Oh Summertime, how we loved thee. Well, whether we like it or not, we are back in the full swing of our normal, school-year lives. While Travis and I both like our jobs and the kids fortunately but love their schools, it is hard not to grieve the end of the more relaxed pace of summer. This summer was particularly good. No big trips or anything, but we had a lot of fun family time and got some projects done that had been on the list of things to do for a while.
Both kids seemed to grow up a lot this summer. Grant's swimming skills took off like a rocket. He also discovered some hidden talents in Lego construction. Grant seemed to become more of a conversationalist this summer. I have enjoyed our talks and gaining insight into his world.
As for Sophia, she seemed to leave behind any remnants of the toddler she was as she seemed to transform into a big kid almost overnight. Physically, she became much stronger and more coordinated over the summer. I have enjoyed watching her learn to find pride in the power of her body as she runs, jumps, and climbs at the park and in her weekly gymnastics class. Her interests have developed as she wants to do "cool things like teenagers do". (Yes, this scares me.) I have enjoyed conversations and "girl dates" with Sophia this summer as well. While my girl is still spunky and sassy, she is also very sensitive and insightful.
We had a fun family first at the tail end of our summer. Both kids had said all summer long that they wanted to go camping. While Travis and I were both all for the idea, we were a bit nervous due to Grant's insomnia and Sophia's appreciation for the creature comforts of life indoors. In the end we decided to go for a camp out in the safety net of our backyard, figuring we could easily bail at whatever point it was no longer fun. Grant had the wonderful idea of having some friends join us on our camp out. SO MUCH FUN!! We borrowed a fire pit from a friend, pitched tents in the yard, roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, let the kids stay up late running around "chasing" fireflies that they never actually saw, and laughing. The kids actually slept through the night, got up early and were thrilled to crawl out of the tent to an early morning playtime with friends. What a fun time. I think next year we'll be ready to try our hand at camping somewhere outside of our fence.
When we asked Grant what his favorite part of camping was he replied, "Burning marshmallows." True. Grant set many, many marshmallows on fire. In case you can't tell, the above picture is our friend Brad blowing out one of Grant's flaming marshmallows.
We do like our smores!
Sophia, Rory, and Emme on a firefly hunt.
Grant and Rory enjoyed playing in the fire . . . playing with fire is OK at camp outs, right?
1 comment:
We miss summer, too! :) I can almost TASTE the marshmallows after reading your post. By the way, HOW COOL was Grant's visit to the NBC station? That is awesome!
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