We have come to the end of another summer. When does summer end? When school starts? Post-Labor Day? September 22nd or whatever when fall starts according to the moon? I took down my summer decor and put up the fall stuff (NOT Halloween, that is strictly October 1st) on September 3rd and Luke has a couple weeks of school in, we are post-Labor Day. It's also supposed to be 84° today though. But I am calling it on our summer.
It felt a bit opposite of last summer in that the beginning of the summer (when we were in Savannah and Florida) were much safer, COVID wise, than the end of the summer (when we were in Alabama). Last year it seemed things kept improving (or at least getting less bad) over the course of the summer. We were home a lot but also took two vacations (making up for none in 2020!). It was a good summer.
I enjoy doing these little recaps because it's always fun to make a list AND to look back later on and be reminded of the summer things that stood out to me! This blog has been a great memory keeper for me.
I grew up camping with my family, most often in a pop-up camper (they DO make ones that hold 8 people, at least when some of those people are kids) but we hadn't done much ourselves since we've been married. Well, that changed this summer. We did our very first, just the 4 of us, tent camping trip this summer. Where we cut off the first of three nights because of bad storms coming through and then got DRENCHED with a storm on our second night (we ate supper in the car at 9:30 and finally got back to the tent, where a window had been left open by one of the boys), at 10:30pm. You know what though, it was still a lot of fun and I almost immediately wanted to go again (Matt is still recovering, he might never tent camp again).
On our Alabama trip we also stayed at a campground but in a cottage with it's own bathroom, AC, cable TV (important with it being Olympic week), and a mini fridge. Still had the benefits of being on a campground (playground, camp store, beach, obvious running path through the campground). You all, that's how to camp. I was reminded this summer of how soothing campgrounds are to me since I spent countless nights at them as a kid. I definitely want to do more camping as a family.
According to my rough math we spent somewhere around 52 hours on the road this summer between our 2 big trips. 20.5 of those hours were just our long road home from Florida (Sam was just reminding me last weekend of how he was awake the last 45 minutes of that drive, at 4am, to chat with me the rest of the way home.) Now, 20.5 hours, especially Atlanta traffic in the rain at 3:45 on a Friday, was a bit long BUT I have a great fondness for road trips. Playing the license plate game (I've done this myself on every road trip Matt & I have been on and then it takes me WEEKS afterwards to stop looking and exclaiming over out of state plates), the snacks (I felt like we perfected the snacks by trip #2), the rest stop picnics, gas station fountain drinks, sneaking in some reading if everyone in the backseat was happy, taking pictures of state signs, I enjoy so much of it! It was a lot of time in the car this summer but also a lot of fun.
3) Running with the boys
I've run a 10k in September every year of Sam's life but this is the best summer I've had for running since we've had 2 kids. The boys and I ran a couple mornings a week, Sam in the jogger and Luke on his bike. We'd run (the long way) to a playground where they'd get to play about half way through while I ran laps around the playground and then yell at them when it was time to get going. It's not as relaxing as solo running but it really helped our evenings if I wasn't planning to run AND the mornings were cooler. I'm glad that all worked with our schedule this year.
We had our first garden in 4 years, thanks to the raised beds Matt built last fall. The boys were way more into than we expected and it was so fun to watch their (and our) enthusiasm for growing progress. I also felt VERY accomplished in that we used some of the compost we had been collecting for nearly 10 years which, turns out, made things grow like crazy. (My BIL offered us some manure, because he said that's how you get REALLY good compost but I'd really like the garden to be like 75% of the overgrown mess it was this year, I don't need bigger.). We have things we'll change for next year and we hope to get another raised bed back there (after some more, never ending, dirt moving) but it was so fun to have a garden again this year.
5) All the zoo rides in a week
Our zoo has a ride pass where you pay something like $25 and get a pass for 12 rides. We were 8 days from our pass expiring and Matt was with us in the evening (the best time to go to the zoo) and suggested getting a ride pass. He was with us because it was supposed to be the ONE ride we did this summer and then it turned into we did 3 rides each on our last 4 trips (and also fed the giraffes). It made for a very exciting final week at the zoo!
I watched this on HBO Max shortly after we got back from Florida and LOVED it. I immediately bought the soundtrack and listened to it on many of my solo runs in July and August. It was joyful and fun and just a lovely movie experience. I'm sure it'll always remind me of this summer.
7) Being downtown
We did a couple downtown bike rides with the boys this summer, stopping at parks and playgrounds and getting ice cream for an adoption day. Matt and I did our first downtown overnight which was SO. MUCH. FUN. to be walking around and seeing so many people out on a Sunday evening in July. We did another date downtown in August where we biked down and hit FOUR local places and walked and it was just lovely and so much fun. There's a lot happening downtown and it's been such a joy to get to experience it and see others enjoying it too.
I went to a local liquor store on Holy Saturday to buy some drinks for myself since I could have one the next day. I saw the case of these, immediately knew I wanted to try one, and then bought some closer to summer. I like that they have a flamingo AND pineapple on them and they taste good (especially cold). I did fewer mixed drinks this year than in the past and these were so handy to have in the fridge, especially at the end of the week.
9) Reading with the boys
Our reading has been up a notch this year, we read a lot more around Christmas and then never really slowed down. A lot of mornings (before or after running) we'd sit on the couch, all 3 of us to read through a stack of picture books. We had a lot of summer picture books we'd pull from when we ran out of library books or to supplement what we had checked out. It was a very good summer for reading.
10) Floral JCrew Factory Dress
A blogger (Putting Me Together) posted about this and it was the fastest I have ever been influenced to buy something. I wore it to church many times, out to supper on our overnight downtown, and am considering it for a fall wedding (depending on the temp that day...it has a darker base so I think it works). It was so fun to have a fun dress to look forward (and for excuses to) to wearing.
I got this for my birthday from Matt (HEAVILY suggested by me) a few years ago but I never used it until this summer when my old summer purse was wearing out and then I remembered I had this in my closet. I mostly only used it for church and on a few dates (I had a cross body bag I'd use for errand running) but it was fun and summery when I did need it.
I got really into bracelets this summer, wearing them almost every time I left the house for something besides running, running errands or doing kid pick-up/drop-off runs (that means, I wore some to work every week and church and on dates and on many other occasions). I have two sets I switch between, depending on the function and it made me feel slightly more fancy.
The ritual of tea brewing and drinking, I've been a tea drinker for years but this summer is when I realized that I really enjoy the ritual of it, probably like many people enjoy their coffee ritual. I had a hot cup of tea nearly every morning, even when it was so hot outside that we needed the AC on (even though we keep our AC at a reasonable 76° or something during the day - cool enough to feel better than outside and remove the humidity but not so cold that you need to add layers just to be inside).
And that's a wrap on Summer 2021! I have to admit, I'm more excited about fall than I usually am in early September. Bring on the (slightly) cooler weather!
What I'll Remember Most about Summer 2020
What I'll Remember Most about Summer 2018
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