For the last nine months we’ve been fortunate enough to live just off Lake Michigan, a few hundred feet from a pier and a gorgeous beach. The deck off my bedroom faces a channel into the lake, and I watch boats go in and out constantly. Several times a day (and sometimes, spookily and almost silently, in the middle of the night) I’m treated to the sight of a cargo ship heading in or out of port, so close it seems like I could almost jump right on deck. This photo was taken about 100 feet down the channel, right before the start of the pier.

We won’t be in this house much longer–it was a temporary home while we got our bearings in a new town, and when the summer season starts, the rent goes up-up-up. And up. We were lucky enough to get a full month of beach weather back in September. It’s been a little too chilly to really get in the water this spring, but we’ve still had plenty of opportunity to enjoy the sand and dunes:

Isaac enjoys jumping off a little cliff at the tallest point of the dune, then tumbling down the rest of the hill. It only makes me a little nervous.

Notice the three cool kids squinting in the afternoon sun…and their littlest brother’s big, cheesy grin. There were about a dozen other photos that looked pretty much just like this.

Cue “Chariots of Fire” theme song…of course, William beat his littler and slower brother as he always does, but Owen insists he’s “winner number two”. Fair enough.

“I’m the numba two winna!”

This reminds me of a scene from Karate Kid.

Owen appears to be casting a spell on the sand drawings his brothers are making.

A walk in taller-than-your-head beach grass…which I’ve just learned is a popular habitat for ticks, little creatures who have been feeding on our family with gusto recently (we found six on us in a matter of a week). Suddenly, looking at this picture makes me want to strip the entire family down to skivvies while I give them a careful inspection. Maybe we could all check each other, tallest to shortest. Wouldn’t that be a great photo op?

As much as I dislike the ticks, I know I’ll be missing this view in a few weeks.

What’s the view like from your back (or front) door? What would you change if you could? What would you never want to give up?

You’ve probably noticed I’m posting a lot more pictures than I usually do. It’s not just because of our firstbabygirl and the dozensofadorableoutfits she has and her ridiculouslycuteface: I swear, I haven taken lots of baby pictures of pictures of all my kids. The only problem was that usually those pictures stunk. I always blamed myself…and then my husband got a second-hand Nikon D70 from a co-worker. Now suddenly, even my worst attempts at photography seem to turn out…pretty good. At least not embarrassingly bad, and that’s progress. So here are a few we’ve snapped of the kids recently:

Clara loves the bath.

The boys love Clara.

Owen loves being three.

Owen really, REALLY loves being three.

William loves Miley Cyrus, but finds talking about it rather embarrassing.

I love this.