Oh, summertime...

Oh summertime, how we love you. You make us feel human again. To think that Travis and I ever considered jobs where we wouldn't get summers off. Crazy. The Fergusons have always loved their summers, but this summer has been particularly good for us. After a busy school year that included both of the big kids now in elementary school and extracurricular activities, the addition of a new, adorable yet exhausting Ferguson, and two working parents, summer brought a much needed opportunity to slow down and catch our breath. We are loving the summer pace of life. Some highlights of our summer so far:

Grant and Sophia both attended summer school and LOVED it. Though we didn't really give them the option of not going (Ferguson kids--and parents--function better with the routine of school), they both begged to "get to go" to summer school when the flyer came home from school in the spring. (Well, ok kids, if you really want to, but now you can't say we never let you do anything fun.) It's always nice when the kids think they are "getting" to do something that you would probably "make" them do anyway. Both Grant and Sophia had a great time. Grant enjoyed riding his scooter to and from school each day and got to take an engineering class. Sophia got to take a cheer leading class, which she could not have been more thrilled about. On the morning that the class started Sophia told me, "Mom, you are probably going to get really tired of hearing me talk about cheer leading, but I can't help it. I'm just so excited!"

With the Bigs in summer school and Travis teaching summer school in the mornings, Lillian and I got to spend some extra time alone together. We LOVED it. I really struggled when it came to sending Lillian to a babysitter when I returned to work after my maternity leave. We had a fantastic sitter, but it was really hard for me. So, I loved spending the days in June alone with Lillian. She is at a wonderfully fun age where she is growing and changing everyday it seems. I loved the time we had to take life slow with each other as I relieved myself of the mommy-guilt that ate at me during the school year.

Travis had the opportunity to go with the students from church on a backpacking trip to Colorado. Travis had a wonderful time and I am really glad that he had the opportunity to go, however I will admit that prior to his leaving for Colorado I was really worried about the prospect of parenting three kids on my own for a whole week. I worried that it would be really hard to meet everyone's needs and that it might make me a little crazy. It was and it did a little. However, the kids and I also had a lot of fun together and I spent a lot of quality time with them that I don't normally do in an average week. We tried to do a little something fun each day in order to make the week go a little faster--I ran a little version of Camp Good-Mommy, which is similar to Camp Good-Buddy for those of you familiar with that. (I also found that the house stayed cleaner if we stayed out of it, so...) Some highlights of the week were: a trip to Penguin Park followed by milkshakes, a couple of swimming trips, a visit to Steamboat Arabia (the kids went on a field trip with kids from our church), a trip to Yogurtini to celebrate the last day of summer school, a visit to Chic-Fil-A to celebrate Canada Day (hey, we like to celebrate, and both have red and white as their colors, so it worked), and a trip to Crepes on the Square followed by the Farmers Market and the library. (Wow, we ate a lot. That explains some things.) All in all we did pretty good. Might have even boosted my parenting confidence a little.

Now that summer school is over, we are doing a lot of swimming and just hanging out. Loving every minute, but so sad to see the calendar moving so quickly towards August!!