Beach Days at Jetty Island

Oh my gosh, I haven't blogged in forever!! I don't think I even remember how!  But thought I'd post a few fun pics of our day at the beach yesterday.  This is my personal blog, not my photography blog, which is still under construction (for those that are wondering).

We went out to Jetty Island which is a beautiful sandy beach that you have to take a short little boat ride to get to.  It was such a gorgeous day.  Here are just a few fun shots of the beauty out there.

Maddie having fun in the sand.

Maddie trying to help one of the cute little kids we went with, Brixton, with his kite :)

 There was just enough of a wind that it was fun to watch the parasailing.

Beautiful wildflowers on the way back to the boat.

Such a fun day. I can't wait to go back again next week with Tyler and his friends!

Fun with Collages - Labor Day Weekend at the Coast

So many pictures, so little time!!

(Addendum: Just had to add this little pic.)

Maddie all ready to head down to the beach!

 I just feel like I can't stay caught up with all the things I want to share on this blog.  We had an incredible time out at Pacific Beach on the WA coast over Labor Weekend and it was the last hurrah, and last days of warmth and sunshine out there before school started.  The weather was just beautiful!

So I started playing around with collages, and wow, how addicting! 

(I think I spent one entire afternoon putting some together, oops, shouldn't share that!)

What a great way to post a lot of pictures that tell a story! I found it saved me time, because it was easier to pick just 5 or 6 of the ones I liked the best and put them all together.  I used Picasa Web for this and if you haven't tried it, it's SO easy.  All you do is pick what kind of configuration you'd like, select your pictures, and Picasa just drops them in the windows for you and aligns the configuration for you.  If you don't like it, just re-do.  It was so easy!  (I probably created about 30 collages that afternoon, hopefully to post more later!)  On a side note, you can do these in Photoshop or Elements, which is what I have, but there's quite a bit of tweaking and more learning to do before I have it all figured out to do there. 

So enjoy the collages, just a few from that weekend.  They work well to show the fun we had, without having to write a lot about it.  I hope to write more later, (I know, I keep saying that!)

Playing around on the beach.

Flying that kite....

The water wasn't even cold!

See how far away that rock is?  I was just enthralled with the pictures I'd seen of it in brochures about Pacific Beach and knew it was called Copalis rock.  So we just decided to walk out there and get as close as we could to it!  It was so beautiful that day!!  There's no better feeling than just walking and walking with bare feet in the sand on a sunny day at the beach!

Maddie loved trying to chase all the birds away!

Some of these pictures were taken at earlier times we've been out there, but I decided to include these collages as well.

She is such the collector! 

We have buckets full here at home and I need to figure out something creative to do with them :)!

The Washington beaches are so rugged and I love it!  Wouldn't it be fun to take a horse ride along the beach?  We see that everytime we go.

Well, that's all for now!  This is my favorite of all the collages -- the sunsets there are absolutely gorgeous!

We're so grateful we have such a fun place to get away to...

Where Has Summer Gone...?

Summer is almost over... and it's gone by so fast!  What have we done... well a ton, but I haven't blogged about any of it! There's so much I want to post, but can't seem to find enough time... Here's just a few picture moments to share, even though it doesn't even scratch the surface...

Madeline dances every chance she gets...

She's always a willing subject for taking pictures...

Swimming lessons have gone well...

Although she still insists on having a "girl" teacher!

Tyler got braces...

(This is a very close-up shot with his phone!)

Here's a couple of befores he wanted me to take...

and one of he and Maddie, just for fun.  That sweet moment lasted for about 30 seconds!

Here's an after of the braces at the Mukilteo lighthouse that we went to visit.

(More on that fun outing later...)

We went camping...

and played in the river at the ward campout.

I made jam... for the second summer...

Yum!!

We've enjoyed lots of swimming...

(This is obviously in UT!)

and hiking...

(Mirror Lake in the UT Uintas)

Bogus Basin above Boise with the Hall cousins.

(this was climbing Mt. Pilchuck with "Bumpa" LaPerle and Tyler's cousin Cassidy.  I need to post more details of this amazing hike they took soon!)

Beach time...

 

(Maddie with her friend Savannah)

It's been a very full summer, and there's still so much more I haven't shared yet, like our fun family reunion and fun times with cousins, but slowly I will get to all of it!  (There's so many pictures to go through!)

I think this one though is ready to start school again... :)