One of the Best Beaches Ever

I finally wrote the beach post that I've been wanting to do since last summer! I've been intimidated to do it because I took many pictures and I loved them all and didn't know which ones to use and how to put it all together without it being a really long post. I finally decided to abandon my perfectionist ways and just do it! And yes, this is a long post, probably my longest post ever. I thought about splitting it into two or three parts, but I decided to just get it all done at once, so I spent a lot of time today doing it. So you better enjoy it! Oh, sorry. Where are my manners? I hope you enjoy it! :-)

Every summer for the last seven years we've spent a week or two on beautiful Cape Cod in Massachusetts. I've come to love the Cape and my dream is to buy our own house there to stay at when we go back East to visit our families. But for now, we rent a house, usually in a different area to get a feel for what the various towns are like for when we do buy. Last summer we rented a house in the lovely town of Brewster, which is on the bay side of the Cape (meaning it's on the side that faces up toward Boston instead of the side that faces down into the rest of the Atlantic Ocean where the next pieces of land are islands in the Caribbean). Beaches on the bay side tend to be more calm, and we found the perfect beach for exploring and for children in Brewster. I don't remember the specific name of this beach, but I think it was part of Paine's Creek Beach, which stretches along the coast in Brewster. In any case, I know exactly where it is for when we return!

The reason this beach is so awesome is because of the tides there. When we arrived, it was a regular beach, but as time went on, the water started to recede more and more, leaving the ocean floor completely visible. Also, the water at low tide is very calm since its being pulled slowly and gently out to sea, which is perfect for little kids. I was able to walk far out into the ocean with the water only going up as high as my knees, which made it easy to bring my non-waterproof camera and take pictures. My 1-year-old was able to do the same thing (minus the camera)--walking far out all on his own, on wet sand that is usually covered by ocean water.

It was the perfect place for a child (and adult!) to explore the ocean floor. It was one of the coolest experiences ever, and I can't wait to go back there again this summer. The trick is going at the right time though. If you're not there at low tide, it's just another (lovely) Cape beach, as you will see in some of the pictures below. But if you're lucky enough to be there at low tide, the mysteries of the ocean will be revealed to you! Well, some of them anyway.

When we got to the beach that day, the water had already receded enough to reveal the green grass that usually lays below its surface. We had no idea that the water was going to be receding a lot more than that in the next hour or two! 

Hunting for hermit crabs in the shallow water was a popular activity and one that John enthusiastically and quickly embraced. That's Peter, John, and John's cousin Lizzie in the picture there. It doesn't look like they're at the beach (where's the water!?), but they are!

Caught one!

Calm, shallow water + Lots of rocks = Heaven for Sam

 

 John collected hermit crabs and Sam collected rocks. What a great place for little boys!

 

 This is one of my favorite pictures from the whole summer. I picked up this little guy and he peeked out just as I took the picture. Perfect timing! What a cooperative little crab.

Meanwhile the water was receding more and more and revealing more of the ocean floor.

 

Peter stayed with the kids as they looked for crabs and rocks while I took a walk out into the ocean with my camera. These are just a few of the (many!) shots I got.

Looking out to the shallow sea:

Clear, shallow water

In the picture above, you can see the sandbar just under the water. People were out there sitting on chairs. Pretty soon it was just sand because the water was gone.

 

 And a little later, these sailboats were sitting on the sand instead of the water. (Keep reading to see!)

 

I went back to shore and by then the kids were ready for their walk out into the ocean. It was an amazing experience to walk out so far onto the huge ocean floor, especially with a little toddler!

Talk about a rocky shore! At first the walk was very rocky, as you can see here, but after that it was mostly wet, smooth sand. 

 

 

We were out really far! I'm bad at judging distances, but I think we may have been about 1/3 of a mile out.
 

 

My little Sam man, out by himself on the ocean floor.

We let the hermit crabs out. John caught so many of them. They look like rocks, but those are all crabs skittering away!

These oyster cages were revealed once the tide went out more. So that's where they keep those!

I managed to get a picture of this big crab before it burrowed into the sand to hide itself.

Now THAT is a big crab! It's a horseshoe crab that a rather brave man picked up and held before letting it swim away.

A family picture of us out to sea. Sam just wanted to get down and play.

Going for a jog. Why not?

Playing on the sea floor. Again, why not?

This is what it looked like looking out to sea. There were people out way further than us. Low tide is really amazing!

