79 Days

I woke up Friday morning with a sense of failure that I didn't do all that I wanted to with the kids this summer. I always start out with such good intentions of productive days filled with learning, field trips and good quality fun together. And then the reality hits of having 7/8 of the family home all day. That usually hits within the first week. You'd think I'd learn my lesson by now.

As I lay in bed pondering where the summer went, I realized that it really was a great summer, even if my proverbial to-do-list remained basically untouched for 11 weeks. Maybe my kids have forgotten all they learned last school year during the summer break, but we spent some great time together, enjoyed a wonderful family vacation and soaked up as much Texas sun as possible. I may not have exercised at all, but ended each day feeling like I'd run a marathon. Here's a little recap of our 79 days of summer vacation:

Indoor Camping

A real-live tornado touched down just a couple miles from our house the week after school ended in June. Luckily we had no damage to our house or property, unlike many in the neighborhood next to us. Unluckily, we lost power for almost 40 hours. The kids were all surprised that there are actually things you can do at home that don't require electricity. It was a good learning experience for all of us, but not one I hope to repeat anytime soon.

Young Women's Camp

Despite sleeping in a chicken coop for four nights, and going without air conditioning in 100* plus heat, it really was a great week spent with my girls. The camp setting was beautiful, the food was amazing, and the workshops and activities were all great. Erik and the boys had a fun week here. (A big thanks to my friends who helped out watching the boys during the day!)

Washington DC

I love that my parents live near DC where there is so much to do when we visit. We were able to go to a Nationals baseball game, the National History Museum, the Navy Museum, see the monuments, visit the DC Temple, tour the capitol and (my favorite) visit the Library of Congress. Best of all we loved spending a week with Grandpa & Grandpa, and Aunt Margo, Uncle Kevin and Sophia.

Cousins

The week after we got home from vacation my sister and her family came up from Houston for a visit. The boys loved spending the week playing baseball in the backyard, swimming, and playing games. We spent one afternoon touring the Money Factory in Fort Worth. I thought it was amazing to see millions of dollars being printed... and it was free (the tour, not the money.)

Work & Play

I had to take a couple of pictures to prove that we weren't total slackers all summer. We tried out some new recipes (have you ever tried cookie dough truffles?), worked on a few projects, and managed to keep the house somewhat tidy most days. The four oldest kids were promoted to official family lawn mowers and realized it wasn't too bad... as long as we were done by 8:00 a.m. We also conducted some very entertaining and educational experiments with Silly Putty.

Birthdays

Our favorite part of summer is celebrating four birthdays. Ryan (11), Ashley (13), Jacob (9) & Mason (3) all enjoyed being spoiled on their special days with presents and yummy desserts.

So, that's our summer in a nutshell... a little bit crazy and a lot of fun. It's always hard for me to see my favorite time of year come to an end. Now we're off and running with a new school year. But that's a blog post for another day...