Summer musings

Hey, remember that summer when your cousins -- Big S and Little S-- came up to Whidbey?  

With crayons and stickers you made that box into a rocket ship.  

You three played fat-bat, and hit the ball over the bluff.

Later, you went with your dad out in the kayak for the very first time ever, and helped him throw the crab trap.  You dug clams, and found oysters.  We picked cherries.  It was grand. 

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And hey, you.  The tiny one with the big smiles.  

Do you remember stretching out on a towel in the shade, on the beach with the aspen trees and eagles flowering the sky above your glassy eyes? 

And snug against mom's chest in the carrier, snoozing to the warm steady beat of her footsteps, out through the eel grass, through the tide pools, and the sun on your bucket hat.  

Everything was warm.  

Uncles, Aunts, Grandparents, cousins-- all holding you, on the deck, in the living room, in the big chairs, and under the trees.