Fare Thee Well, Summer - Part I.

It’s always hard to say goodbye, but ready or not the end is here.  The stores are shoving Halloween in our faces, my email inbox is filled to the brim with soccer schedules and back-to-school nights.  Sigh.  It’s been a good one, and I am sad to see it end, but I am looking forward to the chance for a new routine and a fresh start. 

We’ve had some fun times these last few weeks.  Last weekend we had a family reunion with my Dad’s family.  I think there were 75 of us?  LOTS of people, I don’t envy all my aunts and uncles who planned it and all those who did the meals.  We came up a day late and met the group at the lake for some boating and fun in the sun.  Not one little picture of that so just trust me, it was fun, the boats were slow and the tubes were nice and big so it was perfect for the kids.  Ben got on for about 30 seconds and didn’t enjoy one of those seconds.  The three big kids had a blast though.  There was also a giant water trampoline that they loved.   This particular lake is manmade and evidently they decided to make it in a rock quarry.  Seriously, the rockiest place ever, but we had good company, boats, sun and good food so it was fun, fun, fun.

That night we got the kids settled and my cousins and siblings all got together til the wee hours of the morning.   There’s nothing I love more than chatting and laughing with people I love.

Saturday morning we ate breakfast and started packing up.  Brennan and several other Dad’s were trying to take the kids swimming while I got our stuff pulled together before we had to checkout at 11.  The pool didn’t open til 10 and when it did, we discovered it’s adult swim only til noon.  IS that the dumbest thing you’ve ever heard of?????  So we packed everything up and figured out what to do with the next few hours til we need to meet at a park for lunch.  My parents, siblings, us, and all the kids headed into town to walk around and get some ice-cream.

 

I have to say that this particular famous town that’s only about 45 minutes away from our house is lame.  I’ve been there many times, but I guess mostly without my kids.  I was so unimpressed by all the impatient looks we got at little ones in their way on the sidewalk and just plain rudeness.  My Dad was trying to take a picture of them on this bench and one man who could have easily stepped off the sidewalk and gone around walked right up to my Dad and impatiently waited for him to move.   How can you see a Grandpa doting over his darling grandkids and be so clueless?????   Rude people are the worst. 

I digress.  We then met up with the big old group for a yummy lunch and a big huge soccer game.  Brennan and the big kids played and loved it.  I chased Joshy around and enjoyed chatting with some aunts and cousins.  We drove home very tired, but grateful our we were able to give our kids such a fun weekend at the end of their summer.  Thanks so much Ally and Jan for all your hard work!

Anyway, that night Brennan and I went to the Josh Groban concert which was wonderful.  Sunday was Stake Conference and was the first year I didn’t feel like it was a complete waste of time because we spent the entire two hours taking kids into the hall.  Brennan was out with Josh a fair amount of time, but he big kids did really well. 

Wednesday morning my girls and I packed up and left for a quick little get away with some friends.  Abby’s bff, Paige, has an amazing mom named Megan.  Megan planned this trip down to see “The Music Man” at the Shakespearean Festival a few hours down South.  Megan loaded up her two girls, our friend, Kim, and her two girls, Abby and their friend, Emily.  I took Anna and her best friend Chloe.  We stopped for lunch at a park and then drove to our hotel that Megan hooked us up with for free with their points.   It took us about an hour to decide who to put in which of our two rooms and then another hour to figure out who should sleep in which bed.  The girls went for a swim while we moms enjoyed the fact that we didn’t have to swim because we didn’t have our little ones with us.  We happily watched from the patio.

We got ready and went to dinner and then to the play.  It was such an amazing production, it’s such a great show!  The girls LOVED it and loved getting to do something so special with their friends. 

Here are some of them as energetic as can be at 11:00 pm

Here are all the girls with “Harold Hill”

The next day Kim and Chloe and Anna and I headed home, while the most impressive and energetic Megan took the other 6 girls another hour south to a National Park.  They hiked and played in rivers and had a blast and then drove home.  Thank you, Megan, for planning such a great trip and letting us tag along!!!!  It was so fun to enjoy my girls and their cute friends along with two of my favorite friends.

While we were gone Brennan got a sitter for Josh and took Nate and Ben to the Demolition Derby at our County Fair.  It doesn’t get better for those boys, they LOVED it. 

We’ve got lots of fun packed into this weekend too, so that will be part II.  We’re going to enjoy these last 3 days of Summer if it kills us!