wide open spaces: the beach, part four

I don't know about you, but I am ready to wrap up this beach business. I have other posts and pictures piling up, so I am determined that this will be the final beach post. Don't be alarmed if it gets all random and disorganized just so I can get it all in :).

John and I had lots of fun getting to know our new lens at The Beach. This post will mostly just be a bunch of wide angle shots of some of the things we did.

One of the things you can always count on at The Beach is at least one big game of football in the sand. Anyone and everyone can (and does) play, which makes it so much fun. I really love the look of this first picture, with the football zooming through the air and the waves crashing in the background.

And here are a couple more shots of the action.

For some reason I kinda like this one of a kickoff.

Uncle Bill brings all the stuff for volleyball (which is a lot of work-- imagine hauling those metal poles through the sand), and again, everyone plays (even the little kids). With the incredible variety in age and ability you would be proud to know that we actually got some pretty decent volleys going every once in awhile :). I love this shot that John took-- looking at it gives me the same peaceful and serene feeling of actually being at The Beach itself.

Check out (John's) Grandpa getting some serious air to throw down a spike :). This is a man in his late 70's, if you can believe it.

I had to include this one, too. There is Grandpa at it again. I think he might actually be able to jump higher than I can :).

This is one of my favorite pictures from the week because it shows exactly what The Beach is like. A big group of people playing a game of football in the background, a smattering of people sitting in camp chairs and/or on sand-covered sheets off to the side, and little kids running and playing in the foreground.

This is another picture that captures the essence of The Beach. This time I am laying down on a sheet with George (who is bundled in a towel trying to get warm), Grandma Janet is reading a book, Grandpa W. is looking over at George and me, Julie and Crystal are chatting in the distance, kids are playing in the water, crumpled towels and stray shoes litter the sand, and Grandma W. (though you can only see a sliver of her) is facing the other way, holding Pearl and watching the volleyball game going on behind us.

I so love all of the details of an experience that can be captured in a wider angle lens. I love that the focus of this picture is obvious (my freezy boy and me), but that you can still get a good feel for all that is going on around us.

We went down to the tide pools early one morning to hunt for sea creatures, but the tide was already too high. Instead we took a couple of photos. This one of all of the birds flying away turned out kinda cool. (Um, yes, I was running at them while taking this to get them to all fly at once.)

Lisa was with us, so we took advantage of the opportunity to get a photo of John and me together :).

One night as we were getting packed up to head back to the campground I took a couple of minutes to snap these photos of George and Pearl sitting by each other in their towels (okay, Pea's is a cover-up, but it is terrycloth, so same thing). They are my faves (the kids and the pics).

Hi there little girl.

This one is funny to me because it shows George's valiant attempt at trying to get his sister to stay sitting down by him. He's like, "Okay MOM, I will TRY to get Penguin to stay by me so you can take a picture. See! I am trying! I stuck my sandy foot on her back! But it's not working, you come get her to stay." Thanks, Georgie, you are so helpful.

Hello little babies and awesome sky. Love this one. John took it.

This one is my ultimate fave, though. Just can't get enough of those little backs on that beach with that crashing wave. 10 bucks says that when John sees it he won't really like it (he's not so much a fan of pictures that are edited away from their natural colors), but I can't help myself-- I really love the vintagey feel of it.

Our last night on The Beach we were blessed with a pretty awesome sky/sunset. It wasn't the most spectacular one we've seen there, but it was definitely photo worthy. We took advantage of the wide angle lens and had some fun taking pictures.

John and I had someone (maybe Parker?) snap a couple of pictures of us first.

Then we started playing around with the camera. Here are my boys looking out at the ocean.

I think this one of John and G is cool because you can see the silhouette of George's dinosaur towel against the bright sky.

You can see John in the corner chasing after a stray football, I believe.

This one is of Pearlie and me.

Had to get one of her in the air. I wish John and I would've switched places, though. He could've thrown her much higher than I did.

I super love the bird flying through in this one. Good job, John. I am sure you meant to do that ;).

This one, however, really was perfectly composed by John :). He waited until the water was just right to snap it, and it turned out so cool. I love how the clouds and the water almost reverse mirror each other or something.

John took these of me walking the kids out to the water (so we could take the pictures I just posted above), and I'm so happy he did. It is really nice to have a few photos that I feel like represent and show me mothering my children. It is something that I spend such a huge majority of my time doing, and yet, rarely capture in a photo. So these are special to me.

And since they didn't fit anywhere else, here are the remaining "Beach" photos. Mostly of the camping part of our beaching.

George and Prestley just chilling in the back of the car, sharing some Wheat Thins while they wait patiently for their parents to get ready to head down to The Beach.

I put these pictures side by side because they show perfectly the extreme nature of our Beach trips. One moment we are in bikinis and wetsuits on The Beach, and the next we are frantically searching for our warmest layers to throw on in a rainstorm at the campground.

A little peek inside our tent one morning. We were all awake except for Pearl. Nice of her to finally decide to sleep once it was morning.

And this was the last Beach photo I took. It was fitting that it was of John crazily trying to take down our tent in the pouring rain.

We love you, dear Beach, even if you are bipolar. You know we will all be back again next year, rain or shine (but please be shine :).

suits, sand, and surf: the beach, part three

I promised baby chub in swimsuits and tonight I deliver.

Behold:

And then this little number. Kills me. It's a hand-me-down from my little sister, and, though I am typically not a bikini kind of gal, I sort of couldn't resist stretching this bitty little thing over all of her rolls. It reminds me of like an old-school retro bikini and I'm pretty happy my mom held onto it.

