Life Upstream: 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.