The Secret hidden beach treasures

Steven went to Chicago for the weekend as a kick off to my birthday month. The day after the 4th of July festivities he left. He in fact started packing after we got home from the fireworks, silly guy. Sorry my last-minuteness rubbed off on you! 

I'm glad he got to go to Chicago. He and I almost went there for our anniversary a couple of years ago because we love big cities and thought it would be a good place to go without kids so we could cram as much big city life into a short weekend as we could. We have such fond memories of when we did everything we could imagine in NYC except for the carraige ride through Central Park. And we could have done that, we were right there, but we decided that we would save the money and just enjoy the park on foot. I'll go to Chicago some day with Steven but we'll possibly take the kids. Steven got to celebrate Luiz' birthday and meet up with Andre and Barbie at the same time! I took the weekend with Steven away as an opportunity to do some things that he would rather not do. 

We started the first day off with a Cutco knives presentation from one of the youth from the church. Steven would rather not listen to a traveling salesman so I saved him that while giving the opportunity to practice to Kevin. (I didn't buy anything.) Then we went shopping. I bought some accessories for myself for Selene's wedding, Dylan picked out something for his teacher Ms. Wolcott since she had knee surgery, and we got my mom some things for her birthday. 

I got to take a nap that day with Tyler. 

We went to my mom's house since it was actually her birthday weekend and Don was in Texas for Ephraim's 1st birthday party celebrations. We were both husbandless for the weekend. We were going to pick up dinner and go eat it on the beach. Also, I've been wanting to make a video of my kids playing on the beach but photo shoots are not Steven's thing and I really wanted another adult to run after kids so I wouldn't have to choose between saving a kid and my camera. But since it had been a rainy day, I didn't even take my good camera. Instead, I used my cell phone's camera and took pictures through a ziplock bag. We got to my mom's house, and I love that she thinks the same way I do. We didn't need a real dinner - that would take too much beach time! So we ate some protein bars and fruit and were on our way. My mom said we could have treats from the Candy Kitchen for dinner after the beach. 

 Oh my goodness, the beach was exactly the stress-free open beautiful place to be. I loved that we were there as a family. Dylan looked for sea life and worked on perfecting his deep hole and sand circle.

Isaac bounded from rock to sand to puddle to wave in search of treasures.

Tyler happily alternated getting in his brothers' business while my mom and I half admired and half played along and half taught.

See, our halves were spilling over and merging and it was one symbiotic smile. I needed the beach and feel like it needed me - too to walk observantly. (Keep reading the long version.) 

 We saw lots of coquina shells. You mostly see the ziplock's glare here though.

 My mom saved some coquinas that Tyler throw by the handful on the rocks.

 I hadn't changed Tyler into his swim diaper or swimsuit because I figured we would just go to the beach and turn around since it had been a rainy day. Luckily the skies cooperated, but Tyler got soaked.

 I took the bag off of my camera for a clearer picture.

 Then Tyler got knocked over so I had to run to get him, thankfully again, I didn't have my big camera to choose between.

 Isaac's treasures. I only let him keep 3. He may have talked me into 4.

 

When my mom and I were walking side by side from Isaac's end of the beach with the skim boarders who were hurdling the ropes to Dylan's side who was hurdling the waves, I saw something in the sand. It kind of looked gross and slimey like the texture of a jelly fish. It had to be some animal from around there that had gotten itself beached because it appeared that evolution had created it to chamelionize into the exact color of the wet sand. I touched it with my toe and it then seemed like a shoe lace. I figured I'd find a shoe at the other end so curiously pulled the heavy string up. And on the other end was a sun-bleached red camera!! It was dripping with sandy salt water. As any kid would, I asked my mom what I should do! She was speechless. I looked around. Nobody was combing the sand for lost items. I thought it must have been from the day before's 4th of July tourists. I wondered if I should leave it on one of the posts there. But I decided that it would just end up in the trash or in an Isaac trinket collection. So I took it home. We washed it off in the showers and I forgot about it until at about 1am. 

We walked across the street to the Candy Kitchen. My dang mom paid for us. I do appreciate it, but it was HER birthday weekend. She's the best kind of mom to have. I think I got the good qualities that I have from her and my guilt for not living up to my potential from her b/c my potential is hers and she does live up to hers. 

