This. This is summer. PB&Js and cookies at the water’s edge with your best friends. Swimming for hours, getting sand and seaweed in every single crevice, and taking a car nap on the way home while the AC tries to cool down sweaty, sunscreen-sticky bodies. This is the summer I grew up with. I was raised on the shores of Lake Huron—and while this isn’t the same beach, we’re on Lake Michigan now (bigger, colder, west side of the state), the feeling is the same. Being in the sun, sand, and water takes me right back to childhood… except now I’m on the other side of it. I’m the mom. The snack packer. The sunscreen applier. The unofficial lifeguard. The one counting heads as they pop up from the waves and yelling “stay where I can see you!” every 10 minutes. And honestly? I’m living my best life. Matching swimsuits with my best friend, planted in our matching Tommy Bahama chairs (thank you Mother’s Day hubbies), Dr Pepper in hand (supplied by the friend who actually remembers things), and teaching our kids how to build drip castles like it’s a sacred rite of summer. If a perfect day exists—this was it. Even if I’m still pulling seaweed out of my hair on the drive home. Swimsuit is old Old Navy! LTKStyleTip LTKSwim LTKFindsUnder50