Woohoo, summers by the beach...here we come!!

Well, the first set of big news is that my parents bought a beach house!! Apparently, they want to be near their grandchildren or something and figured that although they are only a short flight away, that was just not close enough to their most favorite (and only, mind you) grandsons!! And as excited as I am about this news, I have a feeling that my parents, well, my mom in particular is even more excited...

You see, my mom was born and raised on Long Island, NY and grew up living near the beach and all it had to offer. And although she moved away many, many years ago (no that was NOT a dig at her age!!), she has never lost her love for the ocean, and has in fact, passed on her love of all things "beachy" to me. In all the locations that I have lived in my life, I have never been very close to the water, I could always drive to it, but I wouldn't say I lived on or near the water once in my life...but yet, I have such an affinity for the ocean and the whole lifestyle that the beach propagates. This is so true that I refuse to let myself be "land-locked" and will not live in a state that is not touching the ocean somewhere. Living in Pittsburgh was as far as I ever wanted to be from the water, and although Lake Erie is huge and feels like an ocean, it's just not quite the same thing.

And while I thank my mother for giving me such a preference for the ocean, I was also so secretly jealous that she had the childhood growing up on the the water that I never had. Here she was telling me how fabulous it was to live near the ocean, but I never got to experience it for myself (Good ole Newark, DE didn't have much in the way of an oceanic lifestyle, meaning it didn't have ANY) in the way that she did. My mom always made sure we went on beach vacations, but it just wasn't the same as that idyllic childhood she had recited to me about clam digging and fishing when she was a kid and life guarding when she was older.

But now I owe my mom a big fat THANK YOU, because now my boys will have the experiences that she once did...and I can live vicariously through them, since that's what parents do :) So, although the boys don't know the magnitude of this exciting opportunity, I am glad they won't need to...living by the beach is going to just be part of their childhood and memories just like it was with my mom. What a wonderful gift to give your grandchildren, memories that will last long into their old age, thanks Mom :)

So, here are some pictures of our new digs...hopefully, I am not jinxing anything by posting this, so everyone please send good house inspection vibes our way!

Front of the House
Side of the house that faces the ocean
Back of the house, on the deck
View of the ocean from upstairs
Our Beach (he he, love saying that!)

I am so looking forward to having lots of visitors, so please clear your calendars for next summer...we got some beachin' to do!