What to say? We arrived late, due to weather and left early, due to weather. The trip home was what I deemed an adventure (!) when speaking to the children and thought truly treacherous with a shudder to myself- washed out roads, low to no visibility, etc. With all the time in the car I knitted an entire little dress and started a wee sweater. I read the better part of Home Grown while trying to convince an over-tired toddler to drift off to sleep.

We never actually made it to the ocean, though we did spend some time at the bay. I feel that lack distinctly. A summer without standing in awe at the vastness of endless waves seems incomplete.

We stayed in a yurt for the first time and were introduced to an ice-cream shop that had a (comparatively) huge selection of gluten and dairy free treats. That was a find! Hello, salted-caramel ice cream topped with hot fudge! Everyone was thrilled, including baby girl who devoured an all fruit smoothie.

Mairi Rose and Galen were in a Summer Solstice play. Galen, a dapper fox in his old Halloween costume. I made Mairi’s costume from this dress of mine. I took it apart and put it together so many times trying to work out the pattern, that the bust never laid right. I did work out that pattern with it though and have since made another dress utilizing it.

I documented a sunset on the beach one night with sleeping babe beside me while Steve and the kids were off on a sandbar, playing frisbee.

The whole trip had a detached from reality feel to it and it’s hard, looking back, for me to really feel that it actually happened. There were many good things, but the underlying theme was one of feeling unsettled and disconnected. This is the same trip that we’ve taken for, gosh eight or nine years now. All of the families involved are, or used to be, ones that we were close to. But we moved away from all of them quite a while ago now. And for most this is the one time of year that we see them. Time marches on. They all see each other regularly and many new families have joined the group. We’ve been replaced many times over and really we are just an afterthought now, if we’re thought of at all. Each year I feel like we’ve been more and more removed and this year the whole family felt it keenly. As Galen said, when he came back to our campsite, dejected, on our first evening there, “No one remembers me.” It’s not that our old friends no longer care for us, or vice versa, it’s just that our lives don’t relate to each other the way that they once did.

Add to that the fact that this is the second time that I’ve come home from this particular trip with Lyme Disease and I think this may well have been our last year. At least for a while. Just last year I was musing about how long this tradition would go on. I suspect it will continue on for a very long time. We just may no longer be a part of it, which is something I hadn’t really considered. This yearly trip has been a large part of our lives. Letting go isn’t something that I do well and I confess, I’m struggling with this. We had a really good thing going while it lasted.