Chris and I have something even better than a vacation house:  FRIENDS with vacation houses.    

Over Memorial Day weekend, we took Kevin & Linda up on their lovely annual offer, and drove to the Jersey Shore to meet up with their family and two other couples for sea, salt, and sun.  We are all-boy in the child department – an average of 2 per couple.  Only four kids were there, but we talked a lot about the older four who weren’t.

We’ve known these couples before maternity clothes, before wedding rings.  It’s a long track record of history.  We know each other’s parents, most of whom are still with us.  Much ground was covered.  “How’s Ben doing in college?”  “What’s your dad up to?”  “How do your parents like the new retirement community?”  “What college does Will like best?”  “When is your mom moving up here?”

Here we are, the SAND-wich generation (Debby, you were out buying a puzzle during this photo!)

After beach-time, there was kitchen time as Linda made brownies, apple pie, stuffed shells…

 And Sandy provided veggies and dip…

And Deb and Steve surprised us with clams on ice….

There was porch time, where Steve and Deb surfed.

There was group crossword puzzling, baseball watching and newspaper reading.  Sunburned Hugh was riveted to the Phils-Yanks game, while Bob, Chris, Eric and Kevin improved their brains.

And jigsaw puzzling by Sandy and Ethan, under a painting Kevin & Linda bought from our friend Patrick King (designer of this blog’s banner) at a long-ago charity art auction.  A lot of history.

We don’t see each other often enough, so a plan was hatched for all four couples to buy the same theatre subscription in Philadelphia next year.  Summer has just officially begun, and the thought of September and leaves turning crispy is less poignant if we know we’ll all be meeting for dinner before the show.  We can do these things way more easily now that the boys have outgrown babysitters.

 Here’s to the summer of 2009 – and tons of time with friends.

 

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