Here’s me with seven of my favorite people in the world. We all share a last name. As for first names, it goes like this: Jason, Natalie, Josh, Becca, Erin, Jeremy, Rick, and Cheri.
Well. One of the best weeks of my summer has come to an end. July 4th has come and gone, and so has my time with the Manns. For those of you who don’t know, Jeremy and I got to spend one week–Sunday to Sunday–in Stinson Beach with the Manns for a Mann family vaca and the marrying off of the last Mann bro. We stayed in an octagonal beach house on Stinson Beach Bay.
We slept in, drank coffee in the mornings, explored the bay by various forms of seacraft, spent time in San Fransisco, met new friends, saw new places, hung out with extended fam, and partied down at a BOMB wedding. The views were beautiful, the food was good, the weather was nice, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium was worth writing home about. But by far the worst thing about driving away was leaving the Manns.
Here’s the thing. I love my in-laws. Who loves their in-laws? Ok ok, I think there are probably lots of other people in the world who love their in-laws. At least I hope so. But do they enjoy them so much that they really want to hang out with them for greatly extended periods of time? Because let me tell you, when I left Stinson Beach, I had not had enough Mann time.
I guess since we don’t get to see each other terribly often, these short vacations make for compacted times of quality connection. It’s like we have one week to live out six months we don’t normally get to be together. The time we have is precious and short, so little of it is wasted. Every moment feels to me like a unique opportunity to dive into each others’ lives, get to know one another, and soak up all the QT we can. It’s great. But it always leaves me wishing we didn’t all live in such different universes so far from one another.
It didn’t quite hit me until the last day how neat it was to be a real completed Mann clan. The bride and groom called us just in time for lunch before we headed out of town on Sunday, so we got to hang out one last time: Rick and Cheri with the boys and their wives. We were it. This was the fam I’d have on this side for the rest of my life. And what a fam it is.
erin emmalee 
[Insert sad face yet also grateful face here] Well-written sis. That was incredibly special and, as always, too short. I’ve been feeling a little of the post vacay blues and your post hit the spot. Thanks for coming and making it so much fun, I already miss ya! 🙂
Let me say, I was excited to see a new post up today! I’ve been missing reading them. Anyway, sounds like you had a wonderful little vaca with the Manns!
Erin. I love this post. I love you. I’m so thankful for you and for our relationship. What a blast it was to spend time together all week. You are so refreshing to be around! I can’t wait to see you at Thanksgiving!
Yay! Another amazing Erin blog post! I love reading these and hearing your thoughts. You do have an incredible family and what a blessing to spend that time with them.
Erin, You are the best! You bring great fun and energy to the Mann Family. It is great having a little better gender balance to balance out all the guys.
this may come in as a late comment to your post…i also am happy and blessed to have great in-laws…it’s the very thing that every girl could wish for after she has found the perfect guy…;)