When we were kids, we spent many holidays with The Hawkins family.  I remember several Memorial Day weekends spent at the lake when we were in junior high and high school.  To celebrate some of the first warm days around, Jean, Katie and I would dedicate the first day of our long weekend to getting really tan.  As if that's something you can do in one day, especially if you are young women from Minnesota/Wisconsin and naturally fair skinned. 

I remember one year very clearly.  We went down to the dock with all of our supplies - my boom box (with Poison's Look What the Cat Dragged In securely in the tape deck), baby oil (SPF anything was far too strong), and lemons to try to put natural-looking highlights in the dark brown hair we all had.  We spent the whole day out there, coming in only to check our tan lines in the bathroom mirror.  Around late afternoon, I remember feeling a little itchy.  I came in and took a shower, and that's when the all-body skin throbbing began.  By bedtime, I wanted to cry.  My light cotton clothing felt like it was scraping my skin off and I was the color of a fully cooked lobster.  I can't remember if Jean or Katie got as fried as I did, probably because all those hours in the sun cooked my brain.

Katie and Jean, I thought of you many times this weekend as I loaded up my kids with SPF 45.  Obviously they've inherited my coloring:

I mean, he's pretty pale, but I think there must have been something funny in the lighting when I took this picture.  He looks blue!  And he wasn't cold, it was 96 when I took this shot.


I guess they're really just pretty pale.  Much like their mother.

I must be maturing a little and finally learning from my sunburning experiences.  We were outside all weekend and none of us are crispy anywhere.  For the first time in my life, I was able to apply sunscreen evenly and no one has red tiger stripes.  Yet.  There's always tomorrow.