Despite Hurricane Arthur rolling through the Outer Banks on Thursday night, we had a pretty fantastic July 4! In the morning we cleaned up the yard, which suffered only minor damage, and then headed over to the beach to see how it looked, and what shells we could find. We first encountered this large group of lifeguards carrying a stand back to its rightful location on the beach. Can you read the sign on the right? I cracked up at the bottom, where under "Advisories" it says "Watch the weather channel" Ha!
The beach itself was fairly empty, and of course still under red flags due to the choppy surf, but still quite pretty! And we found some nice shells as we walked up and down.
I used it as an opportunity to play with my new camera. Two days prior it and my new lens arrived at my parents' house, and this was the first real opportunity I had to use them after it charged. I am totally in love with this camera (Canon 60D), and the new lens (85mm f/1.8) is producing such beautiful portraits! I have others to share, but here are a few of the wider shots I took.
And a few of the more portrait style, with my dad being silly in the surf! Look at the sharpness, am I right? I am so excited to keep working with this lens!
As you can see in the photo above, Evan and Henry headed back up to the beach access a bit before the rest of us (Henry was done being on the beach). We found then like this when we came back up. How cute! But you can see I'm still working on the focus of the lens - not quite where it should be, but still a great photo!
And this one of my handsome hubby is even better :)
On the drive home we stopped by the Sound to see how that was looking after the storm. Earlier that morning, Evan and Mom told me that it had flooded all of the yards along the Sound, but it had retracted almost back to normal by the time we arrived. We parked at the public boat launch, which was just about empty, and got the kids to go out on the floating dock. Everyone is safe around Grandpa Rich!
Natalie then felt super confident to go out there by herself.
Henry, however, did not - he stayed right on the dock with me :)
After lunch, we sent the kids out to play in the yard. Dad and I blew up this lion kiddie pool (that really they've outgrown!), and some of the neighborhood kids came over to play too. They had the best time!
Then, the best part of July 4: Fireworks! We had some smaller ones (most of which were sort of duds, my fault for buying cheap fireworks), and of course tons of sparklers. My aunt had also sent along some glow bracelets and necklaces for the kids, which they were so excited to wear!
I've got some much better firework photos than this, but I do like this one of Evan holding a sparkler! Happy Fourth of July, everyone!
The beach itself was fairly empty, and of course still under red flags due to the choppy surf, but still quite pretty! And we found some nice shells as we walked up and down.
And a few of the more portrait style, with my dad being silly in the surf! Look at the sharpness, am I right? I am so excited to keep working with this lens!
As you can see in the photo above, Evan and Henry headed back up to the beach access a bit before the rest of us (Henry was done being on the beach). We found then like this when we came back up. How cute! But you can see I'm still working on the focus of the lens - not quite where it should be, but still a great photo!
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