After our first beach weekend with a bunch of DC friends and family, the rest of the week was spent with my three best friends from middle and high school. Susannah lives out here in the DC area, and when she and I decided to photograph a wedding in exchange for a week at this beach house, we instantly knew we wanted to invite Megan and Rachel to come join us.

We used to dream about vacationing together when we were grownup. We would sit around in high school and imagine what life would look like and automatically assume that of course, we would still be friends, and of course, we would all love each other’s families, and obviously, we would find a way to take trips together. In 2013, three of us managed to slip away to the beach, but a lot has happened in the past 4 years. Marriages and babies and careers and moves and disappointments and joys. It was time for another beach trip.

We spent a lot of energy trying to find good beach donuts, something like these that James and I loved in Florida a couple years ago. I’ll be honest- donuts might be the only department where the Eastern Shore is lacking for me. We had lots of delicious ones, but I am a devoted yeast donut girl and all the local places boasted only cake ones. Is there a magic yeast donut place I missed?This boy was in heaven following after Susannah’s older girls. He was not always in heaven at the actual beach, as the sand and waves were sometimes overwhelming. But one day we dug a big hole, and all three kids were enthralled, even if they were not exactly helpful. Henry didn’t actually get in the water much, as those waves were intense. It was almost impossible to venture in without being thrown about and dragged through the sand. I was taken out so hard on the first day, that I couldn’t hear at all out of one ear and assumed it was swimmers ear. When it wouldn’t go away, I finally spent a morning in urgent care, only to find out that the wave had knocked me so hard that it had compacted all my ear wax and completely clogged an ear. I spent forever getting both ears irrigated which was a) disgusting and b) totally fascinating. One night we snapped some family pics at the boardwalk, and I shared some of the best-worst ones here. Love these ladies more than any blog post could ever express. That’s my kid, always up for crashing other people’s photos if he thinks there might be snacks. Truly, he is flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood. Last year we managed to end our time with these three on a couch together… and that proved a little more difficult this year, as toddler attitudes are a fickle and changing thing. This was the best we could manage, and I still love it:Our week was a wonderfully repetitive cycle punctuated with the foods that marked our childhood. We loaded up on toaster strudels and convinced Megan to make (several times) her bruschetta. We would stand around the bowl, shoveling spoonfuls of bright tomatoes onto the toasts, juice dripping down our chins.

It’s funny, how it is with old friends. We had planned on going out one night, just us ladies, leaving the dads home with the kids. But it didn’t happen. We were tired in the evening, knew that early mornings were coming, and honestly, I would rather have bruschetta and toaster strudels anyways. It’s how our friendship tastes.  With old friends, the best thing to do is to slide back into old and comfortable ways and find out they still fit. We did slip out during naptime each day, just us four. We enjoyed time at the beach without kids to slather in sunscreen and entertain in the sand. We swam for hours, beaten back by the waves and talking about life over the surf. We would head back to the house when babies woke up, for another round of the snacks we have been eating together long enough to know that some things never change.

Megan’s Bruschetta

Combine-

• Diced tomatoes, whatever is good in the summer, Roma in the winter
• Lots of fresh basil, cut intil thin ribbons
• Fresh garlic, crushed
• Glug good quality olive oil
• Glug balsamic vinegar
• Handful freshly grated parmesan or romano cheese
• Pinch dried oregano
• Sea salt
• Pinch pepper

Toast-

• French baguette, sliced into thin rounds
• Rub with garlic clove after toasted

Spoon tomato mixture on bread or chicken or directly into your mouth. Excellent alongside a cream cheese toaster strudel.