This evening I sat across the table from my husband.  The kids were off playing Xbox.  We had been at the pool all afternoon and the kids were showered and ready for bed, happily playing.  He smiled at me.  We chatted about this and that sharing a beer.  He asked me what I was going to blog tonight. I replied how summer holidays have changed for us. He smiled a smile that said everything.

Before we had kids we spent almost every summer holiday at the beach with our families.  Both my sister and his siblings have shore houses.  My husband and I were together 12 years before we had kids.  We were easy to invite to a beach house.  We needed little and we could camp in the living room.  Then Ryan arrived.  We were not as fun to invite anymore.  We had a BABY.  By the time Aaron arrived a few years after the 4th of July 2005 we were spending all the summer holidays alone.  My husband and I would pass the kids back and forth letting the other get a break here and there all weekend.  Ryan was tougher at the younger ages than he is now.  The boys were still napping in the afternoons and no one invited us and we were too overwhelmed to invite anyone. It was a lonely time.  Then we joined the pool but even then we had no friends that first year till Labor Day.

Things have changed so much.  Today we went to the pool and soaked in the first day of the season with our very bestest pool friend K and her daughters.  The boys took their deep water tests and got their elastic band that they wear on their ankle all summer to declare their deep water competence.   We visited all our summer friends and I watched my kids get to be free range on ten acres.  Both boys came and went, found friends, and it was summer again.  Tomorrow the Listen to Your Mother Philly producers, Cecily,  Dresden, and their families are coming to the pool.  Shoshana who was a cast member of the show and her family  is coming too. Party at the pool with bloggy ladies and families.  Monday is my neighbor nephew’s birthday, we have a few sets of neighbors coming and one neighbor is bringing people we never met.  That to me is AMAZING.  Our holiday is full and busy.

My husband and I talked about all of the above.  He took my hand over the shared beer and said, we made it through to a better place.  I squeezed back and smiled.