All You Need Is Love: September 2010

On August 22nd, at 10 days old, Ethan took his first road trip to Bethany Beach, DE to visit Aunt Barbara. The trip was wonderful, although bittersweet, because we were missing our Aunt Fran. It has been about three and a half months since her passing. She would have LOVED baby Ethan...she loved all little children and had a magical way with kids.

Ethan had his first road trip and mommy went on a trip down memory lane...Going to the beach especially reminds me of Aunt Fran. As a child, we would stay with Aunt Fran and Aunt Barbara at their beach rentals. The day would begin with fresh donuts that Aunt Fran would go out to buy in the wee hours of the morning. Then Aunt Fran and Aunt Barbara would round up all of us kids, beach chairs, towels, boogie boards and beach toys and cart us all to the beach. I remember loving the mornings at the ocean because low tide meant for sand bars and easy jumping of waves. We would dig for sand crabs and make sand castles. Lunch time came - the cooler was stocked with sandwiches and other goodies to eat. It was back to the sand and water for a while before heading home to the beach house. Aunt Fran was famous for making all of the kids take naps in the afternoon. She didn't want to take CRANKY kids to the boardwalk later that night. When we awoke from our naps, a game of Po-Kee-No was played on the porch, while the adults prepared dinner. After KP (kitchen patrol - haha...everyone had a turn) was done, it was off to the boardwalk for a night of FUN...rides and games galore!

I will never forget all of those good times. Dylan and Logan have also been lucky to partake in the Aunt Fran and Aunt Barbara beach experience. They have been to Delaware every summer since they were six months old. Some of those good times include swimming in the pool, going on the tram at Ocean City, Maryland, riding their trikes on Aunt Fran and Aunt B's deck, making homemade pizza, going for ice cream and their favorite...riding the rides at the boardwalk and amusement parks.

Logan said it best on the beach last week while making his sand volcano..."I wish Aunt Fran was here to have all of this fun".

...Me too, Logan.

But enough sad stuff...on to the FUN!

OUR TRIP TO BETHANY BEACH, DELAWARE

AUGUST, 2010

And the journey to DE begins..Ethan was so good and slept the whole way.