SUMMER LOVIN'...

Once again, I find myself apologizing to the blog world for being so absentee! I have no idea how some of my other blog friends do it with two (or more) kids, but I simply can't seem to get my act together enough to write on a daily (or even weekly) basis lately! However, it is officially Summer in our house as Caroline is out of school (although is in camp at her school every morning for two weeks), I am happy to report that Miss Molly is FINALLY pretty consistently sleeping through the night (I mean, am I a drama queen or what? I have friends whose kids didn't do that for a year or more...but I digress), and I am beginning to regain a bit of my sanity.

Summer is my favorite season. I mean, I wish it were a bit cooler, and certainly less humid (hello, DC is about as bad as Miami at this time of year- that's what you get when you build a city on top of a swamp...), but I have ALWAYS gotten excited at its arrival. When I was a kid, Summer meant that school was out and we were heading to our house on the Chesapeake Bay for the next three months. We spent our days playing on the beach, going crabbing on the jetties or pulling them from the pots we had put out, taking out the row boats or kayaks, and hunting endlessly for the shark's teeth that lined the shore. Our nights were full of flashlight tag, bonfires, catching fireflies, and going to Buehler's for ice cream. Our beach house is in a very small community, so we were basically turned loose - able to travel from a young age wherever our feet or our bicycles could take us.

We had my parents' house, where I always had a sister to play with, or my grandparents' house down the street, where there were always cousins, aunts, or uncles around. We had lots of Summer friends who had houses down there too (some of whom even lived near or went to school with us during the rest of the year). It was as idyllic as it sounds, if not occasionally boring (but in a good way). I still can't believe that I got to spend my childhood in such a fabulous manner.

The harbor down the street from our house

My mom and me (around age 1) on the beach

A "photo op" with some of my cousins, uncles, and my aunt (I'm in the second row from the top on the left)

Picking crabs at a table behind my grandparents' (I'm the one holding stuff up in the back left)

When I grew up, there was a time when I needed a break from the slow pace of the Bay. Steve and I spent six Summers in a group house in Dewey Beach, DE with one of my sisters, some of our cousins, and alot of our friends. A far cry from the quiet of the Chesapeake, Dewey was an exercise in debauchery and craziness. We spent almost every Friday night each Summer making the drive down Rt. 50 to 404 to 16 to 1, just to make it to The Starboard , which was a mere two blocks from our house, in time for Last Call. We would find a parking spot on our street and that was where the car would stay until Sunday.

A Dewey Night - before and after (that's Steve in the far right corner, and yes, that's me on the right with a box on my head...um, what?!)

My sister Maridith and me, plus a group shot from Jam Session at the Bottle and Cork

Dancing one night, and brunch with Eggs Del Marva and Red Shots the next morning, both at our home away from home - The Starboard

The best bartender in the world - Lincoln!

The rest of the weekend was spent running from bar to beach to bar (well actually, sometimes it was bar to bar to bar) before finally crashing in a twin bed (yes, the two of us in ONE bed) in a room at our house that we named The Naughty Monkey. It sounds absolutely crazy - which it was - but I have to say that those six summers were some of the best in my life so far. We made some of our closest friends there, and watched multiple couples fall in love and get married after living in our beach house (Steve and I were even married during this six-year span!). And who says Dewey romances can never last?! Alas, after six years, we decided it was time for us to settle down just a bit, and pulled the cord on our time in Dewey.

And so here we are, with two little girls, finding ourselves back at the Bay once again. I'm not going to say it's as easy to be there as I remember it as a kid - my parents' house is a lot more crowded now that we are all grown up and have so many extra people in tow. It's also not the most wheelchair-accessible place in the world for me to be, although my friends and family take great efforts to make it so. The community built a fabulous ramp onto the beach for me (and others) several years ago, and have rebuilt it after Nor'easters or hurricanes have tried to take it down. I even found this awesome beach chair that swivels 360-degrees so that I can get sun at any angle, or watch the girls play in the water.

Taking my own children down to the Bay makes me appreciate how much effort my Mom and Dad put into making my own childhood Summers seems so, well, effortless. Despite all the work it takes to get us there, seeing my daughters enjoy the simplicity that comes with the slower pace of life down there makes it all worthwhile. Steve and I even hope to buy our own small cottage down there in the next several years. A girl can dream, right?

Caroline, loving the water and walking my parents' dog, Oscar

Snuggling with Miss Molly on the beach

Caroline trying out our kayak while Molly Rose chills out under the umbrella

A little beer pong on the front porch with my cousin Mikey, sister Suzy, and Steve - see, we haven't grown up entirely just yet (and probably never will)!