(*sigh*)
It seems like just yesterday I was grousing and complaining about the gaggy ending to the school year and just wanted it to be over.
My children are helping me adjust to the upcoming school year by doing everything they can to make me wish it would hurry up and get here already so I can enjoy some peace and quiet around the place again.
They're cooperative like that.
To celebrate the end of what has easily been our best summer vacation in years I made a list of the 8 things that made this summer great:
1. The Lake
This will officially go down as the summer my son discovered the lake. And that swimming in the lake about rules all. You can run and scream and horse around in ways that you just can't when Grandpa has set up patrol on the pool deck.
2. The Back Deck
Many years ago, after much begging and pleading and promising to be his best friend, Prince Charming installed French Doors for me in our living room. They always looked so glamorous and classy on Days Of Our Lives and I was desperate to throw them open and step out onto my flower filled veranda and marry the love of my life whom I had thought was dead but had really just had a face transplant and now looked like someone else and went by a totally different name. This summer that dream was realized.
Just the flower filled veranda part, though.
(the love of my life thing happened a long time ago)
So, if I had to write an essay entitled Where I Spent My Summer, it would be this:
3. Avocado Salad
Chop together a bunch of avocados, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, and garlic.
Toss with lime juice and olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
For a little extra punch, throw in some grilled shrimp.
(or some fresh jalapeno if you want to serve it to someone who says stuff like
"Yeah, no it's good....not too spicy though, is it?")
Enjoy for lunch on Sunday afternoon or for dinner on the sidelines at football practice.
Put it on fish tacos, scoop it up with tortilla chips, or eat it with your fingers while you sip margaritas
(if you're in to that kind of thing)
(which I am)
It's delicioso.
(Thank you to my sweet sister-in-law for posting it and inspiring my new favorite salad for the next forever.)
photo from Set Your Fat on Fire Fitness
4. House of Cards, The Walking Dead, Scandal, Downton Abbey
Through a fluky click on my laptop, we ended up with Netflix streaming,
and now I speak to everyone with a slight British accent,
desperately want to go to Washington DC where all the nefarious people are,
and am terrified that at any moment an assemblage of zombies is going to silently appear out of nowhere and eat everyone I know.
It's awesome.
5. The Island
Our 5th annual trip to visit friends who live on a small island on Puget Sound was one of the major highlights of our vacation months. We did things and went places while we were there that we hadn't done before because the children were finally big enough for me not to have to follow them around and worry that they would fall off a rope swing and kill themselves.
Or get stuck in a tree, 3 feet above a slimy, shallow pond, that may
(or may not)
possibly have been filled with fish poop.
6. S'mores
I love toasted marshmallows and I think I roasted more of them this summer than I have ever.
I love holding them over the hot coals and slowly turning the stick until the outside of the marshmallow gets all golden and crispy and melty. Then I pull off the outer part that's done, eat it, and put the rest of it back over the heat. Then I do that again until it's all gone.
Unless I'm in the mood to just set it on fire so that it gets all black and burned and flavorful in such a way that makes my toes curl.
Oooooooo.....decisions, decisions.
7. The Princess Tea Party
Once upon a time Grandma discovered the Disney Store.
And the girlies played princess happily ever after.
And then they did it all over again when my niece came to visit, because what's a Princess Tea Party with Princess Jasmine?
8. My Lensbaby
I fell in love with my Lensbaby this summer. We hadn't really spoken in a couple of years. It really wanted different things out of life, and I just wasn't prepared to go that way. The last few months, though, really turned things around for us. I don't know if it changed, or if I did, but we've reunited...and it feels so good.
I hope you had a great summer!
And I love ya'.
