30 Days of Summer | Day 30 – Where has it gone?

I know it’s not technically the end of summer, but when the kids go back to school, the world changes out of the summer rhythms, and into the hum of real life.  I hope you have enjoyed the 30 days of photos.  I have spread them over Ellen Yale Photography Facebook, my personal Facebook page, and the blog.

I thought it would be appropriate to end with a photo from the last day of our vacation at Ocean Isle Beach.  It’s that last morning, when you need to pack and get out before 10am.  In my mind, I will get up and go for a walk on the beach, sneak in a swim in the ocean, all before I shower, pack, make sure the children have packed, empty the fridge, load the dishwasher, check the house, load the car, load Mom’s car, take out the garbage, and double-check the doors, windows, drawers, and drop the keys.

This year I got up before dawn, bumped into my sister, and we did squeeze in a walk on the beach.  It was breathtakingly beautiful, and we whispered at the time that we were glad we had not missed it.  We started out on our own, and I had to run back for my camera once I saw the gorgeous sunrise.  This seems even more àpropos since hurricane Irene is bearing down on OIB and the outer banks in the next 18 hours.

30 Days of Summer | Day 29 – What was in the lunch box from last year?

Should have posted this last night, but the night spiraled out of control.  The kids started freaking out about the first day of school today.

We found some wretchedly foul-smelling left-over lunch from last year in one of the kids’ lunch box.  I think it is lunch meat that has turned liquid.  Could be cheese.  So Whitney tried to rectify that.  No success. Bayla decided she needed me to cut her hair.  Last night.  And I just realized that we have never gotten any information about what home room Bayla has.  We only know what school.  That clearly spells chaos.  I had to veto wearing winter clothes on the first day of school just because they were new.  It’s 95 degrees.  We want the teachers to think our child is smart.  At 10pm I find out they have not laid out their clothes, prepackaged any lunch or gone to the basement and gotten their supplies together for their first day.

I am sure it would feel good to feel so needed by such great kids, if I weren’t trying to get a ton of work done.  They are such amazing kids, sometimes I expect them to anticipate things like an adult.

Don’t worry, this is not a photo of the rotten food.  It is the Borax solution cleaning the lunch box.  Now looking for a replacement.

The AG bus was an hour and eighteen minutes late.  The Randolph bus… well, we still don’t know…

30 Days of Summer | Day 28 – Bumble Bee

 

30 Days of Summer | Day 26 – Mother & Son

I think he is writing the grocery list.

 

30 Days of Summer | Day 25 – Summer Salad

30 Days of Summer | Day 24 – Snail in a Bag

It was one of those shells that you see on the beach, that just looks like a shell, but when Bryton picked it up, it had that huge tongue-like foot hanging out of it.  Now, how it sucks its whole body back into that tiny shell is beyond me, but  we enjoyed watching it do that every time we shifted the bag we put it in.  Bryton wanted to cook the tiny little shells you see next to the snail and eat them.  My brother-in-law is a marine biologist/scientist guy, and we have done just that in the past… had a lovely soup made of those little creatures that make the holes in the sand at the beach.  I do think our family would do well on Survivor Island.  We have been practicing the challenges for years.

 

 

 

 

30 Days of Summer | Day 23 – Beauties on the Beach

Beautiful beach, gorgeous models, need I say more?

30 Days of Summer | Day 22 – Planking

It was time to bring the family into the 21st century.  Again.  For the 20th century, I remember when I had to tell Dad who Michael Jackson was.  I had to expose Grandma to television shows other than the McNeil/Lehrer Report.  The list goes on, and everyone else is alive, so I won’t elaborate.  But I was a little surprised, when out of 11 people at the beach, only one knew what planking is.  So, we planked.

 

 

This was the day before Heather had her appendectomy.  The surgery was pre-scheduled… the pink beach chairs caused no harm that we are aware of.

 

 

Since the popularity of planking is waning, maybe next year we will try owling.

30 Days of Summer | Day 21 – Clouds

After a huge storm overnight that almost sunk the boat (the plugs were accidentally put back in) the clouds on the beach were spectacular!  Yin and Yang.

How does the song go?  I look at clouds from both sides now…  Bows and flows of angel’s hair, and ice cream castles in the air…

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 Photo/Day/Year – Bless Her Little Heart

It’s not me, for heaven’s sake (can I say that on a Sunday morning?).  But, bless her little heart, Kirsten Swank has a great photo per day per year project going on.  There are a lot of those projects if you go looking for them, but I love her simple, straightforward thoughts that go with them, and her moniker…

A DAILY REMINDER TO OPEN MY EYES, FIND SOMETHING NEW & CHANGE MY WORLD

http://cargocollective.com/kswankphoto