Farewell

How do you define summer at your house? June to September? Memorial Day to Labor Day? School out to school in? At our place we define it the way that gives us the most possible days of summer - school out (this year that happened to be May 27th) to astronomical autumn (September 21st), which gives us almost 4 months of summer. We (well, mostly the girls) like summer quite a bit. 'Cept this year we missed pretty much the entire first month of summer. Remember all that rain in May and June that officially precluded any chance of us ever moving to the Northwest? **shudder** That was not my idea of summer.

Despite the delay in getting started, summer turned out to be pretty great. Lots of Otter Pops. Lots of fishing trips with dad. Lots of time in my garden. Lots of picnics. Lots of story times on the front lawn. Lots of bike riding. Lots of swimming. We even made it through nearly all the summer list; we just missed three - pick huckleberries (we tried, but they weren't quite ripe enough - we did eat a few of our cousins though), farmer's market (Saturdays were just always so hot; I guess that's more of an autumn adventure for us), and sleep at Grandpa's ranch (we did go there and Ben slept on the way home...so almost...).

I found a few pictures this week that I never got around to posting. Here are a few shots from our trip to Island Park and Yellowstone:

Out the car window somewhere in Idaho.

Ben couldn't quite make it to the end of our hike.

Annie is a great little fishing companion - lots of patience and persistence.

Dad somehow fashioned a minnow net for Cole out of odds and ends left behind at the cabin.
And also a few from our trip to Tony Grove Labor Day weekend. All of Ben enjoying the lake. He started out fully clothed (it was a bit chilly that day).......and somehow ended up in his diaper. A fearless soul, I tell you. He wouldn't leave the water long after all the other children were on the bank with chattering teeth.

But it's time to say good-bye to summer for another year. The kids are in school. The leaves are turning above my house. There are pumpkins on my front porch (although probably not for long since Ben enjoys rolling them down the steps). I neglect my family every Saturday to watch football (yep, me, not Floyd).

It's a good thing summer is followed by fall. I like fall quite a bit too. The crisp mornings. The colors. The hunkering down and yummy food.

But secretly (or not so much now), I wouldn't mind a nice Indian Summer.