Times to treasure

      We put the beach towel bins back in the attic this afternoon.  

      The beds in the extra bedrooms have been made, and the toys have been picked up and put back on the shelves.  Everything is just about back in order, and the house is once again calm and quiet...Rats...  

      It was a great week-and-a-couple-of-days.  Folks started showing up on Friday a week ago, and by that evening it was hard to find a place at the table to help eat the pork butt Paula cooked on the grill all day, but it was easy to find someone to laugh with and catch up on what they'd been doing.  The little 'squad' of four- and five-year-old granddaughters found the dress-up clothes and ran around the house in some extravagant outfits.  ("Wasn't that part of someone's wedding dress?")  And of course the fish needed fed.

     The next day everyone made it safely to the rented beach house two hours to the east; the 'squad' had important conversations in the back seat on the way down, such as whether or not you could actually live on the moon (by the way, you can't - apparently, "tomatoes can't grow there," thus deciding the question).

     The weather was rotten, as Tropical Storm/Hurricane Debby stalled on the South and North Carolina coast.  Yeah, but the swimming pool was great, 

and you could still dig holes on the beach when it wasn't raining.  

       The aunts brought cookies and enough snacks to push everyone into BMI danger, and Oh, wow!  Did you see that guy boulder-climbing the wall on the Olympics playing nearly constantly on the TV?!  A birthday was celebrated, 

and cries of victory and defeat and laughter at the card games rang through the house long after I couldn't stay awake.  Aunt Kathleen had the annual Ice Cream Party complete with nose glasses, of course,

and Sophia almost made her first kayak roll.

     It's always sad on Friday afternoon when the very first item goes back in a suitcase, and especially on Sunday morning before sunrise, when the last family is quickly hugged on the sidewalk before dragging their luggage into the airport terminal.  The drive home is quiet, save for reminding ourselves of anything coming up in the next couple of days.

    That night, waiting for sleep, a feeling of fierce love for all of them came over me.  You never know how many more beach trips there will be with the whole gang, and I wanted to hang on to those moments just a little bit longer.  

     So, the last load of laundry just finished getting folded, and I put the boogie boards back in storage.  It's just Paula and I, and some pictures to sort through, and some great memories of having them all together one more time.  

Dave & Paula