Until We Meet Again

For the past seven years, my best friends from college have rented a house in Wells.  Life has taken us in many directions, and we often don't see one another long stretches of time.  This one week vacation keeps us connected where there is always plenty of laughter and reminiscing.

I love these girls with all my heart.  We have been through so much with one another-marriages, deaths, births and break-ups, but through the good times and the bad, they have been my rock.

Our time together started out with just the four of us, but slowly our families grew and it was time to say good-bye to our little beach house in Wells, and find a place that would fit our growing families.

We went from:

To this:

Plus add in our significant others, so this year we did a little change of scenery and chose the Sebago Lake Region.  We found a house that was a minute walk to the water, and big enough to accommodate our growing brood.

It sounded like the perfect choice.

And it was.

In Wells it was a ten to fifteen minute walk to the ocean and with 3 children under the age of three, you can imagine the toll it took on us, but in Sebago, we could zip up and down for diaper changes, naps or to even make sandwiches.   And our children could actually swim in the water compared to the chilly Atlantic.

Jack had a smile on his face the entire time he was in the water.

Towards the end of the week he was even brave enough to go swim out to the raft and jump off.  Be still his momma's heart!

True to form there were many laughs.  The kind of laughs that reach right down to your core.  The kind that made your stomach and mouth sore.

Before we had left for the week, we were already discussing when to book for next year.  How could one not when you woke up to this every morning.

Being at the lake reminded me of my childhood in which I spent my summers at my grandparents' camp in Northern Maine.

Early in the mornings, Jack and I would walk Izzy along the quiet camp roads and memories came flooding back.  Chasing frogs and rainbows with my cousins, family BBQs, skipping stones and jumping off high rocks into the water.  Those were some of my favorite memories as a child and I hope that my son will have those same pleasant memories of his own.

Something tells me he will.

As we were packing up the car to go home, Jack has a complete meltdown and is totally inconsolable.  When I was finally able to understand what he was saying he sobbed, "I don't want to go home!  I want to go to the beach!"  Tears prick my eyes as I kneel down in front of him and ask him if he would like to say good-bye to the beach before we go.  He nods his tearful head, and we make our way down.

Good-bye dock.

 

Good-bye water and sand.

Good-bye raft.

Good-bye trees, mountains and sky.

Good-bye friends.

Until we meet again.