Grand Haven Day 1

We took a leisurely drive over to the west side of the state last Friday and enjoyed an afternoon on the beach. This year we primarily enjoyed the lovely sandy beaches as ER was a bit scared of the high waves. She went out a little bit at the beginning and I did get her to float out with me a few times, but Brad was too busy eating his sandwich to take any pictures, men...yeesh! A hint of the sun was out when we first arrived but it soon disappeared so it was too chilly to go in again later on.

For those of you not familiar with Michigan, the beaches on the west side have yellow sandy beaches and many of the ones of the east side, closer to where I grew up and am more familiar with, are rocky. You can still dig and play but it's not quite the same. This year for the first time we managed to come prepared with a brand new sand castle making set from Grammy. ER had a great time getting Papa and Daddy to bring her buckets of water, while she dug and dug a big pit to put the water in. It was drizzling by the time we went to eat, and dinnertime was definitely when someone, poof turned into a pumpkin and was miss sassy pants for the rest of the night. Maybe it was the long drive, maybe she was over tired, and it certainly didn't help that her food was cooked in the same oil as the fish, yuck, but wow was she a handful. All I wanted to do was go back and take a nap but she was all wound up.

The other big excitement of the night was that it was the big kick off of the Pirate Festival, well big in that a ship came into town carrying several fully costumed pirate reactors and dropped them off downtown. Well we think that's what happened, that's what was supposed to happen but we were "enjoying" the end of our meal during that. What we did see was a rag tag and rather rain soaked bunch of pirates standing around making all the requisite, "Arghs!" for the tourists crazy enough to make it out in the rain. Oh yes, we were part of that select group. Some of their outfits were quite elaborate and ER was shy around most of them. One mild mannered and quiet pirate lady did come up and talk to her and coax her into accepting a gold coin from her. ER was quite mesmerized by her and talked about it all night and the next day too when there were many more frequent pirate sightings around Grand Haven.
Ah yes the lovely end of our day at the beach, why all the layers you ask? Isn't it August, one of our hottest months? Yep you guessed it, it continued raining and fairly cold. Yes we were all wet and damp, but there is ALWAYS time for ice cream on the river front...yeah that's just how this family rolls☺

I thought I'd be clever and get a Popsicle and maybe just maybe I'd be able to eat my treat in peace without a little someone begging for a taste. Why is it that whatever I have is always better than what she's got? Even if it's the exact same thing...I think she got more of it that I did. This is the one and only picture to pass my acceptable test for pictures with me in. So enjoy the lone bit of proof you'll be getting that I was along!

{You've probably noticed by now that sometimes a brand new program in the hands of an overexcited amateur is a dangerous thing. I've been playing around with my Photoshop Elements 7 and exploring some of the basic bells and whistles that it's got. I'm sorry that you'll have to bear with me as I figure things out and probably do way too much to some of the pictures☺

I found a great website, called CoffeShop Photography full of free stuff for Photoshop and Elements to play around with too. I used the Box in Box Storyboard for the first set of pictures in this post and the circle storyboard I used in yesterdays. It was very easy and basically drag and drop.}