i vant my polo

After spending a day at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg waiting for the Outer Banks to recover from Irene, our group of three families was finally heading for the beach. Kim emerged from our hotel room wearing his pink polo with a popped collar. It didn't look bad, but I couldn't resist teasing him a little, so I asked, "Did you mean to pop your collar this morning?" He smiled and shot me a look. As we climbed into the car where the girls had been waiting Lauren said,

"Dad, you look like a pink dracula." It was so unprovoked and so perfect. We shared one of those big, family laughs that happen so rarely and are so much fun.

Before we left the parking lot we let all the kids draw on our row of minivans with window markers. Ours was covered with big yellow suns, and the words, "Yay!" and "We're going to the beach!" Ella wrote, "Sun and Fun are the only rules!" I added the customary, "OBX or BUST." And right there on Kim's driver side window, in Lauren's handwriting, pink letters spelled out: "Our dad is a pnk dracule."

The girls had the giggles for miles.