And the picture below was looking back to shore. We were pretty far out and decided to start walking back.

See the boats, sitting on the sand!? I was amazed! (There's a better picture of this further below.)

If a person were to come to this beach hoping for a great swim and lots of waves, they'd be very disappointed! At least if they came at low tide.

We returned the next day with Peter's sister and her four kids, and the tide was out even more than when we'd been there the day before. Here's Sam again, walking on the sand way out far from the shore. Remember that at high tide this is covered by several feet of water!

Not the prettiest view of the ocean (what ocean?) I've ever seen. But definitely the most unique!

John collected hermit crabs again in his bucket of water. They were harder to find because there wasn't very much water. We really didn't even need to be in our swimsuits.

Boats and buoys, sitting on the sand:

  Oystas! (written with a Boston accent)

 

This is the final part of this post. (Whew! Are you still with me?) We returned to the same beach the following week with some of my family so that we could show them the uniqueness of this beach. But our timing wasn't right this time--it was high tide, so it looked like a regular beach again! Those boats that had been sitting on sand were now bobbing on the waves. The dune grass was nowhere to be seen, completely hidden by the ocean. And it was a sandy beach again, not a rocky one. (Sorry Sam!)

 

To think that we had walked out so far into that water a few days earlier, and now John could only go in a few feet! But he didn't mind--he loved playing in the water. This beach seriously has the best of both worlds. Just not at the same time!

  

 

Pretty neat, huh? Needless to say, I loved this beach. We'll go back again this summer, and hopefully we'll catch it at low tide and maybe another time at high tide. At low tide it's great for exploring and walking in; at high tide it's fun for swimming in.

Since this post is already nice and long, I don't feel bad posting a few more pictures of the scenery that I took there...

I took these in the field right behind the beach:

 

And now ends my longest blog post ever. I let my love of the beach overcome my editorial tendency towards more concise posts with fewer pictures. But that's okay. This was a lot less onerous to put together than I thought it would be because it was fun to re-live the memories!

10 Questions About ME!

I saw this fun little "quiz" on someone's blog recently and decided to copy it. (Just the questions, not the answers!)

1. My favorite color: Green
2. My favorite animal: Dogs. Owls. My favorite wild animals are elephants, giraffes, and dolphins.
3. My favorite number: 8--my lucky number from my softball-playing years.
4. My favorite drink: Lemonade; hot cocoa in the winter
5. Facebook or Twitter: Facebook
6. My passion: The pursuit of a happy, well-lived, meaningful life
7. Prefer giving or getting presents: I enjoy giving presents to family and friends, but but let's be honest, getting presents is pretty fun and a lot more easy!
8. My favorite pattern: My favorite pattern? I must have stolen this quiz from a fashion blog! Anyway, I like polka dots. That counts as a pattern, right?
9. My favorite day of the week: Monday. Call me crazy, but I like the start of a new week and getting back into the routine of things. But I also like Thursday, when the housecleaning and laundry are done for the week and the weekend feels like it's about to begin. Then again, Fridays are fun, and I love the peacefulness of Sundays. So I guess I don't really have a favorite day of the week. I like them all!
10. My favorite flower: Roses

And now you know ten random and mostly useless facts about me. Lucky you!

Flowers for You

My blog friend Rochelle just started doing "Nature Photo Tuesday" on her blog which I can link up to, and I'm excited about that because I love taking nature photos and now I have a good reason to post them on a weekly basis on my blog.

So without further ado...here are some nature photos I took. Specifically, flower photos. Come take a walk around my yard with me in the late and lush springtime!

Location: All around my yard in Iowa
Date: May and June 2011

 

I was really excited to discover an actual rose growing in our yard! 

Wildflowers in the field behind the backyard.

(Bumblebee!)

These pretty flower bushes got taken out last summer because those wood chips were a pain (literally! It hurt to walk barefoot across them! Plus the dogs were always digging in them), so we had grass planted instead. I love the grass and landscaping work that was done, but I do miss those pretty pink and purple bushes.

I just realized as I was putting together this post that many of these flowers may not grow again in our yard because of what I mentioned above--we had all the wood chips taken out last summer and stones or grass put in instead. I'm sure that many of the flower roots were uprooted in the process. Sad! We'll have to see what pops up in the next few weeks.

A Little Bit of Randomness for Your Day

1. This is the swingset and giant sandbox that we had installed in our backyard last summer. I don't think I ever mentioned it on my blog. It's been great to have, even if Sam likes our next-door neighbor's swingset more than ours. I guess he defies the good old saying "If you build it, they will come." And with this being Iowa too! Little stinker. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, see Field of Dreams!) 