At home, we took quick baths and got the kids in bed but it was pretty late, almost 10pm. That's when my friend came over! Another thing Steven would feel awkward about if he had been here. He would have wanted the house to be spotless and he wouldn't know if he should be watching TV away from us or if he should be in bed or what. So we talked Photoshop! I hadn't planned any particular lesson and I'm kicking myself for not asking exactly what my friend would have wanted to see or helping her more, but I just edited a couple of pictures the way I normally do. She stayed for a couple of hours and we talked and edited. I had fun and love that we got to do that! Then I remembered about that camera. I tried to open the front. It had too much sand in it so I didn't bother. I tried to open the hatch but those hinges had sand in them too so I sort of had to break it a little I'm afraid. I figured the camera was shot but I wanted to see if I recognized anyone in the pictures. I really didn't think I would, but I had a good feeling that somebody in my list of Facebook friends or those 6 degrees of separation would be able to locate the owner. 

So my quest began. I opened the hatch on the camera just enough to extract the camera card. I plugged it into my computer and went through the 332 pictures. The people looked like they were so fun! They were wake boarders, went to an Oyster festival, and were related to or served with somebody in the Navy. I first looked up the name of the person on the retirement cake.

 I found his LinkedIn account and sent him a friend request saying that I found a camera and would like to return the images. I really thought that was a long shot b/c I rarely open my LinkedIn emails and even if I do, it's just after I get enough requests in a row (like once/month that I go see if I know the person and if they have a familiar face. I ignore the SPAM people. I don't read those generic "I'd like to add you to my professional contacts" messages. But there was no way to message or email him directly unless we were friends or I paid to upgrade. 

So I switched to Facebook and I went ahead and put some group pictures up asking my friends if they recognized anyone.

And I said a prayer. I had a pretty good feeling but felt like I could do more.

I kept going through the pictures and saw that they were staying in a place right on the beach and one room had a big Marlin on the wall. I figured that could narrow it down so I put that up on Facebook but put black bars over the little girls' faces to protect their identity. And my friend from dental hygiene school named that hotel! She recognized the guest book logo on the coffee table. I had tried to decipher it myself but couldn't. So I called the place right then!! The person answering the phone was SO rude to me because she was there after she should have gone home. She didn't even sound like she'd leave a message for the manager because she already had "a list of other issues" to give to him. Why would she tell me that first of all? I'm never staying in that place. I appreciated that she would not give me the guest's information but she would not call them to give them mine! Grrrrrrr. She did tell me that somebody had checked in that day so I knew that the guests were already back in California or some other part of their vacation b/c I was ready to go drive teh 10-15 min over to knock on that room number she had given me of the Marlin room. Instead, since they had checked out, I wrote on that hotel's Facebook page in case the camera owners would check that. 

The next day, Steven was on the case. He of course found the LinkedIn account. Facebook friends and I had already found the retired veteran's profile on the Navy website but I didn't want to call the Navy just yet. I also tried looking up the boat's owners by the boat's registration number but couldn't figure that out. I did notice that the boat was in California because I looked up the boat ramp state park. And I looked up the dates of Oyster Fests and there was one in San Diego on the date the picture was taken. All of this information was just useless though. Until Steven looked up people who he thought were related to the Navy Veteran. I messaged a couple of them through Facebook. Steven looked up some addresses too but we trusted Facebook to be faster than snail mail. 

The next day, I got a LinkedIn message from the veteran himself with the camera owners' boyfriend's name and cell phone number AND a Facebook comment under a picture that somebody knew the camera's owner too!! Later that day, I got a call from whoever's number was left with the hotel they all stayed in too!!! She was related to the camera owner. So on my lunch break, I called my new friend Rafael and I told him the story of his camera that traveled north on the beach from his hotel quite a ways. He told me that it was a waterproof camera so his girlfriend showed off in the waves to make her friends/family nervous and a wave took it away. She willed the ocean to bring her camera back to her and she said that because of the book "the Secret," it worked! I told her that positiveness AND prayer work. The camera card was encapsulated because it was a waterproof camera and had been kept safe too. He asked me to go ahead and send the camera too and not just the card because he wanted to see the pink camera in all of its glory. I took a picture of it before I sent it and put the card and battery in tiny ziplock bags so they would stay safe from the sand. Steven told me to save the pictures to my computer because that cameras's luck was about out. So I did. But I took pictures of the camera because it is amazing. See how the sand and cord match? The card has Rafael's last name on it, but that wasn't enough contact info so I didn't even use that in my search. Both LinkedIn AND Facebook worked!!! I got contacted through LinkedIn, Facebook, and a phone call b/c the hotel finally called the people. That should have been the most direct link but that dang hotel took too long. Isn't that funny? 

