Well, I'm back.

I've had a hard time getting around to blogging about our summer, partly because I was mourning  Scituate and freedom from school and routines, and partly because I was using Isaiah's precious nap time to scrub our grout. The grout was really bad, and barricading him out of the sections I was working on just didn't work. He is a wily little guy.

But our summer was lovely as only a Scituate summer can be. We are so lucky to be able to get away to such a beautiful little corner of God's Creation.

I don't know what I am missing more: the garden, the beach, our after-dinner walks,

...or my family. The Bird family reunion portion of our stay was a blast. There were 21 of us under my parents' roof, which I half expected to feel like this:

...but even with the heat wave, it actually felt like this:

The little cousins are growing up so fast and it is so much fun to watch their personalities evolve into such unique and lovable little individuals. My girls are still laughing about the time Leah asked to get taken out to the sandbar, thinking it was some type of snack bar, and then was terribly let down when we explained it to her that there were no fries out there...just hermit crabs. 

There was also plenty of one-on-one time with Nanny and Papa: drip castles, Stratego and fishing with Papa; baking and tea parties and gardening with Nanny. (They sound like caricatures of perfect grandparents, but they are for real.) Isaiah fell in love with both of them...it was a wrench to tear him away and stick him back in our little house in the desert.

The kids and Nanny at the beach on one of many gorgeous evening walks:

 

 

While we were gone, my crawling baby turned into a toddler...(sob)

 

...and my big girl turned eleven...(double sob)
 

We also had lots of nice time with our little nuclear family since Luke came back to travel home with us. One of the things I love about being there so long is that the girls have only each other for playmates...which I think is good for fostering sibling love. Here they are on one of our hikes at the Norris Reservation, (pretending it was Mirkwood of course.) It was a little too green and lovely to be a convincing Mirkwood, but it is as close to a deep dark forest as these kids are likely to get. Audrey kept asking to be Bombur, so she could "accidentally" fall in the North River and then pretend to be asleep while we took turns carrying her. Oh Audrey.

 

 

Here's Luke, our anti-Mr. Banks, flying a kite with Kateri.

 



The girls came home with tanned skin, bleached hair, and horribly scraped up knees from their  dangerous hobby of riding scooters at breakneck speed down sandy sidewalks.

 

I came home with my introvert batteries recharged.

 

We all came home full of happy memories,

 already dreaming of next summer.

Thank you, Nanny and Papa!