......Montauk's rapture.....

......I'm not sure I have ever seen traffic like I have in NYC.....if there is one highway down, it backs up bridges, tunnels and ramps leading to crazy city madness......or madness within one's car and that was us on Friday......

......two hours into our trip and we were still just 14 miles from home......not even crawling traffic....more like inching every 15 minutes......both DVDs we had for the girls were scratched and wouldn't play, the books had been read, I was already through all of my snacks, even my trump card snack- the lollypop.....I was even out of stickers.....we were in trouble.....

......after convincing Stefan I could't make it one second longer, we pulled off into a quiet neighborhood in Queens and found the perfect area to play....

.....the girls ran around, popped in to say hi to some locals at Dunkin' Donuts, browsed through a drug store and made their grand entrance at a diner requesting some fresh pancakes and cheesy eggs.....what a find.....

....full bellies and happy to be free,  our girls did not want to get back into those car seats......

....especially Elsie.....

.....even after another 4 hours in the car, any stress, tension or angst washed away with the sounds of the Montauk waves crashing into the shore......

......and my Florida roots come back the instant my feet sink into the sand......the first breath of salty air, the first spray of sticky mist in my hair....the ocean captivates me every time......and urges me home....

......if it weren't for Stefan,  Callie would have kept running right into the water....

.....she has no fear of the ocean....

.....or the sand....

....or the pool....

.....or of getting downright messy.....

....it's one of the first traits I noticed about my youngest little.....she does everything to her fullest or she won't do it at all.....there is no happy medium with her.....she's an all or nothing soul....one extreme or the other....

.....her passion, enthusiasm and charisma have added a spark to our family that has blazed us with gratification and euphoric joy....there's no one like her....

.....and then there's Elsie....

.....we searched for smooth rocks and stones for a long time.....and once I left to keep Daddy company, she was just as thrilled to do it herself and compile her own magnificent collection.....she was set free and found her own tranquility next to the sea......

.....she has a thirst for new experiences and basks in the moment.....she thinks and feels deeply.....a combination of intellect with emotion....

......she melts my heart repeatedly.....

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.....the weekend crept on......it was not only full of beaches, pools, ice cream, light houses, stuffed shrimp, lazy nap times, playgrounds and BBQ.......but loaded and squeezed to the gills of family time.....

......little glimpses of my girls bring me back to childhood....memories of constantly having wet pigtails, always laughing, always playing....pretending to be a mermaid in the pool, holding my breath as long as I could under water, practicing gymnastics in the front yard, selling limes, lemonade or making some money by giving neighborhood strangers a car wash on our driveway...... 

.....I'm so blessed to have such happy memories....such loving parents, brothers who were my playmates and who are now my friends....I want my girls to have the same enchanted memories....

.....I have been so inspired recently to suck the life out of every minute.....to inhale all the joy I am blessed with, to taste each moment and treat it like the best thing that has ever hit my palette.....I'm naturally built to exude high energy...... and with that comes fast paced thinking, fast paced moving, fast everything.....so I have to make a conscious effort to slow down.....to let things roll off my back, to be leisurely and unhurried.....life already passes by way too fast.....so I am working on it.....

.....Stefan and Callie were a glimpse of self reflection for me.....I want to be more serene.....more unruffled.....oh, the little stretches we try to make to be better at what we do and who we are.....without our benchmarks to strive for, we wouldn't grow....

......oh, and I want to sleep so hard that I have bed head like this.....

.....but I am appreciating and loving our family time.....adoring late nights over wine and conversation with Stefan.....loving the discussions of "let's do this over the summer" or "let's go here"....."what if we did this or that" or "what would happen if " or "how would you feel if".........dreaming....planning.....savoring.....

.....and doing it all as slowly as I can.....