Swing

Source: Uploaded by user via Kirsten on Pinterest

This looks like the perfect spot

Happy weekend!

It doesn't matter

Source: tumblr.com via Renee on Pinterest

It doesn't matter that we are only there a few days every year, we love it just the same.  The beach.  The water.  That feeling that you get when you see the water rushing to the shore, to you, welcoming you back.  It is my 'happy place' - that place I go in my head when I need to escape reality, the place that calms me and washes over me completely.  I think I was 6 months old the first time I met the ocean and its salt water coarses through my veins and I am drawn back to the water every year...if only for a few days.  I believe it was love at first sight.  It was love.  A love that I have shared with my children.  One I hope they share with their children.  It doesn't matter that it's only for a few days a year, the memories made there last until we can get back or resurface when we need them.  My happiest memories of my childhod were of the beach.  My happiest memories of my children's childhood were on the beach.  It doesn't matter that it's only a few days a year.

Pandas

Source: s3.amazonaws.com via Sarah on Pinterest

today I am dreaming of pandas...
I'll explain later.
I am writing.

Port Clinton

Source: lighthousefriends.com via Twyla on Pinterest

Yesterday, we drove to Port Clinton with my brother in-law.  Even though I was crammed in the back of a Prius for most of the day, it wasn't my legs that hurt the most - it was my sides.  I laughed for miles and miles.  My brother in-law is HILL-arious.  It was a whole day of laughter (and tears of laughter), cheese from Cheese Haven, music (Civil Wars), and stealing kisses with my hubby.  It was a good memorial day.

My love of hydrangeas

Source: 30.media.tumblr.com via Lisa on Pinterest

I think my love of hydrangeas just might be genetic.

I have for many years bought my grandmother blue hydrangeas for Mother's Day.  It's probably been five or more years that I have done this. Each year, she plants the hydrangeas in her yard for them to bloom the next year. This year, of course, I bought the hydrangeas on Wednesday before Mother's Day and had them sitting on my table until it was time to part with them.  I have loved blue hydrangeas for years, years and years.  If I imagine my dream home, there are a row of blue hydrangea bushes full and lush along the garden walkway.

I got a call from my mother on the Friday before Mother's Day.  She said that Grandma was staring out the window and said, "You know what I would like?  I would like this whole side of the house to have beautiful hydrangea plants growing there." 

Smile.

So maybe it is in my genes.  My love of ice tea came from her.  My love of rhubarb.  My love of  swinging on a porch swing.  My love of blue hydrangeas.  I don't really know if it's genetic.  Scientists probably couldn't prove it.  And maybe it's because I love her so much that I love all of these things.  But the thing is, I didn't know that she loved blue hydrangeas until I bought them for her that first year and she told me :)

The carousel is open

Source: beautifulthingstoshare.blogspot.ca via Kyla on Pinterest

The carousel near us is open again!

I took G today.  She could see the carousel from thel glass elevator and began dancing with excitement.  She said, "fish, fish!", so of course she rode of the clown fish carousel animal first - this carousel has horses as well as a giraffe, fish, elephant, and more!  As soon as she sat in the saddle, she began smiling from ear to ear.  It was almost like she was saying, "Where have you been, old friend?  I have missed you."

I think I'd like to have...

Source: etsy.com via Melissa on Pinterest

I think I'd like to have 100 of these...maybe that's too many...20 of these hanging over my bed.  Can you say "sweet dreams"?