dogs has saw walking on the beach.

This is one of those shots that I got from really far away, so it has that distance blur.  My niece, who has no idea she's the size of a peanut, wanted to get in the jumping game with the big kids.  She launched herself off the ledge and rolled all the way down the hill.  Her face was too cool to pass up.

The sun finally made an appearance in the evening.  We took Grandpa out for a walk.  Here's where that Setting Exercise came into play.  At first I thought this was totally blown out, but the more I looked at it, the more I liked it.  That whole "Walking Towards The Light" thing.

Walking back to the house I saw this in front of me...

...and when I turned around back to the beach, I saw this behind me....

We decided to end our beach week by cooking up a big meal.  We found a recipe in a magazine for clams and bruschetta that was different than anything we'd done before.  We decided to try it out.  It was AMAZING!!!

I didn't take this last one because it looked so pretty, and it's probably not going to end up on the wall anywhere, but the fog that rolled in after our beautiful afternoon was too unreal to overlook.  That's our path on the bottom left, and usually we can see all the way to the water.

Julie & Markus....MARRIED!

My cousin had a wonderful wedding at the Columbia Winery last night.  I wasn't there as the official photographer, but I brought my camera along just for fun.  There was lots of pink, lots of lashes, and, of course, lots of wine!

I was trying to be sneaky with her, but she caught me after I got this one...I was kind of having a case of Lens Envy....

30

My brother just turned 30.  No, my little brother Nick.  The one who was just born last week.  The one that I waited half the summer to arrive.  They used to call him King of the Kindergarten.  Do you know him?  He's the one that hid in the dryer that one time.  The one who used to jump through the house.  Couldn't go from one room to another without making noise.  The boy who, for a brief period of time, actually thought his name was Nicholas Be Quiet.  The kid who was a master at Super Mario Brothers and had every Matchbox car there was.  He knew the name of every wrestler in the WWF.  He played baseball and football and any other sport that would have him.  He once drew this really cool picture of a scary-ass clown with fire for hair.  It was the coolest thing I ever saw.  Yeah, that's him.  You remember.  Remember when he got caught....mmmm, maybe not.  Or how about the time they found him....oooo, that might not be so great either.  He was a rascal, but he was a treasure.  Still is.  30 years later I still marvel at how much he knows, not just in his mind, but in his heart and in his spirit.  He's the one who showed up at my house with a shaved head because I was losing my hair after some freaky medical thing, and he didn't want me to feel like I was going through it all alone.  He brings flowers to his wife at school.  He's in love with his daughter's curly hair.  He helped my son learn how to dive into the pool.  I once saw him give a homeless guy a few bucks from his change cup because he was sitting in his nice $5000 car while this other guy was hungry on the street, so he thought he should make the sacrifice to help someone else.  He coaches.  He teaches.  And he loves more than anyone I've ever known.  I always feel like I'm where I belong when he wraps his arms around me for a hug after we haven't seen each other for a week or even just a day.  He's my little brother.  And I am grateful every day for the grace that is Nick.

  

He had a party to celebrate.  The whole gang arrived for a sunny backyard barbecue.

The birthday boy said he wanted fruit and candy.  There were plenty of both on hand....

30 candles on an ice cream cake was a little scary.  It took two people working together to get it lit without melting the cake.

It was Auntie Angie's birthday, too, so she got to help blow out the candles.

Far and away, the Slip n' Slide was the hit of the party.  It kept the kids occupied and active for over four hours!