 2. I tried to get some good pictures of my boys together when we were outside going on a walk a few weeks ago. (It was the same day that I took the picture above). I didn't get any very good ones, but this one makes me laugh. This is John and Sam in a nutshell! The teaser-bully and the victim.

And I like the picture below because of how their hands are placed, all on their own. I think it's very sweet. I'm so glad that they each have a brother and that John finally got a sibling! We're so thankful for them. If we were to not have any more children, it would be fine because we really do love our little family!

3. These are our dogs. They are brothers who we got from an animal shelter about a year-and-a-half ago after we moved here. They can't replace my beloved Christy, but they are good, fun dogs and I'm glad that we have them.

Yogi

Boo Boo

4. I disagree with this statement:

I can remember clearly some good nights where I got plenty of sleep. They stood out and they were wonderful! I love nights when I get plenty of sleep and I wish they happened a lot more! Nights of plenty of sleep can make all the difference! (A party-animal I am not--obviously!)

5. This fence makes me think of popsicle sticks for some reason. It was at Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Massachusetts, one of the places we went to last summer. I think it's cool-looking! I love it there.

6. Yesterday my beautiful niece Hayley turned 20 years old. I still remember very clearly the day she was born. We lived in Layton, Utah and I was in 6th grade and I was so excited to have a pretty baby girl to play with and to be an aunt. When she was born, I called all my friends to share the news and I ran through the neighborhood telling people. I had so much fun with Hayley when she was growing up! And I still do. She is awesome!

Me, Hayley, and John in the stocks at Canobie Lake Park in New Hampshire last summer. Good times! 
I hope we go back again this summer.

7. This was taken in August 2010, right after we moved to Iowa. I came across these pictures the other day. They make me miss the longer hair I used to have, but they give me hope that it will grow again to what it used to be! They also make me nostalgic for those days, even if they were less than two years ago.

 

Well, I guess that's enough randomness for today. See you next time!

Things I Don't Do

• Gyms
• Skiing 
• Minivans (They're fine and very practical, but I'm just an SUV kind of gal.)
• Rides that go around and around in circles fast (They make me sick!)
• Shopping on Black Friday
• Do-It-Yourself house renovation projects (I prefer to help the economy and simplify my life by hiring it out. Not to mention the fact that I'm just not good at do-it-yourself house renovation projects.)
• Twitter
• Sewing
• Veal 
• Saunas
• Hairdryers, flatirons, or curling irons (they damage my wimpy hair)
• Highlights and hair dye (see above)
• Tofu
• Hats (but I should since I'm a fair-skinned, fair-haired magnet for the sun's rays)
• Caffeinated soda
• Homeschooling
• Jeans with bling
• Trends (unless I really do like them)
• Jeggings!

Now that I've alienated probably everyone who reads this with at least one of the above things, I will say that with the exception of veal, and maybe jeggings, all of the above things are fine! They're just not for me. What about you? What are some things that you don't do?

The Black Earth in Our Backyard

Once a year, fires are intentionally set in my neighborhood. It happens in front of our house and behind it, and it's quite the spectacle. But not to worry! They are perfectly legal controlled fires, and there's always a big fire truck there just in case the burn gets out of hand. I couldn't understand why this was done when we moved here, and I still kind of don't. Apparently burning prairie grass and field grass helps to keep it from growing out-of-control. I think it's sad to see nature burn like that. But at the same time, it's amazing to see how quickly nature rebounds. The earth remains black for just a couple of days, but a week later there's already new grass shooting up all over the place. A month later, you'd never know that a fire had taken place. Nature's ability to heal itself is pretty amazing.

But in the meantime, here are some pictures of the ugliness that the fire left in the field behind our backyard soon after it happened last month. How's that for an ugly view?!

There's a walking path behind the field, and as you can see below, the fire really is well-controlled, ending at the field's edge and leaving the path intact. I guess those guys know what they're doing. Thank goodness for that!

This is what it looks like back there now, about a month later. Look at all that green re-growth!

And by summer's end, it should be back to normal and looking a lot more like this.

In the end, the strength and beauty of nature prevail over the power of fire. Pretty neat!

