Walking home….with the explorer!

After turning around, we walked back slowly, still looking for anything interesting.

The sun was going down fairly quickly by now. We still had a bit of a walk back home. Boeta did not care one bit.

Every time I pushed him a little he complained and wanted to walk in the opposite direction, only for the drag of a dad to remind him that it was getting late and we had to go home.

I loved this spot with the green algae to spend some moments here to shoot a few shots, all freehand.

I looked for Boeta who was in his own world, finding another treasure, I am sure. I called him and he came walking toward me pointing at a Oystercatcher flying past and asking what it was.

I again reminded him that we had to move on and he reluctantly joined me as we walked towards home. I took a few shots in that direction. You can just see the houses.

It was a brilliant evening yet again. I could not get enough of the clouds and the setting sun, so every now and then I would get another shot.

As we got closer we saw some fisherman again. Sometimes the ladies join their husbands/friends as they angle in the early evening as was the case with this young man.

Boeta was in great spirits and still throwing rocks, running and enjoying being at the beach. You would never know we were coming to the end of a 6 km walk.

It was too dark now. I was on the built-in flash to get any descent shots. Really time for us to get home.

I took a last shot of the white rocks and the remaining sunlight.This is the last of this series of posts. We hope you enjoyed the full photographic walk with us.

Tomorrow we leave for a short Safari and a few days in the mountains to celebrate our son’s 3rd Birthday. Hopefully we will bring lots of photos of wildlife and landscapes to share next week. Have a great weekend, I know we will.

I looked for Boeta …. he was busy looking for crabs under the flat rocks.

My son – The explorer! Happy Birthday, we are so proud of you! Love you, Mom and Dad!

 

About a toddler

Unbelievably it has been 2 years since we started sharing our rumbling ocean with you guys. Boeta was about to turn 1. Today we are looking at a near 3 year-old…in a month.

In those days I took him to the beach walking down with the stroller, showing him the waves, rocks, beach, birds, boats and dolphins. Today he loves (adores) the beach and on most days, especially in the afternoon after he wakes up his first words are: “Let’s go walk or let’s go to the beach”. He loves throwing rocks into the pools, has to hunt for real crabs, sea snails and most other creatures he can find, only to throw it into a pool.

He now weighs around 17 kg (37.4 lbs) and he stands 1.01m (near 40 inches) tall.

He is a friendly little chap wanting to kiss and hug most people if he is comfortable with them. He laughs easily and we tend to have lots of fun throughout the day.

He is also a toddler with normal “no, no do not want to do this or that” on a regular basis, but never says no to kicking a ball, walking and going to the beach….never. Last time he was sick…one year ago…the flu. He talks a lot, loves to learn, especially from books and counts to 10 in 2 languages, talks mainly in Afrikaans, but also knows colors in english and says the odd sentence in english like, “Are you thinking what I am thinking?” or “You are my best friend” and loves to sing Bah-Bah Black Sheep….When in his element he is a little character…

He loves running, yes toddlers run, but he loves to do cross-country running at the beach…On this occasion it was becoming late..he did not give up and wanted to cry every time I said let’s go home…I flashed the last shots. There is at least a 8 meter (26 ft ) difference between the beach and the top, where I stood. He runs laps in the path and I am yet to see how many he can do, I usually stop and walk home after 6 or 7. He loves it. I am tired after 2 laps….yes 2!

Earlier on this day I took a photo of him riding his bicycle with helmet…he can ride it on flat surfaces by himself, but not uphill yet.

So there you have it. Our little man is growing up, sometimes too fast. We are so grateful for this wonderful gift and we are so very proud of him.

Ho-ho-ho

For the purpose of keeping up to date with all that happened around the festive season, I have to include Christmas too. This was the reason for Boeta’s Grandparents staying with us and the first time Boeta had more of an idea what it was all about.

It started the previous day with preparations and for the first time a photo of the half-finished kitchen, I am nearly done, just the tiles and a few smaller touches. This is such a nice pick of mom doing her thing, I have to include this.

She is the heart of our house after all.

I took time to shoot a few more shots of her and Boeta.

The photo of Boeta and mom is after his afternoon nap, he loves waking up in her arms.

Christmas Day

We started by opening some gifts with Grandma and Grandpa, while they were still in bed that morning. We spread the opening of gifts over the whole morning for Boeta, otherwise it is too much and he does not enjoy each as he should. After the first session we had breakfast and then we did another stint.

We decided to change and do a Christmas photo shoot. I am pretty certain I do not have to add to much words to this, as you can easily see that we had some fun here…

Personally I would like to add that I love the photo and it represents all that my wife and Boeta’s mom is.

Elegant, motherly, soft touches, warm personality and full of love and again the heart of our house.

