By then we are completely exhausted, and thus begins the second trimester of summer - the completely lazy and slovenly period. The real heat of summer has arrived, we are tired, we basically turn on the cooler, turn on the television and remain in our pajamas until 3:00 in the afternoon. We eat more popsicles than usual, we occasionally fill up the pool in the back yard and watch it heat in the sun before deciding its too hard to put on a swim suit and go back to our popsicles. To-do lists hang limp and unattended on the side of the fridge.
But then along comes the third trimester, which begins at the time you realize that there are only three or four weeks left before school starts and you panic. You have a complete Mid-Summer Crisis - have I had enough fun? Have we packed in every summery activity we possibly can? Are we sunburnt and scabby-kneed from all of our adventures? I'm not sure! Let's go back to phase one!! Thus begins the craziness again.
I think I hit my third-trimester mid-summer crisis last week. The previous couple of weeks since we had been home from Seattle were so lazy. Then I looked at the calendar and realized as I always do that summer is slipping by and I need to suck its marrow before the elementary school doors open. Naturally, this realization and subsequent frenzied activity occurred in unison with my husband's departure on a business trip to the Southern States. Holy smokes, we were busy. Here's what we did:
1) Took the kids plus Chase's friend to my favorite place on earth (as noted by the following photograph):
Hollywood Connection. The indoor amusement park staffed by the grumpiest teens on earth.
It was actually pretty fun - not very crowded, Bitty got to roller skate, a sport at which she excels, Bundle was big enough for all the rides and fell head over heels in love with these giant bumper cars:
I don't have any pictures of the boys because they were running away from me too quickly.
2) Met cousins at Seven Peaks water park where we spent many hours and I even hired a teenage girl to be Bitty's companion for the day so she would be happy and I wouldn't be worried about her. This meant that I forgot to track her down to reapply sunscreen and she got her first ever super fun sunburn:
3) Spent a 100 degree morning at Tracy Aviary enjoying the incredible birdlife there, most especially the sun conures with whom we frolicked briefly. After the aviary we made an attempt to swim at the Liberty Park Pool, finding out only after we had changed into suits and were in the water that there were swim lessons going on there at the time. We left, walked over the the canyons fountain only to find that they are closed on Tuesday mornings. Then we walked to the splash pad only to find that my kids were too tired and grumpy to play so we went home.
4) Made a second attempt to swim in the Liberty Park Pool, this time accompanied by dear friends, but made the mistake of doing this on Pioneer Day, the day our valley and indeed the whole state celebrates the day in 1847 that the Mormon Pioneers arrived. This seemed like a great way to spend the morning until we actually got to Liberty Park, saw a line of a bazillion people trying to get in and remembered that DUH IT'S PIONEER DAY - the morning's races and parade all conclude at that park, people spend the WHOLE DAY picnicking and playing there before the evening's fireworks, which happen at that park. We pulled in, found ourselves in a complete and total traffic jam for fully 10 minutes just at the entrance of the park, and nearly aborted the mission. We decided that since we were in the park we would just drive past the pool and see how it looked. Good thing we did - after the first section of the park which was completely jammed with people and cars, we made it to the pool/aviary area where there were parking spots to be had by the dozens and barely anyone at the pool. We had the most lovely swim in the clear cool water where Bundle made her first attempts at actually putting her head under water and lifting her feet off the bottom of the pool to kick at the same time. This is major progress. Bitty also seemed to cross a swimming barrier that day by getting super comfortable taking breaths while paddling along. It was a big day for us.
After the pool we headed home to cook and clean before hosting The Becky and her friends for an evening barbecue. What a pleasant evening. Our pool was set up and Becky's little boys had an absolute ball splashing around in there. The rest of the kids buried themselves in various DS/ipad games while the adults ignored them, ate peach barbecue chicken and jambalaya. Our back porch did its best to be cool and leafy and we were happy to just enjoy being together. Especially because The Becky brought really good ice-cream bars. And some fireworks. Lovely evening.
5) We also had the sadness of saying goodbye to some of our very best friends who moved here to SLC five years ago and have just moved again to their home state of Texas. It seemed that the main reason they came to SLC was to give us a chance to become best friends. Mission accomplished, time to move on. We went to a movie together - Rio 2 I think, then I took some of their kids home with us while they packed, and then another day we had lunch together to say goodbye again and then on Friday I took them Bruge's waffles to say good bye just one more time. I will write more about this in another post I think.
Let's see....I feel like there were a couple of other things but now that three whole days have passed since last week I am at a loss for what they were. I think a lot of neighborhood kid-trades, making dinner for new moms, ....oh yeah and spending an evening waiting and waiting for my poor husband to get home. On his last trip to the Carolinas he had all sorts of airplane trouble which led to him being away from home an extra night, which he spent trying to sleep on the floor of the Dallas airport. We made lots of jokes this time about the likelihood of that happening again - I mean, what are the odds? Remind me to never ask that again because it turns out that the odds are actually pretty good. It was unreal to see it all unfold again as windstorms and broken airplanes combined against him to create a 26 hour travel experience involving another sleepless night at an airport. It was sucky. Next time, we're not making jokes, we'll just pray.
1 comment:
Great post and pictures!! I am glad we are not the only family that crams in a bunch to do in the beginning of summer, only to become couch potatoes in July.
Post a Comment