Our Summer Part III: Our To-Do List for Scituate

The girls have started making a "bucket list" for our time with my parents in Scituate. Every year we seem to accumulate new experiences that become little traditions. It's a good thing we are lucky enough to be there for such a good chunk of time, because the list has gotten longer and longer. Here are some of them:

Snorkel missions with Papa: Kateri was old enough this year to come along...she is as comfortable in the water as her sisters and did a great job, but it was so funny to watch her struggle against the instinct to pick her head up out of the water to take a breath.

This little inlet by Well Rock is the perfect place for beginners

Snorkel missions come with the bonus of getting to jump (or be tossed)off of rocks afterwards.



We're not always in Scituate for the Fourth, but the girls love taking part in the neighborhood parade when we are.

(Captain America's presence was a new feature)

Nanny gave Lili sailing lessons again for her birthday, so one thing high on my list was to get coffee and bagels one morning and bring them down to the harbor to embarrass watch her. It is so beautiful and quiet down there in the early morning.



And of course no summer would be complete without pony rides at the Farmer's Market...

Going to the bait shop and fishing at the reservoir with Papa,

(Look closely...there is a tiny perch at the end of proud Kateri's line)

Pink donuts hand-delivered by Papa on Sunday mornings

And celebrating Lili's birthday. This year, my parents spoiled her with giant balloons

and oyster po'boys for her birthday dinner.

(the oysters came courtesy of these two beautiful girls, my cousins from Louisiana, who arrived just in time to entertain my kids after their own cousins departed.)  

But, as is so often the case, the best things in life are free...like making huge drip castle complexes with Papa at low tide 

And then watching them get eaten up by the waves

And spending hours and hours on the "wope swing." (Maybe by next summer Kateri will have learned how to properly pronounce her "r"s.)

 

What a summer! I am so grateful to my parents for the gift of these experiences. My children will have these memories to cherish for the rest of their lives. You would think it would be hard to stay connected to their grandparents, growing up 2,700 miles or so away from them, but the time they spend creating these memories with my girls every summer makes the kids feel so loved and cherished. It really is a gift beyond any price. It does much more than just give them a fabulous vacation every year. It impresses upon them more plainly than words ever could the statement my Dad leaves me with every time we say goodbye: "If you ever need anything, anything, I'm right here."

Thank you Nanny and Papa!