One final (official) photo we all liked.

We had a lovely Christmas dinner and after nap-time for the whole family we went to the beach for Boeta’s sake. I took the camera with and took a few shots.

Mom and Boeta watching sundown and throwing rocks.

Grandpa watching the sun going down.

So that was our day, Christmas 2015.

For us…

Perfect.

Climbing the dunes

Earlier this month the boys decided one morning to go climb some dunes. The 2 year-old has never attempted this before, so it would be a great new experience for him too. We walked past some driftwood left by a previous storm.

The dunes start at this point and Boeta did not hang around, he wanted to try this out.

It is pretty steep. We climb it in a zig-zag motion/action. At the steepest angles you really struggle to go forward/upward, but with some support Boeta got to the top.

I carried my tripod up the dune as well and attempted some new shots from the top. Here are a few.

Boeta got a drink on top and while he investigated the new environment, I waited for a moments in which he stood still long enough for bracketed shots.

The EXPLORER!

I saw a how the wind excavated the top of a dune and attempted to capture it, overlooking the ocean.

Unfortunately the wind also started to blow with strong enough gusts that the sand really bothered the little man, so we decided to walk back down to the beach. More photos of the rest of the walk later.

Toddler is a girl magnet…

So, after many “boys only” excursions to the beach and learning sessions, mom was available for a walk for the first time after 2 weeks.

Boeta enjoyed having this girl back in his life. It is his most favorite girl in the world and he even has a loving name for her…”Mamma!”

They decided to do fishing together, while daddy got a chance to walk on the rocks and deeper in with his camera.

While daddy was shooting the large old barnacles, Boeta who learned about it in the week, showed mom the small ones.

I carried on walking around looking for interesting finds. I looked back to see if they were okay and Boeta had another girl in his midst.

He was less taken by the love showed to him by the 5-year-old, he prefers older women. She seemed to like him and he decided to allow her join him in rock throwing.

He really enjoyed this and decided this girl was okay too (for throwing rocks), not so much hugging, he did not want to hurt “mamma’s” feelings. Then he saw Uncle Bennie and ditched the lot…he adores Uncle Bennie.

It did not take long for the two and daddy to find his favorite climbing rock. Now he could show Uncle Bennie his real capabilities.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week.

A lovely day

This is a quick post about a walk to the beach and an emotional present.

We decided to walk down to the beach today, no stroller, just the 3 of us walking to the beach for the first time. It was special to have the little man holding our hands and walking with us. The reward was to play. No camera this time, just the old mobile.

Daddy put water in the bucket and Boeta decided to wash the rocks.

It did not take long for him to find his way to the pools and start tossing rocks into the water. It also did not take long for the pants to become drenched as he wanting to stand in the water and lost his balance once or twice while throwing the rocks, which got bigger and bigger.

It was a lovely morning with our son at the beach and just another reminder that the little man is growing and learning. Every moment is special for us now.

Talking about special, daddy got a late birthday present today. An oil painting of Boeta, when he was 16 months old, which got both mom and dad in tears. Flash photo, not really the way to go, but we wanted to share.

There is a lot in this painting. Firstly, it is our son, enough to get any parent crying. he is also a wonderful mix of nearly all of our extended family, having something noticeable from his grandparents, aunts and uncles. He also looks at a flower with great significance to mom, as it comes from her parents, which are no longer with us. The photo was taken for mom, on her birthday, when she was away in the USA for 3 weeks. It has now come full circle back to dad as a painting. Finally, the painting was done by his godmother. He was 16 month old.

An emotional end to a lovely day.

Our environment … 2014.

We have shared with you our trips into nature throughout the year and in equal proportions showed you something of our immediate environment which is dominated by the ocean and views we have of it.

This included a photo here and there of aloes, which daddy collects, from the garden, like the Aloe schelpei from Ethiopia, or the Aloe tharskii in full flower.

Mostly we tried to give different views of the coastal area in front of our house and here are a few of our favorite photos.  Now lets fulfill a promise too, A Momma’s View blog had a new challenge idea, Nature Chills. Her question, what in nature makes you chill out and why? The photos below is our answer and it has always been our choice to make nature a big part of our life, because it is one of the few places a person can really get in touch with inner self, take a deep breath, experience relaxing solitude.

The red tide photos attracted a few people, so we show them again. Mom said she saw the post and thought I made the photos a little too red, I laughed and when she got home, she nearly tripped as she saw the color was real.

A few posts ago we did a 3 part series on the high seas, so we will not show them again. Moving on, some of them were taken within 1-2 km from the house in the surrounding natural forests we are blessed to have.

So there, a nice overview of our environment – and the area we include in the definition of “our rumbling ocean”. We are excited to see, search and share more of our area in the new year and hope you find it interesting.