January blog challenge - Post 1

It is time for a new blog challenge.

This challenge is issued by Tracilouwho at Scrapshare. From her blog:

A Contest, Looking ahead to 2009!

As you may have noticed, I've been participating in Sheri's (MidniteScrapper) month long blog challenge. This was her second month of hosting and she's done a spectacular job at it. I think that all participants have appreciate the little kick in the pants that it's given to our blogging. Well, January, I will be "hostessing" the challenge. I've been spotting a lot of beauty around me lately, snapping pictures whenever I can. Mostly inner beauty with the kids, beauty in nature... just the kind of thing that makes you stop in awe at God's creation. A lot of it is stuff that I don't have time to really scrap but it definitely brightens my day to be looking for the beauty even if I don't have a purpose for the pictures. Everyone always complains about how gloomy January can be, in the aftermath of the Christmas glow, so it's important to focus on the beautiful aspects too. My Theme for January will be a Search for Beauty. This beauty can be a combination of both inner and outer beauty and will include a photo contest too. The rules are as follows: Part 1: Blog daily about the people/places/things you find beauty in. A post can be a tribute to a special person that is or was beautiful to you. Or a post about something beautiful in the world around us. It could even include a beautiful plate of cookies that you bake, or a drawing hanging on your fridge. The challenge will run from January 3rd - January 31 Part 2: Post 3 pictures each week showcasing beauty. I'm not going to give you weekly categories this month because I want you to feel free to snap and post photos as you search for beauty.

Note: There will be 2 separate prizes for this challenge, one will be drawn out of the people who blog daily successfully, and one will be drawn from the people who post 3 photos each week. You can win one, or even both, but you don't have to participate in one to win the other, etc. Photography/Writing skills do not play a part in this contest so please jump in and participate even if your posts are short and sweet and photos aren't the best quality!

We went to the beach today on a whim. Mom called and asked if we wanted to join her and Dad in a day trip to the coast to play on the beach and have dinner to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Their anniversary was actually the day after Christmas but they finally got around to considering dinner out today.

We decided that a beach trip sounded like fun so we quickly gathered up extra clothes and cameras and jumped in the van. We met up with the parental set and tried to ignore Dad's grumpy, I-don't-really-want-to-do-this-today, attitude. After establishing our next meeting spot, we turned the vehicles toward Newport. After arriving in town, Princess smarty-pants (DD12) and I ran into Wal-mart to get my mom a roll of film (yes she still lives in the dark ages of film photography) and some sand toys. The film was an easy find but the sand toys were nowhere to be found so we improvised. We bought some cheap plastic measuring cups and plastic freezer boxes to use as scoops and buckets. It was the best we could do and it turned out that they worked pretty well.

There is beauty everywhere at the beach. There is beauty in kids getting down and dirty in the sand. There is beauty in the many facets of sand, sun and water working together. Today, there was also beauty in family togetherness. Here are a couple of examples:
My parents and DH. My mom and DS building "dribble castles".
My mom and two DDs walking back to the car.

And one of my many sunset shots.

We had such a pleasant day. The coast in January is unpredictable but the weather was beautiful and perfect for an afternoon excursion. Dinner was a wonderful seafood meal at Gracie's Sea Hag in Depoe Bay.

There is never a better excuse to go crazy with the camera than a trip to the beach.