By the ocean

That’s my mother in the photo, walking along the beach. Growing up, she spent her summers down the shore, which gave her a lifelong love of the ocean. I took this photo on the very last weekend of September. That’s the weekend that my mother and I drove across the state, through Big City Like No Other, and out to Long Island to visit my youngest sister, her husband, and their twin baby girls. 

We managed to hit some lovely summer-like weather, and our visit included not just a walk on the beach, but a swim in the salty water that had retained the summer heat. But the best part of the weekend was simply spending time with the twins. At three months old, they’ve plumped up into the most adorable little girls ever. All weekend, my mother would take one baby, and I’d take the other, and we’d make funny noises just to watch the babies laugh and smile. I know no better way to spend my time.

Even though my sister and her husband did look exhausted (twins!), they also still looked like a couple who had stepped out of a glamour magazine. My sister is thin and beautiful, and somehow surviving on practically no sleep. Her husband, who has become an expert on all things baby with pretty much no prior experience, found the time to make us delicious Middle Eastern food (he knows I’m vegan, which makes it the perfect meal for me) which he served by candlelight, complete with jazz playing softly in the background and cloth napkins, on Saturday evening after the babies had gone to bed for the evening.

My mother and I spent the whole long drive home talking about how much we loved those babies and what a great time we'd had.