Last year, I spent all summer looking forward to our Labor Day beach weekend. I was thrilled to be finally fulfilling my dream of renting a beach house and filling it with my favorite people. But a hurricane came, and while we still had a wonderful time, we did a little less beach sitting than I had hoped for.

This year, we managed to make it back to the same beach house for a full week. It was so special to go back to someplace that we have been before, someplace marked with memories of Henry’s newborn months. It was a revolving door of friends and family joining us that week, and the first weekend some DC friends and my brother and his wife came down with us. SANDY BEACH BUMS. The best type of bum.This kid is impossibly lucky in the aunt and uncle department. This little one was not sure how he felt about the ocean and the sand. Sometimes, he loved it, charging at the waves and happily eating sand. Other moments, the whole thing scared him. We are at that stage now where he bravely takes on the world… but often reaches back blindly for me, just to know I’m there while he conquers. I love it.He probably ate a whole watermelon over the course of the week, and stole everyone’s water bottle at least once. I am beyond obsessed with the Eastern shore. The stretch of Maryland and Delaware  from the Chesapeake to the Atlantic is just impossibly magic to me. So many tiny towns, tasty eats, pretty farms, and just the perfect blend of beauty and charm. It doesn’t have the tacky commercial quality of so many beach areas, and you could almost forget you are driving to the coast until it just appears in front of you. It’s also kind of a hidden gem. People in the mid Atlantic love it, but I hadn’t ever heard of this area until I moved here. People flock to the southern beaches and leave this area a treasure.You need to go back to last year to see the pics of Hank and Ava as tiny little squishes, something that feels impossible, since they are both active toddlers.We don’t let him eat ice cream much, but when we do, it is an EVENT. Bethany Beach has the most darling little boardwalk, complete with the best coconut shrimp ever and some really tasty fish tacos. We tried the Rehoboth boardwalk last year, only to be totally overwhelmed by how big and crowded it was and how hard it was to park and find each other. Bethany is smaller, and with better parking and seating. Henry spent forever running around, approaching strangers and sizing them up for snacks, only to move on or grin and beg as the occasion required. Watching him fall in love with this world and get excited about all the people in it is the best.Everyone other than our family and one friend left Monday night… but the second wave of beach fun arrived Tuesday. Stay tuned!