Other than spring break: We took a couple of summer trips, one to New York and one to Destin, Florida. The New York trip found us at the beach on Long Island for a week in late June. Not a "tour" like last summer -- this was just to Pt. Lookout with a day trip to see AM's cousin and family on Fire Island; we didn't even rent a car. It was definitely summer already in Texas, but not really so much up there. The weather was a little iffy and the beach was not crowded at all. The girls were freaked out each afternoon when the school busses brought the kids back home from school: "Oh my God, I can't believe they're still in school! How horrible!" Of course, those kids are still on summer break weeks after the Texas crowd is back in school at the other end of the summer. No trip into the city this time (perhaps a lingering effect of having lost Mary at Disneyland -- doing so in NYC would be a whole lot scarier); maybe next time the kids will be big enough for that. I actually flew back midweek for work, but Anne Marie and the girls stayed until the next weekend and got to see AM's sister Rosemary and her son Connor.

We also made a trip in July to see my brother Shawn and family in Fairhope, Alabama, and for a short midweek side trip with them at the Sandestin Resort in Destin, Florida. That was a driving trip, which was a good thing. Our girls have always been good airplane travelers (each made their first plane trip before their first birthday), but starting with the admittedly horrible flight back from spring break this year, Ellen has some fear of flying. We'll see how she fares over spring break 2007, when we'll be flying to Colorado, but I think it's just a phase she's going through. Anyway, we boated with Shawn and Paula, I did some kayaking, we fished, I played some golf, we swam in the Gulf and in the pools at Sandestin, and had a generally relaxing time. And we ate. A lot. When we returned to Fairhope from Sandestin, my sister Leanne (semi-permanently stationed outside London but on a 9-month assignment to North Carolina with her company) and her dog Dougal drove down to spend the weekend with us (er, I'm assuming Leanne drove and Dougal just rode along). Highlights included shopping for the ladies and my breaking of and rebuilding Katie's birdhouse. And watching the kids play DDR. And checking out Shawn and Paula's almost-not-quite-barely-finished beautiful new house.