Summer 2026! (Part 1)

I can't believe how long it's been since I've been here! The last time I posted anything, we hadn't even left VA for the summer, to head up to NY to manage our Oyster Haven Vrbo rental house and reconnect with extended family on both sides in the hometown where we grew up.

Before we left, son #2 and his wife hosted a party for my husband and the two grandsons whose June birthdays are within days of his.  Our daughter-in-law Ginger (wife of son #2) had "tattoos" made up of my hubby's face, and we all sported them to honor our Pearl family patriarch.  That was a hoot.

But I'm kind of hoping that those wash-off Papa faces are the closest any of my grandchildren ever get to having tattoos! LOL!

There's actually so much to write about--too much!--but the most important thing that's happened in all the time I've been away from this blog was our family vacation week at our lake house with our entire clan (12 adults and 23 kids ages one to 15, in a house that we advertise "sleeps 13"!) in early July.  It was simply magical, as always, and it makes hanging onto our Oyster Haven house for as long as possible a top priority for my husband and me.  The kids and grandkids all look forward to that week that we block off for our own use (why should renters have all the fun?!)--it's like Christmas in July, truly.  Just so special.

We had a photographer come to take family photos by the lake in July of 2024, but our youngest grandchild (a sweet little one-year-old gal) had not been born yet, so we wanted to get some new ones taken with her included.  Last time around, we had everyone dress in various shades of blue and white.  This year, we went for patriotic red, white, and blue (it is our country's 250th birthday, after all).  We hired the same photographer, and she was wonderful at cheerfully wrangling our large and rather challenging group of mostly youngsters.  Especially because it was an extremely hot and muggy day, in the 90's with about 90% humidity.  Ugh!  We were all dripping with sweat, but she got us efficiently assembled into groups and got those pictures snapped in record time.  And somehow, she managed to make us look as cool as cucumbers.  I'm so proud of the grandkids, because it could have been a miserable experience, but none of them were crabby or whiny.  They really rose to the occasion and patiently posed like champs, and I'm just thrilled to have these precious family photos.

I'm not going to share any of the pictures with the grandkids in them here, for privacy's sake; but here's one of my husband and me with our five beloved sons and their better halves.

Back in 2022, four of my boys came to spend a belated Mother's Day with me, and son #4 had us pose for a funny picture--as if we were a 90's boy band or hip-hop/rap band.   He doctored it up and the next day, he posted this on the family text stream.

"Mama Knows Best" was the debut album of the Mama's Boiz.  He said that our next title was going to be "Don't Step on a Crack."

Son #1 was missing when we made that first album cover, but our family photo shoot presented the perfect opportunity to get a picture of the whole band of brothers.  So before the serious photo session got underway, son #4 had the photographer snap a quick picture for our long-awaited second album.  And then he made some edits to it and this is the finished product:

I think my silly boys are already discussing what the next album is going to be called.  I can hardly wait for that one to drop.  (And Mama really does love those boiz of hers.)

I'm realizing that I'm probably going to have to make this post a two-parter, because I have too many memories and pictures to share.  But here are a few snapshots to give you an idea of how AWESOME our week was.  It looked like we were running a summer camp on our little private beach in our little private cove.  Too good to be true, honestly.

Part 2 coming soon!

Hope you're having a glorious summer, dear readers!