Party of Five: Best Week EVAAAAAH-A

By now you know that we visit the Cape multiple times a summer. Weekend trips. Long weekends. And the week plus trips. I love each visit for different reasons...but by far one of my favorite times to go to the Cape is when the Tannenbaums visit.

As a child, my cousin Karen would come visit me during summer break. As we got older, she would stay one or two weeks with my family and I would stay with hers. We did vacations together, stayed home and just caught up on what we had done in the year since we had seen each other. We were in the same grade. We liked a lot of the same things. And we ALWAYS found time to laugh.

After college, Karen and her (now) husband Mike lived in New York City. We would see them multiple times a year and they frequently made weekend road trips to Northborough to visit. Right before Karen and Mike moved to the west coast, they had a beautiful little girl- Leah. That was 5 years ago.

Now instead of seeing them so frequently, we have one week long trip each summer where we meet at the Cape.

Leah, Remy and Jack with their animals/doll and new outfits.

Leah and Remy are the same age. Will be in the same grade. And like a lot of the same things. This past week, Remy waited for Leahs arrival in much the same way I did as a child...."When will she be here? When is cousin Leah coming???" As soon as the Tannenbaums pulled into the driveway, Remy ran out, full speed. Leah had her window down and was yelling her "Helloooo's" out of it.

I ran out to see Karen- still the same way as always. Full speed, ready for a hug and prepared for the fun to begin.

And it did.

Remy and Leah doing a puzzle.

Karen, Mike, Dana and I spent many many nights laughing. We re-told the same, possibly not-so-funny-to-some jokes over and over. We did lots of kid friendly things during the day. We ate like Kings. We enjoyed time with my parents, our children and each other.

Jay arrived on Thursday night to join the fun. We stayed up singing Karaoke. We introduced Dana to the wonderful Hot Toddy. We laughed and laughed (do you sense a theme here?).

On Friday, we took Karen, Mike and Leah on the boat. We made a trip to Hyannis and stopped for some lunch. To say that the seas were rough would be an understatement. Luckily for me, I had Captain Jay to navigate us through and my cousin to make me laugh and forget about my seasickness.

On Saturday, we had planned for a few more cousins to come over to celebrate the Tannenbaums visit. By then, Auntie Liz had also arrived. We had lots of fun events planned. Good food to eat (Mike makes the best bbq ribs EVA) and yummy drinks. We took the kids to the beach. Let them play in the sprinkler. Had a late night fire and laughed and laughed.

The Conti, Tannenbaum and Logan Cousins...back of the truck..great idea by Dex.

This morning, Jay and I left to get our kids home and a few things done around the house. The entire drive home, I thought about how lucky I am to have Karen visit. How fortunate that we are best of friends. How ironic that Remy and Leah are the same age and get to see each other every summer. How blessed that she married Mike- whom we love to death. How great that all of the little cousins have so much fun together. (Jack, Nate, remy, Elliott and Leah). The Tannenbaums annual summer visit is everything that I love about my extended family and summer!

My other favorite parts of the week...waking up early morning and hanging out with Nate, Elliott and Dana. Connecting with all my Logan cousins. Seeing my parents so happy and relaxed.