Five Things for Friday

1. I was surprised and saddened to hear about Thomas Kinkade's death at the age of 54 last week. He's been my favorite artist for a long time. I think his pictures are absolutely beautiful and I found the Christian philosophies behind his work to be inspiring. He seemed devoted to his wife and daughters, and I'd always look for the "N" that he hid in his paintings for his wife's name. I had no idea that they had separated in the last few years, that he had been an alcoholic before and had relapsed again (he had been drinking heavily when he died), and that the criticism of his work hurt him deeply. I don't understand that criticism at all, by the way. Who cares if his art was mass-produced? It was beautiful and it spoke to my soul. Dang art critics! I'll take his work over some ugly modern painting any day. (Sorry if you like modern art!) I've had a Thomas Kinkade calendar almost every year for over a decade, we have one of his paintings hanging in our house, I own several books of his pictures, and I'm sad that he's not here anymore to create his beautiful art. 

These are a few of my long-time Kinkade favorites:

We have this one hanging up in our family room. It's called "Stairway to Paradise."

2. Now for some good news: we paid off our Toyota Highlander! Peter got it for me four summers ago as a (very big!) surprise for my birthday. I still love it, even more so now that we fully own it. Now we just have to pay off his Toyota Camry. As you can see, we like Toyotas.

If you want to see the post I wrote about my new Highlander in September 2008 along with pictures I took of it, click here.

3. I've been thinking for the past few months about jeans, specifically skinny jeans. I don't like trends too much, and I thought the skinny jean thing was a trend, but it seems that they're here to stay. I'm a long-time fan of bootcut jeans, but I was starting to feel unstylish when I wore them because it seemed like everyone had moved on to skinny jeans. So recently I went to Old Navy and got a few pairs of skinny jeans. And to my surprise, I really like them. They're tailored, not tight, and they're comfortable and flattering. I think they're cute and so I feel cute when I wear them. I'm not getting rid of my bootcuts though, because I still think they're classic.
I tried on a pair of jeggings too. Horrors! They were one of the worst things I've ever tried on and I took them off almost immediately. They were just awful. I will see them again in my nightmares.

4. Have you heard of Lauren Bush, niece of President George W. Bush and granddaughter of President George Bush? She's a model, and last fall she married one of fashion designer Ralph Lauren's sons. I didn't realize it when I first heard about it, but I saw her name somewhere this week and now I realize it: her married name is Lauren Lauren! For some reason that cracks me up. She goes by Lauren Bush-Lauren, which I think is smart. :-)

5. I'm done with my lipstick testing for Parents magazine, so now I can tell you which ones were my favorites. They were:

• Clinique Almost Lipstick in Luscious Honey (I'm a long-time fan of Clinique--their products are so high-quality, and this lipstick was no exception.)
• Buxom Big & Healthy Lip Cream in Mudslide (Despite the name of the shade, it's a very pretty neutral. And it left a really cool long-lasting minty feeling on my lips too.)
•  Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Creamsicle (Super-moisturizing and pretty.)

And the worst one was a Wet 'n Wild lipstick in a shade called "Pinkerbell," which was way too bright and matte and chalky feeling. I looked like a clown when I wore it!
I'm looking forward to seeing what Parents sends next. It's fun testing this stuff out (even if I did get a lip rash from it!). And it's nice that I don't have to buy lipstick again for awhile!

We're headed to Kansas City, Missouri for the weekend to go to a temple open house. Do you have any fun plans? Whatever they are, have a great weekend!

A Poetic Post for Spring

"Springtime is the land awakening.  The March winds are the morning yawn." 
                              ~Quoted by Lewis Grizzard in Kathy Sue Loudermilk, I Love You

--and another good springtime quote, this one for April--

"April prepares her green traffic light and the world thinks Go."  
                                                                                  ~Christopher Morley, John Mistletoe

"Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature."   

                                  ~Gerard De Nerval

"It is the secret of the world that all things subsist and do not die, but only retire from sight and afterwards return again."
                                                                                       ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Morning Light

I love mornings and how they're the start of a fresh new day. I love how the morning sunshine streams in to where we eat breakfast each day (even if it does sometimes make Sam screech in protest until I lower one of the blinds so that it's not shining right in his face). And I love that I remembered to turn the flash off when I took these pictures of the kids at breakfast recently! That morning glow is just awesome! Can you tell that I'm a morning person? :-)

 

(For the sake of brevity I was going to include only one of the above three-in-a-row images of Sam, but I liked each of them enough that I decided to just include them all. It's neat the way the sunshine lights up his hair like that!)