Now that those are out of the way, let me get back to Baby Pea's first experience with The Beach. I was worried about her eating lots of sand and/or sitting in sand and getting a rash, so right at the beginning I attempted to keep her on a sheet on the sand. Yeah, that lasted about 15 seconds. Little Girl has a streak of will and determination to rival the best of 'em, and she was not having any of the sheet business. I decided fighting it was too exhausting and just did my best to keep her body covered while she roamed the sand, and then remove any small choking hazards from her mouth as quickly as possible.

Here she is making a beeline for the sand once I let her go.

Rubbing the little grains of sand around in those chubby hands.

She liked it.

We added some shades to the mix for fun. My little brother (Ben) and sister (Hannah) bought Pearl these sunglasses (and the little ice cream cone sandals that she is wearing) when she was only a couple of weeks old, and it was so much fun to have a reason to put them on her now that they fit.

She quickly experimented with eating the sand (no surprise there). I tried to keep her from ingesting handfuls, but she definitely swallowed her fair share. I am such a fan of this first picture because you can see George in the reflection of her sunglasses. I wish I could say that I planned that, but it was totally just luck.

Perhaps she could get strange marine diseases from chewing on kelp, but I decided not to think about that and just let her do it. I love those super sandy fingers all up in her mouth.

When she wasn't eating kelp she was eating orange peels. With sand.

People almost always tell me that Pearl looks like me, and I tend to agree. She looks a ton like I did as a baby. But I liked these pictures when I saw them because I could totally see her daddy in her. Do you see it?

This first picture is an excellent summation of our days on The Beach. John off playing with the boys, Pearl crawling around freely, stopping to put anything and everything she could find into her mouth, and me sitting back and photographing it all. And then there is John chatting with his Uncle Steve with our little Penguin in tow.

Pearl is like, "Look George! I found your shovel!"

I loved how effortless it was to keep George happy and entertained. The kids played so hard all day long-- we had to interrupt their fun to make sure they were fed and hydrated, but other than that, they didn't even really need adults around. And then, a gratuitous wetsuit photo of my dashing husband getting ready to hit the waves.

George tirelessly ran out into the water to fill up his bucket to bring back for the sandcastle. And I love this second shot of the bigger kids all in a row, digging frantically for sand crabs. They found dozens and dozens.

I am pretty happy about these pictures because I just happened to catch the exact moment that George was running back into the water behind Pearl to fill up his bucket (tireless, remember?). Yay for lucky photograph timing. Plus, look at Penguin's little face. Oh the squishiness.

These next two (actually there are 4, but they are in collages of 2) pictures are a plug for why you NEED as SLR camera if you don't already have one. I was playing with my aperture to get the lighting right and really loved the contrast of the two different exposures. These are not edited because I wanted you to see what being able to manually control f-stop and shutter speed can do. Here is the first set:

And here is the second. These were taken at the same time as the ones above, in the exact same lighting conditions, and again, were not edited. The difference in the images all just comes from controlling the exposure through f-stop and shutter speed.

Doesn't that make you want an SLR (or happy you have one)? Really, you will never be the same once you get one :). Which set do you like best? I am partial to the first one. I like the soft golden light and how you can still see details. But the more silhouetted one is fun, too. Hooray for SLRs.

Proof that I was there and that it was warm. That is me (please try not to be alarmed by my pale legs) putting sunscreen on my face while chatting with Lis and Natalie.

Look at those happy faces :).

I really love this moment of Grandpa sitting in the sand making "donuts" for the kids out of sand. They were having so much fun.

George was very, very into the "donut" making and "eating."

I super love this photo of all the kiddos together. Yes that is my son on the right, sobbing his little heart out. It was the end of a long beach day and his cousin (we've discussed their tumultuous relationship before :)) had hurt his feelings by pushing him away and telling him he couldn't be in the picture. I love how Logan is totally watching him because he knew what had happened. And the drama of it all, completely depicted in George's pathetic little face and shoulders drooping in defeat. Normally this wouldn't be such a heartbreaker, but you know how 3 year olds are when they are tired. Could not stop crying. Not even for the picture :).

Georgie and Prestley playing in the waves together.

George wasn't the only kid I didn't really have to entertain at The Beach. Between Grandparents and aunts and uncles, I pretty much only had to care for Pearl when she needed to nurse and at night (which was a little bit of a nightmare, I might add :)). Here she is on Grandma's lap enjoying some water out of a lid, and then playing with Aunt Lisa.

And here she is sitting on Great-Grandma's lap, looking on as her mama and daddy play some beach volleyball.

My little family. My whole world, right here in a picture.

Baby Girl and me.

I had to take a photo of my snowflaked toes (pedicure courtesy of Christmas present from my mama) in the sand. Yay for beach escapes in the winter.

Here are some boogie boarding shots. John is one of those people. If I looked closely I am sure I could tell you which one. But I am not going to look closely right now. Just take my word for it.

I am a beach lover, but not necessarily a waves/saltwater lover. If the water is chilly (and it always is in January), I really don't mind not getting totally in. But I had a wetsuit. And John really wanted me to go boogie board with him. So I did. I am nice like that.

I am including a bunch of close-up shots of my babies because I like them all. They remind me of what a long beach day looks like on their faces. Tired eyes, wind-blown hair, sandy faces, and sun-kissed cheeks.

Georgie, getting warmed up in a towel after some fun in the water, and Pearlie, in a rare moment of sitting still on the sheet.

This was at dusk and George was finally so cold and tired that he was ready to be done at The Beach for the day.

Okay, I think I only have one (perhaps two) more Beach installments. Lots of wide angle shots coming up next :).