A Week on Martha’s Vineyard

Sooo I mentioned earlier in the week that I spent last week on Martha’s Vineyard with my family. Are you ready to be absolutely bombarded with pictures? (Pictures that I shamelessly stole from my dad.)

My parents live in the Boston area, and we’ve been going to Martha’s Vineyard for a week every summer for as long as I can remember. It’s one of my favorite family traditions, and this was the first year Nate got to join!

(So of course we got matching hats.)

We were there with my parents, my two sisters, and my sister’s husband. I don’t have a good picture of all of us, but here are just the “kids.”

Both my sisters live in North Carolina, so I only get to see them a couple times a year – usually at Christmas and on Martha’s Vineyard. Being so far away from them is by far the worst part of being an adult! Spending a whole week together is the best, and I look forward to it all year long.

A week on the beach with my family looks a lot like this: Wake up. Go on a run. Eat breakfast. Prepare lunch for the beach. Bike to the beach. Lie in the sun. Eat lunch. Walk down the beach. Lie in the sun. Bike home from the beach. Shower. Drink beer. Cook dinner. Read. Sleep. Wake up and do it all over again! It is pretty much perfection.

I was a little worried Nate wouldn’t be able to handle lying around in the hot sun all day… not his thing. Luckily it was breezy and not too hot, so the beach was the perfect temperature the whole week. And with all the running and biking, it was an active enough vacation for him. I think he fell in love with the Vineyard as much as I already am. I mean come on…

How could you not love this place?

I definitely had a moment early in the week, lying on the beach in the middle of the day, when I realized I would usually be at work right then… and that therefore everyday I was at work at that time, I was missing out on being on the beach! I immediately started plotting an early retirement… early as in age 28.

My adorable sister Alban reading on the beach :)

One afternoon we entertained ourselves with a family headstand contest. We never act weird in public or anything…

I initiated this but was totally the worst at it! Nate loves that he can pop up into a headstand more easily than I can, even though I’ve been practicing yoga for years and he’s been to one class. I guess he’s just a natural :)

After the beach we relaxed, drank beer, cooked dinner, and enjoyed each other’s company. It’s so nice to have all of us under one roof! Amazing to think we took it for granted all those years growing up.

True, we didn’t have the boys in the house then. I think my dad is thrilled to finally have some men on his family vacations!

We had one rainy day – a requirement for any beach vacation. It was perfectly placed in the middle of the week when we needed a break from the sun. Also conveniently on the same day as the farmer’s market.

We picked up some fresh veggies for dinners the rest of the week, and I couldn’t help but take a picture of these cute intertwined carrots:

Lovey dovey little carrots are the cutest!

We also stopped by the town hall to apply for our marriage license. You know, some carrots and a marriage license… just your typical errands for the day!

Applying for the marriage license was actually a little anti-climactic because the three-day waiting period in Massachusetts meant we couldn’t pick it up yet. I had somehow misunderstood the guidelines when I read them online, thinking we could pick it up that day but just not use it for three days. Oh well – at least we did it far enough in advance that it doesn’t matter too much. We’ll have it in plenty of time for the big day!

Also, the marriage license cost $4. What?! I keep joking that the actual marriage is the cheapest part of our wedding! No but really.

Because we’re not all together too often (and also because my sisters and I love summer dresses), a few photo shoots are always a must while we’re on the Vineyard.

Sisters!

My cute parents making fun of those of us who put our arms out in pictures.

My beautiful sister Caitlin and her husband Ben!

Boys being boys…

Did I mention we liked our new hats?

All the kids.

Sisters again. This picture has me rethinking my #backlitisbetter claim from a few weeks ago… hello flyaways! I kind of look like a lion. In a… summery, illuminated way?

But let’s not forget the food and drink… it certainly wouldn’t be a vacation (in my family, at least!) without them!

We went to a new brewery called Bad Martha’s several times, and bought growlers from there to drink back at the house. After drinking 4% beer on tap in Utah all the time, getting good beer is one of the things we look forward to most about traveling! And Bad Martha’s is amazing. It’s located in/next to a nursery (for plants, not children!), so there are beautiful gardens all around. Sitting outside there was so relaxing… just the thing after a strenuous day lying on the beach :)

We also got fudge, a family tradition. Nate wasn’t a huge fan (and I admit I like it less as I get older), but I don’t know if the day will ever come when I can pass up a piece of chocolate peanut butter fudge.

Also I had this delicious salad… which I posted about on Tuesday! It was yumm-ay.

Last but not least, we cooked a lot. In this picture I’m making roasted summer squash pasta. I have to say it was almost better eaten cold on the beach the next day as more of a pasta salad. We doubled the recipe and it made an enormous amount!

Eating, working out, and lying in the sun are what my family does best.

Not only was it just lovely to get to see my family, but it was great for Nate and I to get away together. I don’t know if the two of us have ever taken such a long vacation together, totally carefree. Not like we have so many demands on us in our day-to-day lives, but somehow we still needed the quality time together. Our usual “quality time” consists of sitting on the same couch (OK sometimes different couches) while one person tries to get some work done, the other watches TV, and the dirty dinner dishes lurk in the background. This was very different. I felt like we had not a care in the world!

Not that I needed any reassurance, but having such a great, relaxing time together made me even more excited to get married next month.

The other wonderful part is that we’re coming back to the Vineyard the day after our wedding. We’re going to spend a few nights there as a “minimoon” since we’re not taking our real honeymoon until the winter… and the thought of returning to work on Monday after getting married on Saturday makes me want to cry. Actually, the thought of returning to work at all after the Vineyard makes me want to cry, but postponing it is always a good thing. And it’s easier to leave when I know I’m coming back soon.

Sigh. I’m ready to be back there right now!