We did a lot of celebrating at the end of fall. First was Hayley and Tim’s wedding a Aronomick, which brought together most of the family.
And the following day we had Ava Devine’s Bat Mitzvah at the Union League, which was a total blast. While the kids have attended many, Dave and I have only attended a few of these, and every time we have so much fun!
And finally, a few weeks later we celebrated Dylan and Catherine getting married in Rock Hall! It was a lovely wedding at Osprey Point.
And, while not a wedding, it was still a celebration when I headed down to Virginia to celebrate Aleen being recognized by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for being an ambassador. The event was a good fest – my favorite kinds!
At the end of September Dave and I competed in the Kinetic Multisport Rock Hall Triathlon again – on Saturday doing the Olympic distance and for the first time on Sunday doing the relay with Lauren! It was an amazing weekend! Dave and I both took FIRST in our age group!! And our relay team took SECOND in the mixed category! For that one, I did the swim, Dave did the bike ride, and Lauren did the run. And girl was a hauling!
So much fun! Looking forward to doing it again in the spring!
Mom turned 70th this year! We celebrated for her actual birthday and will celebrate again at the end of August when we go to Portugal for Brittany’s wedding.
At the end of June, the girls spent a week down in Charlottesville. I dropped them off and stayed for the weekend where I got to see one of Ari’s plays – Beetlejuice, Jr. (pic of the group below).
After the weekend I headed back to Rock Hall to spend the week there and on July 3rd, mom and dad brought the girls up, with Becky and Ari, and stayed for five days – including July 7th so we could celebrate!
The weather was great and we got it some good pool time as well as a sunset at Haven Harbour South – obligatory unset pics below.
And we had a family celebration on mom’s birthday at the house with a crabcake dinner, a cake of her choice, and most importantly, tattoos! She’s been talking about getting a tattoo for literally ever, but never pulled the trigger. So Becky finally made it happen when she spotted a tiny tattoo shop in Rock Hall. The three of us got matching heart tattoos – how cute 😉
We made mom go first so that she couldn’t chicken out.
Can’t wait to celebrate again in just a few weeks!
It was a good, long summer with lots of time in Maryland.
Over the last few weeks we had more friends come and visit, enjoyed several sunset sails, and listened to Dave’s dad band.
My family came for Pirates and Wenches Weekend again (it maybe become a tradition!).
The girls both had friends for the last weekend in August, and The Devine’s came down for Labor Day weekend. I’m always sad to leave when summer ends, but fall is also a great time down there as well 😉
The best part of our house in Rock Hall are all the friends who come and visit us throughout the summer. Over the 4th of July Don and his family came down and we did all the f things – sailing, tubing, BBQ and fireworks on the 3rd, and running in the Flat 5 Miler on the morning of the 4th, which is always a total scorcher.
Leading up to the 4th, we spend two weeks in Rock Hall while Lauren and Bella went sailing camp. The both really loved it this year. They were in the intermediate group with older kids, which I think they liked a lot. They also got to ride on the camp’s float for the 4th of July parade.
Lauren, Oliver & Liam on the bow of the boatPicking crabs! Fireworks at the end of our drivewayLauren and Bella in the parade with their sailing campDon, Walt, John, Dave, Ally, Natalie, Crystal, Me
And in mid-July, Aleen, Sallie and her family came to visit us. It’s the first time we’ve gotten the full families together and it was so much fun! Lauren got along really well with Sallies boys, Lang and Wes, and everyone had fun on the boats. The weather was also perfect, which was just the cherry on top of the weekend.
Wes and Lang on the sail boatPetunia giving Aleen some loveThe tubing queen! Family dinnerAleen, Sallie and me
The following weekend Justin and Steve came down. This was the first time they’ve been to the place and again, it was lovely. Perfect weather, a really great afternoon sail on Saturday, and after a crazy thunderstorm, a beautiful sunset on the beach.
Saturday afternoon sailSophie, Bella, Lauren and Naomisunset on the beachSteve and JustinDave, me, Steve, Justin, Crystal, John
We’ve got a few more fun filled summer weekends ahead of us. Summer always goes so fast, so I’m trying to slow down and savor every moment!
This year, instead of Ocean City, the Rainer Fam came to Rock Hall for the week. The end of the week also happened to be Pirates and Wenches weekend, which was a bonus I guess 😉
The Sharps were out of town that week, so Doug, Vicki and Nana sayed at their house, and everyone else stayed at ours.
It was a nice, pretty low key week. We did some days at the beach, some days at the pool, and some just hanging out at the house.
Dinner on the porchHarbour ShackNana enjoying the BaySunset at Haven Harbor South
And we did most of the Pirates and Wenches festivities as well.
Pirate PetuniaSophie the pirate princessDinghy water fight in the harborMini pirates
My birthday was on a Friday this year and we spent it (big surprise) in Rock Hall. The kids had spent the previous week in Va. with my family and then drove up to spend the weekend with us.
On Friday night, Dave’s dad’s band, Unknown Legends, played at Waterman’s, so we all went there for dinner and to hear them. They’re pretty good and they even sang me happy birthday!
Afterward we went back to the house for some cake.
And we celebrated again the following night with the Townsends as well.
This birthday sure beat last year’s where I was 3 days post-surgery and laid up on the couch in the living room. It was a great weekend, filled with family and friends. What more could you want!
We spent the long 4th weekend in Rock Hall. Zoe and Maddie came down for a few days and the Townsends were there as well. We enjoyed all of our typical Rock Hall activities – sailing, rafting up, swimming and a BBQ. Bonus this year – there were no broken legs!
Lauren’s paddleboard, which was one of her Christmas presents this year, got a lot of good use!
We all gathered on our front lawn again for fireworks, which they put off on the 3rd of July.
And this year the girls got to particpate in the parade with their sailing school. They had a blast.
In June Aleen, Sallie and I got together for our annual girls weekend. The last time the three of us got together was in Florida in March of 2020, literally days before the world shut down. We decided to keep it easy and they came to Rock Hall for the weekend. It was a fun, relaxing weekend, like it always is. I love how we just pick up where we left off.
We lucked out with an absolutely beautiful weekend!
To celebrate her 96th birthday, Nana rented a beautiful waterfront house in Rock Hall (how convenient!) for the whole family. Between our house and the rented house we were able to have the whole group together. Some people were there for a whole week, and others just the weekend. We didn’t want to take the kids out of school (they’re far enough behind as it is), so we were part of the weekend crew.
It was a beautiful fall weekend and we spent a lot of it outside.
Lauren, Sophie, Ari, Kishore, Ashwini
Nana and Mom on the lawn in front of the house
Dave, Dan, Doug on the house’s dock
Ashwini, Kishore, Maithili
Lauren and Ari got a lot of time to play and love each other. The time together is never long enough for those two.
The great-grandkids also got in some good Gigi time.
We had a big Italian birthday dinner on Saturday night and I made an apple bourbon cake for dinner. It was a very happy and festive celebration!
We also got in some sailing. Dave captained two crews. On Saturday there was wind and they were able to do some sailing. Doug, Vicki, Carly, Chris, Julia, Maithili, Dad and Sophie went on that trip. And on Sunday there was little wind, but it was still beautiful, so Mom, Becky, Dan, Maithili, me and all the kids went. It was Ari’s first time on a boat and at first she was nervous, but eventually got comfortable, and event went up to the bow to sit with Sophie for a bit. We toured around the harbor and enjoyed some wine and snacks. It was lovely.
On Saturday right before the birthday dinner there was a beautiful rainbow that spanned the entire back of the house. Very fitting.
