Snippet of Summer so far...

In between plenty of hours logged at work, Mr. Heat and I have been lucky to spend a good bit of time so far this Summer enjoying the beach. A good portion of that bit of time was consumed at Hilton Head, which, in my not-very-well-traveled opinion, is heaven on Earth. The in-between times have been spent locally at Wrightsville Beach, which we've discovered {likely because we are getting OLD, impatient, and exceptionally persnickety} is only really enjoyable if you have a beach club membership that allows for convenient parking at a section of the beach away from the raucous tattooed rap-music-loving college crowd.

Note: We have no such beach club membership. But we do have very sweet and accepting friends who do have memberships and love us even though we don't. Did I mention we don't have a beach club membership? Yeah, we're lame and we don't have a beach club membership. But we soldier on...

Most stand-out memory of this Summer so far: In Hilton Head, Mr. Heat and I took an after dinner walk on the beach, away from the light pollution of the mainland, and searched the sky for constellations. We spotted Orion and the Dippers and then we spotted a family of 5 with flashlights giggling and scurrying around in the sand, looking for ghost crabs. The oldest kid in the family was at that perfect age -- not yet old enough to start pulling away from his family, not yet looking around for other kids his age and worrying about looking cool in front of them, not yet having a teenage attitude that sort of spoils the spirit of things for the younger kids -- and he was leading the charge, his younger brother and sister leaping with excitement and running after him with their flashlights. The parents were in heaven, holding hands and leaning on each other while watching their brood make ghost crab memories they will all remember and talk about for years to come. And Mr. Heat and I got all sad and sentimental... recounting that those times -- those special moments of childhood and making sweet Summertime memories with our parents and siblings all together on vacation, no distractions, no schedule conflicts, no work commitments -- go by in a blink. A blink. Where did they go?

In no time, that oldest brother will be focused on girls and his friends, and then, inevitably college. And I just thought, man, those parents and those siblings have no idea how short this time will be. They have no idea how much, as years roll along, they will miss these moments. Those kids have no idea how much, as grown-up versions of themselves, they will look back and ache to again be that child chasing ghost crabs with that family again. And they will realize that the only way to get these times back is to have their own children and make these memories happen for their own brood.