The Beauty of a Clouded Sunrise

I may have offhandedly mentioned that we went to Myrtle Beach last week. Since Caroline and I have birthdays, not even a month apart, over the years we've tended to do some joint celebrations, and we did one again this year. Totally out of the blue mom was like we are going to go to the beach for your birthdays! And Callan and Ann Marie and Grandma came along too!! :D It was *amazing* (use high squealy singing voice). And when I get time I'm going to share a few photos.  Thankfully the sun doesn't rise at 5, or 6, or even 7. It rises at 7:21, at least in Myrtle Beach. Which was also amazing :) The first morning Ann Marie and I got up and went and watched the sunrise together, and had coffee. And on day two Callan (who begged me to bop her on the head with a pillow until she got up) and Caroline joined us.  There was a cloud bank at the edge of the horizan which prevented us from seeing the sun as it peeked over the edge. But the cloud bank actually almost made it cooler, because we could watch as the sun carved lines and smudges in the clouds with it's laser light. And then it would burst out over the bank of clouds and blind us all. We saw stars (the sun is a star, right? :P) for a good while after we shut the curtains.  I took these pictures as the sun was coming up.