A Fond Farewell to Summer

There was a moment on the Friday evening of Labor Day weekend; with the setting sun streaking the sky and the Sound with vivid shades of orange and purple, the kids scampering across the docks with their best friends, Natalie and I sipping pinot grigio out of (no kidding) pint glasses, Seth and Tommy watching the Army football game while chowing down on seafood, and live beach music playing in the background; that I thought life was just about as good as it gets.

And then Finley fell off the dock in her clothes and into the cottonmouth-infested soundside marsh. And emerged like this:

shouting "I didn't get bited by water snakes!" 

If you're a Nieman or a Ryan, you think that life just got even better, and you hustle a dripping Finley inside to high five the bartender and pick out a bar tshirt to wear as a dress so nobody has to leave an an indescribably perfect Friday evening. 

Which is exactly what we did. (Incidentally, if you are ever in the Outer Banks and have the opportunity to stop at Watermen's, don't skip it.)

And so went our memorable "farewell to summer" weekend. Jusssst in the nick of time, with Hurricane Dorian already kicking up some serious waves (OK, this picture is seriously misleading- they were huge),

we spent four blissful days full of friends (old and new),

seriously epic sunsets,

fishing,

"fishing,"

beach shenanigans,

and stuffing ourselves with donuts and Cheetos and s'mores (oh my!)

(also ice cream);

but also fresh, cooked-by-Dad, scallops!

There were lots and lots of (barnacle and fish hook) injuries, taped up with sports tape and the subject of immense pride and jealousy,

necessitating (in at least one case) a ridiculous amount of spoiling.

There were also pirate ships and hot tubs

and "practically perfect in every way" moments like this one.

We visited zero of the OBX tourist attractions, and we wouldn't have changed a thing. It was a "farewell to summer" for the ages, one of my very favorite trips with some of my very favorite people.

And this is how we all felt when we finally headed back to reality and school and an early fall that included the first hurricane brush of the season.

Tough to pick a favorite, but maybe the funniest photo of the weekend is of Seth and T3, discussing what you do if you catch a Great White Shark. (You punch it, of course.)

New Babies and (Lots More) Birthdays

I spoke (typed?) too soon. The summer birthday were not over. In fact, we had three of them scheduled for Saturday, in two different counties. And it had already been a nutty week involving a quick trip to DC for me, turned less quick by cancelled flights and the necessity of driving ten hours in less than twenty.

We still  managed time to meet the two new babies in our lives, both only a week or two old. Sydnie Hudspeth, arguably the sweetest baby ever created

and Serena Jo Ballesteros, whose first shabbat dinner we crashed with the Nieman and Ryan hooligans.

Then Saturday morning bright and early we headed for Moore County for the first of the "end of summer" birthday trifecta of awesomeness and, possibly, diabetes. First there was early morning water sliding and balloon mayhem

followed by midday quidditch

and Harry Potter fun with old friends,

and late afternoon Avengers madness.

We wrapped up a sugar- and fun- saturated Saturday in the Ryan pool

and- when it started raining- an old school kitchen dance party.

F+F will likely never realize just how epic their young lives are. Thank goodness for photographic evidence.

We spent Sunday recovering, cleaning, folding piles of laundry, grabbing a family workout,

and throwing a couple steaks on the grill with the back-at-the-Center-of-the-Universe Ray family. Including the newly giant Jack.

It was an idyllic, if a little crazy, weekend and my favorite picture to sum it up is of Seth, taking a well-earned break from birthday party madness.

Nieman Summer Road Trip

Well, we did a thing. We put 4500+ miles on the new F-250/ camper rig. (Seth was a champion and did all the driving.) We saw huge swaths of our country that lots of people reduce to "flyover" status. We swam in every single body of water, clean or not, between here and Manitoba. We caught up with family and friends, and made friends with strangers. We explored roadside America. We ate weird things, and happened upon some truly great BBQ. We got bitten by thousands of mosquitoes. We drank beer and drove boats. (Not in that order.) We gained a new appreciation for each other. We listened to "old Town Road" approximately 85,000 times.

It was a summer vacation for the record books, and it is best described- apologies to those who have already seen this series on social media- like this.

We got home just in time to hit the pool on our last night. And then got up and went to work the next day. It was a brutal first week home, at least for those of us insistent on eking out every last second of vacation at the expense of sanity and laundry. These two did just fine, and even scored themselves a Chuck E. Cheese run

and a (terrifying) hibachi birthday dinner with their besties.

Followed by a weekend at the pool,

running errands with Dad (who inexplicably managed to find cocktail mixers at a furniture store)

and Mom (who was less than thrilled about the Wal Mart paper towel "fort"),

living up the last of the summer birthday parties,

plus getting back to their roots terrorizing new neighborhoods with the Ryans. Because thankfully, some things never change.

And just now, finally, we are caught up on laundry, possessed of a clean house and clean-ish camper, ridding ourselves of the expectation of daily cocktails and french fries, and working on regaining a semi-normal sleep pattern. Much to our dismay on all counts.

There is no way I could pick a favorite from the last few weeks, but this one- in my opinion- says "great vacay, good to be home." Courtesy of F+F.