Sunrise, December 21, The Second Beach

The rock beach is the second beach I visited.  It was equally as awe-inspiring as the first beach.

(The beach in the background is the third beach)

 Here the sun peeked over the horizon

 Waves formed . . . 

  and broke . . . 

 while the sun rose in the background

 I could (and did!) watch the waves over and over again

Beautiful!

Ollie Turns Four!

Amidst all the Christmas busyness of the last few days, Ollie had a birthday!  Our Christmas Eve baby is already four.  He picked pizza and chocolate cake with chocolate frosting for his birthday supper.  I found that I only had three birthday candles, and being Christmas Eve, there was no place open in town to go get more.  Ollie got three candles and a chocolate snowman instead, but he didn't even seem to care.  He was really into opening presents and didn't need help from any siblings to rip 'em open.  After each present he opened, Ollie said, "It's just what I wanted!"  I love it when they're easy to please.

Sunrise, December 21, The First Beach

Because we were going out of town for the weekend, I went out on Friday morning, the 21st.  The wind was howling all night long, but by morning all was still.  I bundled up against the cold, but didn't see until I came home that it was only 5 degrees.  If I had checked before I got up, I may have just stayed in bed!  But really, I didn't feel the cold.  I even have great new Lands End boots to keep my toes toasty. 

I don't know how exactly wind affects waves, but they were awesome! Sunrise was at 7:49 a.m.  The morning was mostly clear, with just a few clouds along the horizon.  There wasn't a lot of color, and I ended up focusing more on waves than on the sunrise.  I started at the beach I always start at, then walked to the rock beach, then to the beach beyond that.  The following photos are from the first beach.

First hint of color

Rocks covered in glare ice 

Icicles hanging down

Art in nature

This Week's Random Phone Pics

Sometimes the kids get ahold of my phone to take pictures of whatever they've been doing, like drawing pictures of Spongebob:

By Raina

I had four cabbage plants in my garden.  This is the first, and only, cabbage I harvested.  The rest of them were infested with worms--ick!  

An end of the summer picnic at the marina by Lake Superior

A September bonfire; fall is a great time for bonfires because it gets dark earlier, and it's cooler so the fire is more enjoyable.

Ollie and I go to story hour at the library on Wednesdays.  One day when we were walking there, these geese were across the street from us.

Sunrise, December 8

After checking the forecast for the weekend, I decided to go out on Saturday morning because there was snow predicted for Saturday night into Sunday.  It was a chilly 12 degrees when I left the house, but I bundled up with leggings under fleece pants and my down-filled Lands End coat that I got a great deal on last winter.  The sunrise was at 7:39 a.m.,  but the cloud cover right at the horizon blocked the sun.  The sky and clouds above still turned pink and orange, though.

 When I first got to the beach, a bit of color on the horizon

 

I like to take pictures of objects that could be letters.  Some day I'll have the whole alphabet, but this stick could be a "y" or turned upside-down, an "h".

Rock glazed over with ice

I climbed on this big rock from the far side, and sat at the front by the lake while the sun rose

I never get tired of listening to the waves break on the shore

 As the sun rose, the clouds started to turn pink

 A rusty old barrel nearly hidden in the hillside

I climbed down to the rock below . . .

 . . . and was surrounded by big rocks

 . . . to the left

. . . and down below

 

From the hill, I could see the rock beach in the distance

The interesting remains of a plant

 More of the rock beach . . .

 . . . and those cute little pine cones

 

Someone forgot to pick up after himself

I've learned to be patient, because while the sunrise was at 7:39, it's worth sticking around for awhile to see this

More Random Phone Pics

It's time for more random phone pics!

As part of Bay Days, there was a Lumberjack show.  Besides racing to see who could climb, saw, and race back down the fastest, the lumberjacks ran across a log floating on water.  The guy above made it across (but I don't think the boy in the background thought he was going to).

This guy fell in.  I like the carved bear peaking up at the bottom of the photo.

Lettuce and green beans from the garden.  I wish I could have a year-round garden.

This is gross.  Apparently when school ended last spring, Jackson never cleaned his backpack out.  In August, we found this moldy sandwich in his lunchbox.  Sandwich and lunchbox both went in the trash.

Lax Lake, where we hung out with Mom & Dad and Melisa's family for a few days at the end of August.