Girls' Weekend

My Mom's best friend had a daughter the month after I turned 1.  Sarah Katherine, who goes by Katie, and I were inseparable.  We saw each other almost every day because we lived right around the corner from each other.  As tiny girls we spent long hours in each other's back yards, deep in our own imaginative worlds.  We climbed trees, decorated our bikes and had parades down the street, had countless slumber parties, vacationed together, and promised to be each other's maid of honor and name our daughters after each other.  Even after Katie's family moved to Portland when we were still very young, our friendship remained.  We were lucky that our parents were best friends because family vacations basically revolved around visiting each other.  And those were the best times of each year.  Better than Christmas.  One of our families favorite spots to vacation together was "the beach house."  It was a huge house on  Muscle Shoals.  The basement was full of countless beds and all the kids bunked down there together.  Our days were spent in the ocean. 

I turned 33 on 3/3 (pretty cool huh?) and today, Katie turns 32.  We wanted to do something special for our birthdays so we decided to have our own little trip to Muscle Shoals.  "Our" old beach house is way too expensive to rent these days but Katie found a cute little quirky place just across the highway.  So off we went for a girls' weekend away...Katie, Felicity Katherine, Arrow, and I (nursling boys get to join in on girls' weekend).  :)

On Saturday, we headed down to the beach.  We decided there was no better place to "park it" but right in front of "our" old beach house, where our families made about a million memories together.

 Arrow was a HUGE fan of the sand.

 

 My Katherines at "our" beach.

 

 It sure was fun to watch my daughter play here in this magical place, just like Katie and I had when we were her age.

 

 His first feel of the Pacific.

 

 You can't see it in this picture, but those windows look out across the highway and over the ocean.  The couches in this living room faced away from these windows, and towards the TV on the back wall.  Um..........?!  So, Katie did a bit of rearranging and faced the couches so we could sit and watch the sun set over the waves.

Here, Felicity is talking to her brothers on the phone.  All three of them thought it was so much fun.  They talked forever!  It was so sweet to see how they missed each other and then it dawned on me that they are rarely ever apart.  In fact, this may have been the first time they've talked to each other on the phone.  It was really cute.

 

 Before leaving on Sunday, we drove into Santa Barbara to walk through the botanical gardens.

 

 Lissy wanted a picture of her and Katie "holding up" this boulder, which I thought was funny because she's never seen photos where people do this. 

 

We had a wonderful time creating memories for a third generation at "the beach house."

Happy birthday Tatie!