Saturday, September 1, 2012

Summer, Baby, Please don’t go….

Lindon Aquatic Center
Now that Summer and I have made up, I’m so sad that it’s going away even though technically the fall equinox isn’t until September 22, so summer will still be around, but Labour Day is the unofficial end of summer.

The boys are going back to school the day after Labour Day and I’m just not ready.

This summer has been really great. I think the whole blogging about summer, creating a summer playlist, going to Lagoon-A-Beach, going to the Drive-in, and focusing on the positive has really helped mend my relationship with summer.

One of the greatest things about summer is that I am the only one up in the morning. I’m not rushing around nagging boys to take showers and trying to figure out what to make for lunch and is homework done and where’s my back pack and I don’t have any clean underwear and the dog wants a walk and why aren’t you dressed yet? And I’m trying to be quiet because Daddy works late and needs to sleep in. I just get up, let the dog out and make sure he has water, cruise the internet, shower, get dressed and go to work. I’ve been early for work regularly all summer!

DH worked on getting the family room cleaned up and did a LOT of organizing and getting rid of things. We can actually use the family room without DH yelling about us messing up his intricate filing system*. Since the family room is downstairs, it’s easily ten degrees cooler and having that spot to hang out is AWESOME in the summer. It’s also super nice to come home to a clean family room as that is the first room you see when you walk in from the garage. It’s also a LOT off my mind to not have piles of papers all over the floor.

Lagoon-A-Beach closes on September 8 and won’t be open again until next Memorial Day weekend. Now I feel all pressured to go. Huey and DH haven’t been to Lagoon-A-Beach once this year as Dewey and I have been going as our special together time while Huey and DH have been at Scout camp.

That’s another thing: Huey and DH have gone off camping a number of times this summer. It’s really made things enjoyable as we all get to have a break from each other. Huey was gone a WHOLE week to camp and I didn’t die! (and neither did he!) I missed him terribly, but knowing that his dad was there for half the camp and distracting myself with daily trips to Lagoon and seeing/renting/watching movies with Dewey helped with the pain. It’s also made things go by really fast.

Additionally, DH fills up the summer with activities for the boys so they don’t get bored and drive him crazy as he is home with them during the day. This summer was full of Scouts and swimming lessons and merit badge classes. The boys really seemed to have a blast this summer. I know I did, and we didn’t even go anywhere. It was the perfect combination of stuff to do and chill.

Last weekend we went to the Rubber Ducky Derby at the Lindon Aquatic Center. The Rubber Ducky Derby is a fundraiser for the Make A Wish Foundation. I look forward to this every year for a number of reasons, one being that it reminds me of the ordeal our family went through and the hope that we had at the first Rubber Ducky Derby and how far our family has come since then and how happy I am that Dewey is still with us and so healthy and beautiful and strong. Another being that it takes me back to what summer is. I am able to just lay out and chill. When I was growing up the recipe for summer consisted of the following:

  • Jump into water (pool, lake, ocean, sprinkler)
  • Lay out and read, listen to music, watch boys until dry or too sweaty to stand it any more
  • Repeat
  • Do not wear any clothes other than pajamas or bathing suit. (cutoffs are the only exception)
Usually I can just chill with a book and my iPod while DH plays with the boys in the water which is the perfect arrangement. Now that Dewey is a really strong swimmer, we can let Huey and Dewey go off on their own, and DH gets bored and hangs out with me bugging me and asking when can we go. It put a small dent in my Zen, but it was nice to have my man hang out with me on the beach**, so it balanced out.

The boys have both expressed their extreme desire to go back to school, so I guess it’s okay for summer to be over, but I’ve been having so much fun that I’m not ready to let go.

Looks like I have next year to look forward to.

*piles of papers on the floor.
**in my mind, it was the beach.