Calm before the storm.

My sister and I put on our armor, helmets and shields, loaded all three baby loves in to the car and drove to San Diego. A normal 5 hour drive took us close to 9 hours. It was a good thing we had been looking forward to this vacation for a long time so we were well prepared.
Our mother and her sister (my aunt Linda) have made it a tradition that our families get together for a vacation every few years just so we can catch up and spend a little time together. Our once all girls trip to Europe has now developed into Gigis and Ya Yas , moms and aunties, dads and uncles, and lots of babies. Oh how we have grown. This year’s destination was the beach.
Since schedules are all so scattered we rented a beach house for two weeks and most members of the family had a chance to enjoy the getaway at some point during the two week period. Some joined us for a weekend, others for a day or two but Sarah and I called it home for the full two weeks.
We loaded down my parents large 12 passenger van with a month’s worth of goods. Around 65 items of clothing, a new born co-sleeper, toddler crib, travel highchair, baskets of sand toys, buckets of food, Ice chests of water, dozens of blankets and pillows, a few baby dolls, two strollers, three car seats, and enough diapers to cover all the sandy bums of San Diego.
I haven't quite perfected how to describe our time there but it includes —a whole lot of bare feet and brown shoulders, sunsets, coconutty scents of sunscreen, and the feeling of sand between our toes. We spent evenings collecting shells, hours building sand castles, treasure hunting, and we even ventured out a few times to visit the must see tourist attractions. Including Sea World, the Zoo, and the Aquarium.
But so many of my feel-good moments were just as much about recognizing that our kids are stashing memories away even if they didn’t know it. We will look back and they will retell adventures of the cousins vacation. Even if the small detail will fade, I hope the presence of those memories will strengthen the importance of nature, adventure and most of all family.
While we were there my childhood best friend Erika came to visit us. She lives about an hour from the house we rented. She spent the day whole heartedly loving our children. The evening she sat with us around a beach bon fire laughing like we were still ten. The next day we blessed with the arrival of her parents who so kindly drove up for a lunch date. Growing up Mary and Hector were like second parents to me, so as soon as we engaged in conversation all of those memories I didn’t know I was making as a child came flooding back to me. It was wonderful day to include in our vacation.
At the end of our two weeks we were completely sun-soaked and sand-sprinkled, just how we wanted to be. We are home now and have been unpacked for weeks, I am still finding sand in random places and occasionally I get a wiff of that coconutty sweetness that screams beach and remember, the brave drive with my sister, the feel of my babies warm tan skin, the sound of my friends laugh, the sight of cousins hugging, but mostly I feel happiness from so many magical memories .