Slavins Visit!

Our dear friends the Slavins came to visit this week. They drove down and spent Sunday-Thursday with us in South Carolina. 2 families; 6 kids; 1 beach house; lots of fun.

Visiting the Lowcountry is like visiting another land. There is so much to explore. And for kids, especially, it is a really magical, distant, mysterious place. There is an endless wealth of new things to look at and learn about. Life — of all sorts — is teeming everywhere. The air feels different. The food tastes different. The sounds are different. And even the light looks different. Coming from “up north,” you feel like you’ve been transported to some unfamiliar place that is calm and easy, yet rugged and jolting all at the same time. You can’t help but get swept up in it, even if just a little bit. And it is fun to be able to do that with each other.

We have a tradition of spending New Year’s Eve with the Slavins. But we don’t usually get the chance to spend more time than that together each year. So, it was very special to have this time together, in a whole different place for us all, and to be able to string a few days together as a group of 10 in the sunny southern summer (as opposed to our snowy northern New Years Eves).

Jen and I were college roommates. Our kids all know that about us. I think they know there is something really different and special about our friendship– something that goes beyond time, distance, and years of change. We are deep-down, long-term, in-it-for-the-long-haul friends. I love that about us. We’ve embraced each other’s husbands and kids. And we’ve embraced each other’s evolutions over the past two decades. We don’t sit around reminiscing about our college days (at least not much), we are — truly — in the here and now.

Meera took these pictures — Jen and me drinking iced coffee on the beach one afternoon. These pictures are sooo unflattering (!! something about the angle?! Or, God forbid?!, do we really look this way as we embark on our 20th-college-reunion-year?!). (Let me apologize to you for posting these Jen, and please, let me assure you publicly here: IN REAL LIFE you are a hot Mama!)… But still, despite how truly unflattering they are, I love these photos. Because they show us as seen through the eyes of one of our 5-year-old daughters. And we’re looking pretty good through those eyes! We can only hope that our kids have such great college roommates as we did. We can only hope our kids make life-long friends that stick it out with them through thick and thin. This is real life friendship.

Highlights of the week (in addition to creme brûlée iced coffee on the beach with one of my best friends in the whole wide world) include:

Lots of time on Hunting Island beach; boogie boarding; collecting sharks teeth; diving for sand dollars; catching fish and crabs in the beach tide pools; lots of meals together; a dinner out with a table for ten; dance parties in the beach house; golf cart expeditions; alligators, turtles, fiddler crabs, hermit crabs, blue crabs, snakes, “dogfish sharks”, fish; first ginger ales! cheers!; visits to the Hunting Island Marsh Boardwalk, the Hunting Island Nature Center, The Penn Center, The Red Piano Too Art Gallery; a night out for Jen & Anthony and a great night in with all six kids for Heather & Braydon; a ridiculous amount of art production from the little girls; bonding over the barbie/grill; the kids playing playing playing; the adults talking talking talking; a lot of downtime together.

The best part of the past week was being able to have fun with our kids. It was such fun for our kids. But it was also such fun for us. It was fun to do it all together.

Next time we’re going to do a super-high-end luxury all-inclusive resort with a day spa (I’m making that executive decision! LOL! oh-my-goodness-6-kids-is-a-lot-of-work!!! the food alone!!!!!! let alone the lugging of all the beach stuff!! plus… we can’t fit all ten of us in one car– not even Braydon’s Loser Cruiser Minivan.). But… I wouldn’t have given up the past week for anything.

Thank you Slavins. Thank you for making the very long drive (with an 8 year old, 5 year old, and 1 year old!!!!!!!). Thank you for spending your vacation time with us. Thank you for friendship that withstands time and space and six kids and everything else. Thank you for the laughs. Thank you. We love you five. xo, ~the five J-Ms