The silence in between

Last week was my family's annual beach week in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

 Most days you could find me sitting in that very chair, reveling in the surroundings

 

 and luxuriating in the nightly fireworks. 

 The younger ones threw out and checked the crab pots

 so many times each day that it's a bit surprising anything had a chance 

to wander in and be captured. 

 Patterns

 abounded.

 Mornings were spent playing games

 or enjoying Mother Nature's wet work on the windows.

 There were mermaid sightings,

 beach type go-go dancers

 and even a ghostly sort of image that somehow managed to be captured. 

Now...if only I knew how I did it...

 We checked this not-so-little fellow's progress each day on our stroll to the beach.

 The play of light and shadow

 was just too good

 not to photograph.

  And then there were the reflections down by the dock,

during what Christine called The Silvery Hour that caught my eye. 

Weaving its way through the week was lots of laughter, treasured stories told and retold, much giggling from the three female urchins, precious grins and hugs from my tallest-in-the-family nephew and the restorative and grounding qualities that come from a week spent with loved ones.