a bunch of beach

And I do mean A BUNCH!
Just warning you, I wasn't too picky about which pictures I put up tonight. I took SO MANY. Believe me, this is a ton, but I've spared you by many. Don't be afraid to critique the photos any of you photographers out there... (Nic, Jess, Annie, Debbie, and anyone else stumbling upon my amateur attempts). Too dark? Overexposed? No focus? I need all the advice I can get! I'm just proud that they were shot completely manually and they actually turned out. I'm looking forward to printing them out and seeing how they hold up in real life. These shots are all straight out of the camera... no editing or adjusting besides a little cropping here and there and some sharpening for the web. They're not all the greatest, but at least they're presentable here (and can I just say manual shooting again?!... and completely frustrating can't-decide-between-sun/overcast-weather for all of the afternoon?!!... sorry, I'll shut up now)!
As usual, clicking on any image should bring it up full size.

On with the show... Here's our day at the beach:

Here's the SawMan's version of a sandcastle. A mound of sand with a stick stuck in the top.Sawyer was all about the rocks. He spent most of his time gathering them. Gathering, placing in bucket, carrying them to a new location, emptying the bucket, and gathering again.

He got a little frustrated with the larger rocks...

I don't have as many keepers of Savannah from this trip as I would have liked. Partly due to her pretty much always having her back to me, and partly because I can't stand the swimsuit she had on. Not the one I would have picked had I known I would be on such a roll with my camera and want so many frame-able shots. She loves the swimsuit, so it's good to have it captured, but Disney princesses plastered all over the front with a tu-tu skirt is not my idea of cute.

Two of my favorites... (you may have seen else where LOL!)

And Ryan's saving this one in case Sawyer's ever an Olympian and people wonder when he started training for the rings.

I know this one's not so hot technically, but I love SJ's face!!!













After a couple of hours we left the rocky beach of Van Buren and migrated north to the nicer sandier beaches of South Haven...

our little swimmers...

Sawyer didn't even want to stand up in the water. He just wanted to lay low and kick away like this. Ryan would try to take him out further to play and he just wanted to be totally in the water "swimming" around like a fish.

Love those wrinkly feet!! Our little water baby.




Maybe he's going to be a surfer or something, because this was also his favorite position in both the sand and the water... I think he liked the warm sand on his belly.

Making a mudpit...

and of course we had to watch the "pirate ship" come in

We really did have so much fun. Both Ryan and I kept saying that we really wished we would have spent more time along Lake Michigan last summer. Another example of why to just do things and not put them off... we thought we'd have years of summers to visit the lake. But we missed most of our chances.
Anyway, we all had such a good time I think we decided we're going to head over and spend a night or two at the beach on our way out of state. We were thinking about going to Chicago or a few other places making a few day trip down to St Louis when we leave. Like a little mini vacation taking our time and breaking up our drive down there. But now if the weather looks good, I think we're going to find a place near the beach and let the kids hang out in the sand and sun for a couple of afternoons.