Happy summer!  My favorite-season-tied-with-fall is finally upon us, and I’m on a mission to make the most of it – as always!  This year, we decided that the beach was the best way to ring in the season, and on the Friday before Memorial Day we rolled up to the kids’ school with a loaded-down car, ready to drive to Virginia Beach for the holiday weekend.  I hope you’re ready for a photobomb of a recap post…

We arrived too late in the evening for any beach time on Friday, but the kids were up bright and early and ready for sand and saltwater on Saturday!  We were staying with our dear friends Rebecca and Eric, who live walking distance from this lovely, calm, clean and uncrowded beach on Chesapeake Bay (the Atlantic side of VB is much more the party side; this is a residential beach, frequented mostly by neighborhood folks, and we love it).  The kids made right for the water.

Rebecca joined us, along with Brandy the dog – who was eating up every second of all the extra attention the kids gave her.

There was ball-throwing.

And hugs-n-love.

We made a trip back for lunch, and then returned for the afternoon, then went back to the house for dinner, and made a third trip down to the beach to watch the sunset in a big crowd with the neighbors.  Beach sunsets might be my favorite thing ever.

The sun was starting to dip when we got to the beach, but we still had a good hour of light for splashing.

Soon the sun started dipping lower and lower.

Eventually, the sun dipped all the way down below some low-hanging clouds, and our light show was over.  It was gorgeous while it lasted.  And some people were worn. out.

Sunday morning dawned just as early as Saturday (and every other day, for that matter).  We’re always diligent about sunscreen, but after Mom got a little crispy on Saturday, we were extra-vigilant.  Peanut made sure my face was protected.

Loaded up the golf cart for another fabulous morning at the beach!  The paddleboards came this time…

(Who let Peanut drive?)

We got right down to the business of having fun.  Look, I caught a mermaid!

Mommy and Aunt Rebecca took the paddleboards out for a jaunt in the bay.  It was too choppy to stay out long – just staying upright was a major effort.  Rebecca and I each fell in once and I lost my hat, but the water felt good – at least, until we were back on shore and Rebecca remarked “I’m glad I didn’t think about the great white shark that’s been hanging around in the bay before we took the paddleboards out.”  Great… white… what’s that now?

After another morning of cooking in the sun and fortunately not meeting any sharks – we did spot a pod of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins swimming near shore, which was super cool – we headed back to the house for some downtime before sunset.

This is Peanut’s houseboat, where bubbles are blown.

They played horsey and drank virgin daquiris, because why not.

And then it was time to clean up and head out to dinner before the sunset!  Nugget fell asleep in the car and snoozed through most of the dinner (keeping it real, folks) but Peanut had fun soaking up all the aunt and uncle attention while her brother slept the meal away.

And then it was time to load up the golf cart and trundle on back down to beach for one more sunset.

Please don’t make us leave!

It was a wonderful weekend.  Warm, salty, full of laughter and fellowship with good friends.  I’d love it if we could make it back here before Rebecca and Eric move to Florida, but if this was the last hurrah, it was a good one.  And I do hope it’s a sign of things to come, because we are so ready for a magical, light-filled summer.

How did you welcome summer this Memorial Day weekend?