Due to our teaching schedules, my husband and I, for the past 7 years, have had the entire month of May off together. When we were young (ahem…younger), we used to hop in his “box” (his Honda Element…don’t they look like boxes?) and hit the open road with our 2 golden retrievers, a tent and an ice chest. We would spend weeks camping all over the Western United States hiking, fishing, and drinking ice cold beer next to Colorado lakes. It wasn’t uncommon for our average May journeys to log 3-4 thousand miles on the odometer. No reservations. No plans. Just us in the car following whims and roaming free as birds. Now that our two dogs turned into one dog and two very young kids and the price of gas is more than a gallon of milk, we spent our May as a family in my husband’s hometown. The Central Coast is our second home now and staying for a few weeks in his childhood home with our own kids is nothing short of perfection. Beware of an overshare here…I am not apologizing. 🙂
I posted these two pics of our 5 1/2 month old daughter on my 365 project with this caption:
These pics are special for many different reasons. I made the tutu with some materials my husband’s mom used to craft with (she passed away in 2002 and would have loved these kiddos) and the blanket she’s sitting on was made by my husband’s grandma (her great grandma) who has long been gone. 4 generations of Clark women here in some form or another.
Some of our “just turned 2” year old at the very beach his dad used to frequent as a young boy. It’s an awesome stretch of beach at the end of Grand in Grover Beach. To the left are amazing dune riding hills and to the right is a pristine stretch of beach leading to downtown Pismo.
Had to throw in one of grandma as she made the 5 hour journey to come stay with us for a weekend. We’ve only been begging her for 7 years…
He is obsessed with grandma and I’m basically chopped liver to a vegetarian when she’s around. Hey, I’ll take being chopped liver any day to watch the relationship they have together flourish.
Ok last set I promise…
So I had this vision in my head of what I wanted to do with my boys and the setting sun so we set out with the baby on my back and my camera on my front to catch some sunset magic. I don’t care how many pictures I take the rest of my life..these will always be my favorite. Not for the dramatic mood of the shots, but for the moments I froze in time with my family on the beach during the most wonderful days of our lives. Ok, totally soap opera”ish” but oh so true!
The starburst in this one just kills me!
When I politely asked for “higher please”, I think everyone was thrilled! (No, no toddlers were hurt during the making of this photograph).
I’ll end this mile long post with a shot that may only touch my heart but here it is anyway. Until next May…
