Camp Manitou! My family’s annual, beloved beach trip.  This year our family went to Sunset Beach, NC – a first for us.  As usual we had a wonderful time, and as usual, my niece Sophia brought us all books to read for the week (mine was American Dirt, by Jeanine Cummins – fantastic read!).  Also, as is our tradition, we did our family photos (below) and my brother had a little foot race with one of his daughters.  I think this year was the first year Sophia really felt like she could beat him; someone did leave the starting line a little early though. 🙂  If you know our family, or have been following along with the blog for a long time, you may also notice that our number has grown a bit.  My niece Maria brought along her boyfriend Caleb, who thankfully turned out to be a good addition. LOL

The beach was lovely, but for some reason I found myself taken by this blue house on the waterway, just down from the house where we stayed.

Have you ever found yourself captivated by something, but when you really thought about it, there wasn’t anything super remarkable about the thing, you just liked it (my wife probably thinks this about me! Ha!)?  I felt this way about the house pictured above.  When I really studied it, it’s sort of just plain and square.  Its setting though, combined with its color along with those white accents, and the way it reflects in the water; I just loved it!  I found myself taking pictures of it all week long (the people staying there probably thought I was weird) and managed to capture it in different light.  Anyway, while we were at the beach, we were blessed with a few really nice sunsets, one of which is playing out in the scene above.

Another sunset was perhaps even more brilliant than this one, and that’s next week’s Picture of the Week!

–Dan Thompson