I got another call on my way to the beach the Friday after this trip from Rafael and his girlfriend telling me that not only did they get the camera in the mail, but that after vaccuuming the heck out of it, it works!!!! Without knowing I took a picture of it, they also took a picture on a black surface to show the sand. I love that they wrote in the sand:) WOW!

Amazing. I know that if I lost my camera, I would sure hope that somebody would try that hard to get my memories back to me too. I'm just so happy that they can have their pictures back! 

My camera, at the beach, dun dun duuuuun.

I'm paranoid.  I have a photography business.  If anything happened to my camera, like getting sand in it, it would take me a really long time to earn enough money to buy another one.  I'm saving (in theory) for a full frame camera, a new lense, underwater back drops, a set of tutus, knitted newborn props, and clear bags.  This list is never ending actually. 

Anyway, I've turned down beach photos before but I've recently had 4 people ask me to do beach photos for them.  Duh, the beach is BEAUTIFUL, has full sun, and hello, we live in Florida!  Even I have had our family beach photo session when I was pregnant with Isaac (By Lacey of course, Steven flew her here for my birthday and agreed to a non-Christmas-card-family-photo-session!) 

 

I am now thinking that every family NEEDS a beach family photo.  Families may not want a lot of color pop.  They may just want the white shirt and khakis.  Who am I to say what people want? 

So, I pretended I didn't remember what the beach looks like, and went with my boys.  I don't have many evening hours, so we went at high noon.  (Usually a huge no-no for beach lighting.)  I wasn't expecting quality, but was just going to scope out the scene. 

Dylan asked who was going with us and was baffled that we were going just the 3 of us.  I was a little baffled myself, and almost called a couple of people even after I was on my way.  I like to multi-task and hanging out with friends is a priority of mine. 

But I resisted and spent the time to bond with my boys and get over my sand-in-the-camera-phobia. 

I sat right on the sand and watched Dylan run back and forth to me, then to jumping into and over the waves and back.  (after our picnic, see post below)

Isaac and his jelly face was holding out for me to put my camera down so I could go in the water with him.

Before going in with them, we went for a little walk. 

Dylan's jump reminds me of the way one of my brothers would jump.

I love these boys.  I told them how much I love the time when it's just the 3 of us.  Especially when we finally did get in the water and I held both of them as we watched as the waves came at us and splashed us in our ears. 

I told them we could go play in the water now. 

Then I asked them to stand for a photo. 

Isaac didn't have to verbalize his "no thank you."

Success, enough for me, let's play!

(That means no more pictures.)

Maybe one.

K, gotta run, see ya!

I Need Practice, but I love it

here's the first picture out of my camera. It was late, and I just had it on auto, but it's still fun.
The 2nd picture:

Snap shots I could have taken with my other camera probably better b/c I'm not used to this one yet.

This one is funny to me. I've been pretty lucky that my kids don't mind me taking pictures. They were all sitting watching Sesame Street. They never all sit in one place like this, so I turned back around out of the room to grab my camera. The funny thing is, that Dylan knows that turn-about I did and called to me "Don't Take Our Pic-tu, Mom." So I waited a while then snuck around the corner and zoomed in. I've always heard that photographer's kids run from the camera. I'm no photographer, but how is it that once I get a "real" camera, the first chance of daylight, Dylan requests his privacy? I love it, maybe I will be a photographer some day. I'm NOT going to be one of those people who think that as soon as they get a good camera they can start charging people and calling themselves a photographer. I would love practice though, so if you can find babysitting for me, I'll play with my camera. I'm not going to take it to the beach though - ever. I know that sand gets in everything no matter how hard I would try to be careful. Just so you know:)

Malia is in her swimsuit waiting for me to put Noah to bed so we can swim. Dylan took his shirt off so he could wrestle one of the other 3, and I must have changed Isaac's diaper and gave up chasing him to put his clothes back on. My boys were ready to get swimsuits on soon, so maybe that's my excuse for not having them dressed. Anyway, again, it's just a snap shot that I could have taken with my waterproof camera, but I needed to start somewhere.

