Surf fishing

Bright and early on Memorial Day, Patrick convinced us all to do some surf fishing.  We had hoped to beat the sunrise, but this mama was too tired from hosting Caleb's tennis buddies at the house all weekend when the boys were not playing in their tournament (which Caleb played very well in, by the way.)  Anyway, we arrived as the sun was waking up, and Patrick got to work setting up the rods.

 We had nothing biting for a while, but we did have a blue heron who thought he could hang around and try to steal our bait.  We wouldn't let him, though, so he had to fish for food himself.

 Eventually, Madeline managed to catch a catfish.  Caleb's expression is hilarious in the shot below.  He really didn't mind the fish.

 Once Patrick managed to unhook him, we decided to toss him over to the heron instead of back into ocean.  He snatched it right up. It took him a while to eat it, but he did. The kids got a kick out of that.

Then an old colleague of Patrick's spotted our family fishing while he was exercising on the beach and stopped to chat.  We hadn't seen him in a few years, so it was nice to catch up.

On a photography note, I enjoyed shooting the wildlife when we were at the beach but was bummed I didn't have my telephoto lens on me.  I just might have to break my personal rule of one lens only at the beach, at least when we're fishing.

Next weekend is going to be a big one for us.  Madeline has her spring recital for dance, and Caleb has his tennis state championships tournament.  Last year they fell on back-to-back weekends. This year we're not as fortunate.  We will be doing a lot of driving back and forth because Madeline will be performing both Friday night and Saturday night, while Caleb's tournament will be Saturday and Sunday.  Can you say busy?  Ugh.  I wish it wasn't.  But we're going to do our best to get each of our kids to their siblings event because it's just that important to us.  These are the biggest events of the year for them both.  It just plain stinks that it happens to be the same weekend.  It goes without saying that my camera will be seeing a lot of action though.  I better get my memory cards and batteries ready!

Winter sun and sand

Patrick has been wanting to take the dumplings to the beach to dig in the sand a little bit.  So we finally found some time to do that the other day.  We managed to get down there about an hour before sunset, which you know is a dreamy time for the photographer in me.  It was very windy and bit on the chilly side. So they didn't get in the water at all.

 There were just a few others also out enjoying the beauty at sunset. So I snapped a photo of them too.  

After digging a bit, Caleb and Patrick tossed around the football.

While I love the boldness and brightness of sunsets over the river to the west, there is something special about the dreamy, pastel sunsets over the ocean to the east.  Most of the images I shot were to the north, as that was where the sky was prettiest....that is until the sun finally set, and then out of nowhere the sky to the south was full of soft, delicate pastel clouds, which I captured in the last photo.

The dumplings had such a great time digging in the sand and making castles. The boys also had a lot of fun playing catch.  And me?  I just loved watching them all enjoying themselves so much.  We really need to say good night to the sun more often while digging our toes in the sand, right?

His Birthday Eve

I mentioned in a previous post that Bammy was down from Connecticut to help Caleb celebrate his birthday.  Well, since she's down for a little while, we thought we'd put her up in some pretty nifty accommodations- our dear Peggy.  We set her up at a campground at a local park in town, about 15 minutes from the house.  On Caleb's Birthday Eve, we headed over to Bammy's place to help her get settled in and have some dinner and s'mores.  Caleb wanted to light the charcoal.

Then Baba had to head back to the house for a few things we forgot  (of course).  So in the meantime, the dumplings played with Bammy.  Caleb might have also pretended to be Santa Claus.

The meat head that I am brought my Nikon but left all my CF cards at home.  Duh!  But thankfully I had my Fujifilm in my bag and made do.

Havi may or may not have had a thing for the s'more sticks.

Eventually Baba made it back to the site as the sun went down.  We managed to eat by candle light, which was cool.  Then, although I don't think they're actually allowed in the campground, the dumplings played with some sparklers.  I guess you could call us rebels.

I wished I hadn't forgotten my CF card for my Nikon because it does so much better in low light that also has a lot of movement.  My Fujifilm is just slower in the dark, and my subjects have a hard time being still.  Not necessarily the best combination. lol Anyway, I'm glad I was able to capture the moment the only way I could.  Perspective. ;)

We had a lot of fun that night.  Good thing we just might be joining Bammy later in the week.

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party

Happy New Year's Eve!!!

As I scroll through the photos I have taken in the month of December, I can't believe it.  I went from hardly picking up my camera in November to shooting "overdrive".  I still have so many photos I want to share.  So I will be on a posting frenzy.  As is usually the case, I will be late with my "Year in Review" post.  I will probably get that up in the next week. For now, though, I want to back up to the weekend before Christmas.

Since it had been a few years since we attended Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party, we thought we would make time for it this year.  We arrived around 4:30 because we prefer to keep our visits short (it helps us keep our sanity as the evening progresses.)  We usually go to Tomorrow Land first. So we made our way to the People Mover.

Havi is in this phase where she is afraid of the pitch dark.  So she needed some cuddling during parts of the ride.  Next up was the Raceway.  Caleb was so thrilled to be tall enough to "ride alone".  He had been looking forward to that solo drive for....ever.

The sun was setting as we were in line and on the track. So I couldn't really capture any decent photos.  But since there was a bit of a back up, I thought I would try to snap a photo of me with my precious shotgun rider.

Then we decided to grab dinner before the dinner crowd had the same idea.  After filling up, we headed over to Carousel of Progress...only to find out we were 5 minutes too late, as the ride had just closed for the evening.  Boo! The dumplings were singing the theme song all week long. So they were a bit disappointed we just missed it.  We decided to head over to Fantasy Land to ride the Barnstormer.

We were so thrilled that the wait time said 5 minutes.  Madeline and I ran all the way to the top and walked right on the roller coaster.  No waiting!!!  We had so much fun, we ran all the way down as we exited the ride so we could do it again!  This time, we had to wait once just so we could ride in the front row.  It was worth it!  The front row was a blast!  Good call Madeline!

Then we scooted on over to Ariel's Grotto.  Poor little Havi was upset with the dark.  But she managed to settle down a bit and enjoy the ride some.  Then I rode the carousel with both Caleb and Madeline.  

After the carousel, we grabbed some hot chocolate and sugar cookies.  Then we thought we'd head over to Pirates of the Carribean before the parade....only it, too, was also closed for the evening.  Poor Caleb was looking forward to it.  What a bummer.  Well, we decided to wait for the parade, and we're glad we did.  Havi insisted we go "home now".  Being at Disney in the dark was just too much for her.  At the start of the parade, she didn't even watch.  She just played with my phone.  Then Patrick held her, and she actually began to enjoy it.  We were so thankful for the turn around.

We headed home once the parade was over, and all three dumplings promptly fell asleep once we began driving.  It was a fun night and cold enough toward the end of the evening to enjoy hot chocolate, which hasn't been the case much of December.

So now that I'm caught up with sharing all that happened before Christmas, I will have to share our post-Christmas Christmas celebrations...yes, you read that right...plural.  We partied for three more days, in fact! lol  Stay tuned...