A Day At The Beach

People think that the desert gets hot in the summer, but I have to admit, it gets pretty nasty in the Great Lakes region as well.  The humidity is of course the factor.  The saving grace about my hometown?  Lake Michigan.  A lot of people don't have air conditioning in their homes, but many of us can head out to the beach which is 20 degrees cooler!!!  It's amazing how cool it gets along the shoreline.

So the family went out and spent the day at the beach.  All of my nephews and nieces ran up and down the beach while the adults sipped on cool refreshments making sure the kids didn't kill themselves. 

And that's no easy feat!  Our family is large.  I can barely remember all their names sometimes.  As I write this particular post tonight, my youngest sister gave birth to a little baby boy at 6:10 PM!  Pretty exciting.  Welcome William!!!  She was VERY round when we went to visit. 

I have 12 nephews and nieces now.  Oh and someday they will have kids.....how will I keep track of them all?

Two Rivers is a beautiful little town during the summer and fall months.  I absolutely LOVE Wisconsin during the fall. 

Okay,  I couldn't help it.  I laughed so hard.  There were some Indian tourists visiting and it was like this major photo shoot on the beach.  Then these guys walked behind this fellow and I had to snap a pic.  The two of us were both going to town with our cameras and my sister had a good laugh.

But here's the important part of this post today.  These kids will grow up quickly and each moment is so important to capture on film. I've already gone through one generation of children....my Mexican nieces.  They are nearly 20 years old!!!  I remember when I was their age now and discovering Mexico for the first time!!  When did they grow up??!!!  I have pics of them when they were little....and now one of them is a mother!!!  I'm hoping to get to Mexico in October.  It will be good to catch up with the "other" family.

And of course while all of this was going on, a swallowtail was puddling along the beach.  My family laughed and said, "So you got your required wildlife shot in there:)"  My birder friends probably wonder where the seagull shots are......well I have to admit something to you all.  I think seagulls are cool birds to see fly around but I grew up with them and they really don't do anything for me.  I try to include them in pictures when I can......like the one below, but you won't find me blogging about them too much:)

There's the seagull right there.  They're considered the cockroaches of our city. Look at this bird eye up the patch of clothes left on the beach.  This bird grabbed something here and took off.  I watched it all happen. Hopefully it wasn't anything important.   They are very clever birds and what I'd like to call opportunistic.  This bird is symbol of my town.  We are also home to the Ice Cream Sundae.

My sister is helping Kellan out.  Absolutely adorable kid!

And then there's this little guy below!!!  Look at that goober in the sunglasses!  That's Liam and he's discovered his reflection in Mom's sunglasses.  I had a good laugh watching him giggle and make faces at himself.

It was a nice break from the heat and humidity.  There are times that I wish Tucson had something like this close by for an escape.  The closest we have is Mt. Lemmon and that's about an hour away:) I have finished summer school and will have 3 more weeks of vacation which means I'll be able to hit the trails again!!! I have more hummingbirds to find:)  More tomorrow...