Summer 2026! (Part 2)

I got some lovely comments on my last post (my birthday post!), and I finally got around to replying to them today. I love my readers.  I've always been the kind of person who would rather have a few good, true friends than a legion of acquaintances with whom I socialize.  This has carried over to my blogging life: I don't have a legion of readers, but the ones who do stop by are so kind and sweet and loyal.

If you come here often, you might have seen that back in late July I did a Part 1 post about our summer goings-on.  I've been meaning to add to it, and especially to post some more pictures of our week with our kids and grandkids at our Oyster Haven Vrbo lake house, but time has gotten away from me.  My husband and I have been staying at his childhood home, just down the road from Oyster Haven, sharing the house with a number of his siblings.  Two of his sisters and their husbands are also living at the old homestead for the summer, and we have all been getting along swimmingly.  (Sometimes, other siblings also come to stay for short stretches, and nieces and nephews as well.)   It helps that there are 4 refrigerators: one in the kitchen, one in the garage, and two in the basement.  Each couple has claimed one as their own, and this keeps things from getting too complicated when it comes to meals.  Now and then, one of us will cook dinner for the group; but often, each couple is doing their own thing food-wise. And it's all working out beautifully.

On my birthday, one of my husband's younger sisters and her husband made a delicious steak dinner, which we enjoyed with 16 other members of the extended Pearl family who were in town at that time.  So it was a real party.

My husband and I have been spending a lot of time together on the boat.  Most days when the lake is calm enough, that's where we say our Rosaries, Divine Mercy Chaplets, and novena prayers.

 

A couple of days ago, we went out for about 3 and 1/2 hours.  We did our prayers, read our books, talked and lazed in the sun, and then we headed over to a bar/restaurant called "Flip Flops on the Dock," where you can park your boat for free and walk up to the lakefront restaurant to eat.  It was so much fun, such a perfect day!  We each got a cocktail before dinner, because it felt like a celebration.  (Getting old is not a joke, says this newly-minted 68-year-old; but there are some aspects of life in these "golden years," when you have grown kids and a retired husband, that are absolutely wonderful!  Especially when he's someone with whom you love to hang out.  And I do.)

Okay, now for the photo dump from our Oyster Haven week in early July.  (I have lots more pictures, but don't want to share too many with my grandkids' faces in them--especially the children of one of our sons who is not on social media and doesn't want them on it either, which I totally understand and respect.)

Magnet tiles were the craze with the younger set this summer.

The kids played in the lake and on the beach during most of the daytime hours.  But after dark, there were nightly raucous games of Texas Hold 'Em at the kitchen table.  Our grandkids are all getting pretty good at playing cards and keeping their poker faces.

People are always asking how we do meals for 35 during our vacation week together.  It works out surprisingly well (but it sometimes looks a bit like we're feeding an army--a starving one).  I used to cook all of the dinners, but I'm accepting more help these days.  Breakfast and lunch are pretty much handled by the parents of the different families, and they feed their own kids what they like and are used to.  In the old days, I tried to get up and make breakfast casseroles and bacon for the whole gang, or pancakes; but it's just hard, with different wake-up times, dietary needs, food allergies, etc. And the same goes for lunch.  So we let our kids take care of those meals.  I mean, we provide all kinds of staples, like butter, eggs, milk, cheese, bread, condiments, coffee, sodas, waters, adult beverages, etc.  But the kids end up doing a lot of shopping of their own, too.  Both of the fridges were packed to the gills by the end of our week!  

For the dinners this year, the couples each took a night to host.  We had a steak night, a pizza night, a chicken Alfredo night, a taco night, a roasted pork loin night.  And then for the 4th of July, we had a traditional hot dogs and hamburgers cookout.  Somehow, it all works, it really does.  But it's a bit cray-cray!

And we use paper plates and bowls and plastic forks and spoons.  I can't allow myself to feel guilty about how many garbage bags we fill with all that disposable stuff, because I can't imagine how we could keep up otherwise.

I can think of few things that make me happier than seeing my boys together.  There were lots of laughs, as always.

You might recall that last year, while wading out in the water our son #4 got poked in the thigh by a sharp branch on a log that had somehow washed into our cove, and he ended up with a serious infection.  He spent two nights in the hospital on IV antibiotics. Ultimately, he was fine.  But the accident happened early on in our vacation week, and once he was discharged, he was not allowed to go in the lake for the rest of his time there.  This 2026 week at Oyster Haven was going to be his "do-over."  Well, wouldn't you know, he ended up at Urgent Care again, with a swollen elbow. A small scratch somehow developed another infernal infection.  But this time, things were not as dire: it happened later in the week, after he'd been able to enjoy lots of water activity; it required an antibiotic, but just an oral one, not an IV; and most importantly, he did not need to be admitted to the hospital!!  He did have a much better week...but 2027, we're counting on you to be infection-free.

In spite of the elbow, he was a pretty happy camper.

I think now I'm just going to do the proverbial photo dump.  There are so many good pictures from our fantastic week together, but here are just a few.

My heart is full, looking at these images and remembering how magical our week was.  The kids love being together up here, and they stay busy from sun-up to sun-down.  What a blessing it is to have this house by the lake.  On turnover days, when my husband and I have to spend exhausting hours getting it cleaned up and ready for the next renters, I sometimes forget why it's so great to have it.  I need to keep coming back to these photos to remind myself that it's all worth it!

Really.  SO worth it.