The beach!

A week in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore wouldn’t be complete without at least one day spent at the beach.  But going to the beach isn’t as simple as loading up the car and driving there.  Well, it can be … but we prefer to take the road less traveled.  In this case, the road less traveled was actually a mile-long trail that took us directly from our campsite to a nearly deserted beach on the shores of beautiful Lake Michigan.

Along the way, we enjoyed more of God’s beautiful creation … butterflies, flowers and lots and lots of rich, lush ferns.

Eventually, though, the woodsy trail opened up and we got our first glimpse of the lake!

A post in the sand let us know we were getting close!

And finally, we arrive!  We were so excited we just had to run!

Being at the beach affords lots of photo opportunities.  I found myself enthralled with the beach grass and kept envisioning a very large print hanging in my basement.

The gentle, crashing waves provide the perfect symphony of sound.

Shells and sand provide the perfect backdrop for a memory making photo.

The beach is the perfect place to play … to be kids … and to sit and rest, in awe of the beauty and splendor all around us!

More beach grasses … told you I was enthralled.  I think it’s the layers of texture and color that I love.  Soft, grainy specks of sand, sharp, spikey blades of green grass, and finally a soft, creamy blue sky interrupted only by sporadic wisps of clouds.

At the end of the day, when it’s all said and done, we’re thankful for the beautiful day at the beach.

Then we make that mile-long trek back into the woods, away from the sand and the waves, and back into the campground where we dream of the next time we can spend the day on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Let’s Go Fly A Kite

Now tell me you don’t think of Mary Poppins when you see those words!  Can’t you just picture the scene in your head?  The family finally comes together through the joyful experience of flying a kite together.  It’s one of the best scenes in the whole movie!

We acquired a kite last summer when helping my Grandma clean out her house in preparation for a garage sale and eventual move.  But it’s been sitting, untouched, in the corner of our laundry room ever since.  On several occasions, while at the beach this summer, we’ve commented on how much fun it would have been had we remembered to bring the kite along.

Thankfully, Joel thought to bring it along on our vacation last week because he knew there’d be beach time!

I have to say … it was SO much fun!  We really didn’t have to do much except pop it up into the wind and let out some string.  Everyone took a turn holding it and then we just tied it to our lawn chairs and let it fly.  Eventually while preparing to leave the beach and bring our kite down, I did run back and forth a bit on the sand just to get that true kite experience, but for the most part it flew itself.

And yet, there was just something magical about watching that colorful kite soar in the sky!

We had also, somewhere along the way, acquired one of those cheap plastic kites so we brought that to the beach as well.  It flew for awhile and then broke!

Raised hands

I just have to share one more picture from our evening kayak trip…

I’ve been reading through the Bible this year - which incidentally has been such an immense blessing and encouragement to me – and I’ve had the privilege of making a pretty lengthy stop in the book of Psalms for the past few weeks.  It’s one of my favorite books of the Bible, mainly because of the depth and gamut of emotions that you see from the authors throughout the chapters and verses.  In a single chapter, you can see the raw emotion of fear and disappointment and then just a few verses later, the author is praising God with pure joy.

Anyway, as we were kayaking down the river and I was following Joel, I got this image in my mind of him with his arms outstretched in a posture of surrender and/or praise.  It was such a peaceful, tranquil setting in which we were completely surrounded by God’s creation, that I knew it would be the perfect picture.  And since I love to accompany my pictures of creation with verses of Scripture, I assumed I’d be able to find something in the book of Psalms that would appropriately speak to the moment.

Sure enough, that very next day as I was reading my assigned passages for the day, I came upon Psalms 63:4-5…

I will honor you as long as I live,

lifting up my hands to you in prayer.

You satisfy me more than the richest of foods.

I will praise you with songs of joy.

Perfect words to go with the picture I saw in my mind and ultimately the one I was able to capture that night on the river.  I love the posture of hands raised in praise to the one who really does satisfy me.  I also love the peace that comes from surrendering my fears and concerns to him.  My prayer is that I truly will honor him as long as I live!

An Evening of Kayaking [Sweet Shot Tuesday]

Last week we spent seven days camping in one of our favorite spots – Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Northern Michigan.  I took over 800 pictures and am slowly working my way through them.  When I edited this series of shots, I knew that these were the ones I wanted to share first.

On our second to last evening there, my parents agreed to stay with our kids so that Joel and I could take an after-dinner trip down the Platte River by kayak.  During the day, the river tends to be very crowded with people canoeing, tubing, swimming and kayaking.  But in the evening, the river is more or less abandoned.  As a result, our trip was quiet and peaceful and because the evening light was so gorgeous, we enjoyed God’s amazing creation all around us.

This special time with Joel, on the river, enjoying God’s creation, was definitely a highlight of our trip.  The memory of that peaceful experience will stay with me forever.

To see more sweet shots, visit Life With My 3Boybarians.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!  Have a blessed day!

Vintage Clouds

 

Rose of Sharon

Two years ago I was on a search for peony bushes for my yard.  We went to Lowe’s and bought two rather smallish bushes because the picture on the tag looked like a peony.  I failed to read the label, however, so it wasn’t until sometime later that I discovered that the bushes we bought were not peony bushes.  The tag read, “Blushing Bride Althea” which meant nothing to me.  All I knew was that I was disappointed that they were not peonies.

We’ve since discovered that their common name is Rose of Sharon, that they grow very quickly, they are pretty low maintenance, and they have lots and lots of beautiful pink flowers.

I may not have initially bought what I thought I wanted, but I think I ended up something pretty spectacular!

Taken with my 100mm 2.8L macro lens and edited in PSE9 with Pure Photoshop Actions "Just A Pinch" set.

A pretty!

I know you probably can’t really tell in the picture, but I captured this shot of a Black Eyed Susan from my yard during a recent rain storm.  I’m loving how there’s just one flower in focus while the others are softly out-of-focus in the background.  I didn’t do much to it, editing-wise, except give it a clean edit and a slight crop.