Busy, Busy Summer

As a child, it seemed that summers lasted forever. They were filled with fudgesicles, water sprinklers, mud pies and skinned knees. But somewhere in between childhood and now, summers got really busy.

This summer has been packed full—but packed full of good things. Scrapbook-worthy, memory-making things worthy of recording so that one day when I’m old, with nothing to do on a summer’s day but sit on the back porch and feel some imaginary breeze, I can remember how good it used to be.

This summer kicked off with a week of true vacation. All of the kids were gone to the grandparents, and we were free to do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted to do it, without interruption. We got the kids back in stages…Tyler that next week, so he could go to Kids Camp. Emily the following week, so she could go to VBS with a friend. (Tyler opted for art camp at the same time.) The pace was picking up.

The next week we braved the 12-hour drive to take a once-every-four-years-or-so “big” family vacation to Destin, Florida. We went armed with DVD players, DS games, books, stickers, snacks and Grandma. The beaches were tar-free but the weather was stormy; even so, we had a couple of sunny days and a good time swimming in the rain and hanging out in the condo.

We got back to the house on the 4th of July. There was just enough time to unload the van, unpack and change clothes before we headed out to the Fireworks at the Crosses celebration at Pinnacle Hills. The fireworks were a blast for everyone but Hannah. She shrieked and cried and had a hysteric fit every time a new firework went off (which was approximately every 3 seconds). She informed us later “I don’t like fireworks”. No kidding!

The next morning kicked off swimming lessons week at Swim Ranch. Tyler passed off all of his fourth lane skills except for the timed swim and the deep dive, which he is determined to master next summer. Emily and Lauren were both in second lane, and they both passed off every skill required to move to third lane next summer. Hannah was in the parent-assisted (in our case, Grandma-assisted) “babies” class. She could practically swim on her own and was begging to go with the big kids during their class and jump off the diving board. Unfortunately, because she is only 2 ½, she has another year of the babies class to go before she can move up to lane classes.

Tyler started a 12-session Speed Camp at All-Star on the same week as swimming lessons. The day after swimming lessons were finished, we had Kidapalooza (a carnival-type event at the city park, sponsored by our church, as a precursor to VBS). The next day after church, we had a pool party lunch with our Connection Group class. That night kicked off family-style VBS at our church. Tuesday we had a picnic lunch play-date with another family. The following Sunday night was an Africa team supper reunion and Tuesday after that Lauren had a birthday party, Tyler had a 5th grade swim party and we had two sets of friends over for supper—all on the same day!

But today? Today I didn’t have to leave the house at all. Today I had time to write about my busy, busy summer. And it’s not even over. I think I’m going to go have a fudgesicle. And sit on the back porch. Is that a breeze I feel??