Instead of dressing the kids up in cute clothes for a photo shoot, I waited 'til they were all asleep. Yes, they were ALL FOUR ASLEEP! I was so tired and wanted to nap too, but was excited to read through my camera manual a little more so I settled on the couch with it and my water bottle. I was laying back and played with some of the settings in my manual for the first time. Isn't it cool?

Not worth printing or even posting except for the fact that it was my first time using the manual settings.
And this is my 2nd time. I had all 4 kids again today but wanted to capture their "water park."

Did you see it? I tried opening up my aperture and had the lowest F-stop number and still didn't get much better than this black picture. They were all 4 laughing, take my word for it.
So I upped my ISO to the highest it would go but still didn't get what I wanted. Then I made the shutter speed go way slow, knowing that the kids would be blurry. The picture wasn't black any more, but I still couldn't see my Dylan. He's too fast.

I kept playing around with the settings just to experiment, but the kids found something else to do.

The reason Dylan calls it a "water park" is probably because where we went for my birthday. He's making big water slides out of the couch cushions even though he was only brave enough to go on the froggy slide. (Visit us, Abbey!)

The funny thing, is that he pounces from one to another (and on the coffee table and couch arm rests etc) trying to escape the alligators or sharks (depending on what kind of water/carpet it is for the day.) I love it b/c that's exactly what I used to do with my siblings. Seriously, we would jump from fire place to the big blue chair to the couch then we'd walk the plank (piano bench) and hopefully someone would throw us a life saver - a couch cushion so we wouldn't get eaten by the sharks. We would try to walk through out whole house not touching the carpet by scaling the window sills in the hallway too. If there was an area that was too far to climb on existing furniture, we would use the couch cushions.

Anyway, back to my practicing:
Not blurry, but too dark, and a shark is about to bite his toes.

Better, but not focused and they're headed up the stairs. (And I really need to order a larger print of something to go on that wall, or two frames at least. That's really bothering me - above Prickly Pete.)

I finally turned it back to auto to see what the camera thought I should be doing. It wanted a flash. That's the thing I didn't want. And by that time, the kids had found something else to do, so I still didn't see them in the frame.

It was a good first lesson on child photography though:)

I already want a camera with a higher ISO, and a lens protector/filter, an extra battery, etc. I know why it's tempting to charge people for even starting out with photography. This could get expensive, so I'll just stick to what I have, knowing how incredibly blessed I am to have more than one working camera and fun kids to mess up my house and bring back childhood memories.

My Birthday Cakes

Steven, Dylan, and Isaac woke me up with breakfast in bed. I said "you made eggs?!" then woke up a little more and realized he had gotten up early, gotten ready, and had picked up Perkins for us. Then, he picked me up from work on my lunch break and took me to Pei Wei. After my delicious tofu pad thai, we had time to go to Best Buy. You know what that means . . .
He (and my mom) got me a new camera!!!!!!
It's a Canon Rebel "starter" one. I was so excited to read the manual that I opened the plastic as soon as the cashier handed Steven his reciept.
I took it in to work to show it off and to charge the battery. Dr. Brayer had gotten me a carrot cake and a card that told me not to work too hard. I didn't mind being at work on my birthday. I talked to my patients about periodontal disease AND my new camera that was sitting on the counter instead of toothbrushes.
After work, I picked up the boys and Corrie had made me frosted brownies with Strawberries on top and gave me my present, including one of her gift certificates for a free hour massage! After finally getting home, Steven gave us Tropical Smoothies and I read through my camera manual. (I had left my camera battery on the charger in my operatory and we had bought the wrong size card for the camera so we had to wait in the return line at Best Buy. Good thing Steven picked up smoothies b/c we were all antsy to get home sweet home.) I got packages in the mail, a tripod from Kat and Matt, an oats grinder from my dad, and a lot of fabric for some projects.
Some more of my family came over for cake, and they brought babysitting gift certificates and buckets of Rita's Italian Ice! Luckily, I had figured out the self timer on my Rebel for this cake picture. I'm so loved! Home Made Strawberry Short Cake + Carrot Cake + Frosted Brownies with Strawberries + Strawberry Chocolate Mouse Cake + Rita's = tummy ache the next day and a big smile on my face now.