Summer Recap

In short, we had fun!  

 At the end of last semester we all felt a great need to take a break.  We needed family time, we needed margin, we needed to get outside, to play hard, to find ourselves with more time than things to do.  Although our summer wasn't perfect in all of those, I think we came as close as we could with this many people and circumstances that are sometimes out of our control.

 We headed to South Dakota for our annual summer vacation.  It wasn't as long of a trip as we usually take (except the car ride...that never seems to change).  We spent some great time in the Black Hills and great time with extended family.

I think Aidan is doing an exceptionally good job pretending that he's concerned that the lawnmower didn't start.  In the end it did start, and he did have to mow.  Bummer for him. 

 We had a handful of visitors and got to play "tourist" a little bit too.  We live in such a great place and love getting to explore!

 We had a lot of rain this summer so our garden is maybe not quite as good as it was last year, but we're still getting plenty of produce to spend a few evenings canning.  Always a learning curve there, and always a great way to remind us that this good food comes from somewhere and it takes work to be able to enjoy it year round.

 The kids have soaked up a lot of sunshine this summer and it seems like they have grown in leaps and bounds because of it.  Lately they have been spending their days outside, running around barefoot, making a mud kitchen, hanging pretend laundry on a pretend clothesline (this was necessary after they tried "washing" clean clothes from the house and hanging it up on the real clothesline), reading, climbing trees, etc.  I had a great childhood, no complaints here, but is it okay to admit that I'm a bit jealous of theirs?

And so our summer ends.  School is right around the corner.  While I'm never fully ready to tackle all that will come my way during the school year I find solace in knowing that it doesn't all come at once (usually!).  The baby, who is growing faster than any baby we've ever had, is 100% mobile, the almost 3-year-old has been "3" for awhile and always has some adventure up her sleeve, and on top of that we have a Kindergartener, 2nd grader, 5/6th grader (I can never really remember), an 8th grader and a High Schooler!!!!  Let's do this thing!