4 More Weeks of Summer Break
Yes, I'm counting down the days until school is back in session. I think the kids are too, even though it's been a pretty fun summer so far. The other day I was talking to a friend who works full-time and she agreed with me that it feels better to go to work during the school year when we know the kids are happily involved in their routine and busy at school. At the same time, though, it's nice to have seasons in life and I remember just two months ago how ready for change I was. I will say that summer mornings are so much simpler for me since I only have to get myself ready and out the door.
I started the summer with a very quick trip up to Portland for my sister's graduation with a doctorate in nursing practice. I flew up Sunday afternoon and came home on Tuesday afternoon--I think I was only gone for about 48 hours. It was a lot of fun; the agenda was basically eating lots of delicious food, hanging out, and attending the graduation. We accomplished all those things quite well, and on Tuesday morning my sister and I also took a bike tour around downtown. I was worried I would be too out of shape for it to be fun. Instead, it was a nice time and a good ending to my trip (I made up for the calories burned by eating lunch at Burgerville after the bike tour).
My summer term started the day I got back from my Oregon trip. I had a bit of a freak-out during that week because it seemed like I had a lot of work to get done and my school switched class websites so everything was really unfamiliar. After three semesters I've realized that I'm probably always going to have a first-week freakout, so I'll plan accordingly for the fall. Taking a class summer term has actually turned out to be not too difficult. I'm a bit behind on reading and need to catch up. Otherwise, the assignments haven't been that hard and the content is really interesting. There are a just a few weeks left, then I get a few weeks off before I take two classes this fall.
Little Dude got baptized the weekend after I went to Portland. I had been stressing about the baptism quite a bit, and thankfully it went smoothly. Plenty of friends and family came and we all enjoyed the day. Little Dude also started Cub Scouts and has really had a great time so far. He got to go to day camp and couldn't decide if shooting BB guns or arrows was more fun. The last weekend in June we drove down to Las Vegas for the kids to do "Grandma Camp" while I went to a conference (my dad was there too, but for some reason it's "Grandma" camp and not "Grandma and Grandpa"). The ride down was a bit stressful due to some technology issues. I thought I had downloaded an audiobook from the library on the iPod, but when we were getting in the car to drive away I could not find it. We listened to CDs for a while, and at our first rest stop I downloaded Overdrive onto my phone so we could listen to a different book. Then, once that was done, I discovered that my iPhone doesn't want to cooperate with the audio system in my car. It was frustrating, but really just a first-world problem. Our road trips now are much more comfortable than road trips ever were when I was a kid.
The first few days we were in Las Vegas I stayed at a hotel on the Strip so I could attend the American Library Association annual Conference (or ALA). It was pretty overwhelming--just what I heard from a lot of people who had attended before. It was also a lot of fun; I hung out with friends from work, attended interesting sessions (some more interesting than others), and browsed the giant Exhibit Hall. Three days of conference were a nice little break. The conference ended on Monday afternoon and Friday was the Fourth, so took the whole week off and spent the rest of the time hanging out at my parents' house. There was plenty of swimming time, a trip to the children's museum and the state history museum, a trip to M&M World on the strip (probably won't do that again), and a day at the indoor amusement park at Circus Circus. I didn't wear my watch, ate a lot of good food, relaxed in the pool, and generally had a good time. Las Vegas is a bit too hot for my taste, though. Coming back to Utah was a relief. The last few days I was there, my older brother came down from Utah. One night my parents took us out to eat at a super delicious Spanish restaurant; I'm still craving the apple/fennel salad with Manchego and the flan. We had a little adventure on the Fourth when we climbed up on the roof to watch the fireworks, only to get dumped on by a massive desert thunderstorm. The kids were a bit traumatized, but we all survived.
The rest of July has been busy too. The kids did swimming lessons for the past two weeks; this week S-Boogie is gone to a summer science camp run by the school district; and next week S-Boogie and Little Dude get Grandma Camp 2 when they go to Yellowstone for a few days with my mom and her friend. The day after they get back is going to be S-Boogie's birthday party, then the next week S-Boogie is attending a half-day creative writing camp for a week. It's funny that just a few months ago I was looking forward to summer as a break from our crazy schedule, and now we can't wait for school to start so things calm down a little. Actually, they won't really calm down--I'm discovering that older kids mean more lessons, school programs, and busy schedules. This fall we'll have P-Bibby in a music class, the older two kids doing piano lessons, Activity Days, and Cub Scouts--all on top of school activities too. It doesn't seem like a lot compared to some families I know, but it feels like plenty to me!
I started the summer with a very quick trip up to Portland for my sister's graduation with a doctorate in nursing practice. I flew up Sunday afternoon and came home on Tuesday afternoon--I think I was only gone for about 48 hours. It was a lot of fun; the agenda was basically eating lots of delicious food, hanging out, and attending the graduation. We accomplished all those things quite well, and on Tuesday morning my sister and I also took a bike tour around downtown. I was worried I would be too out of shape for it to be fun. Instead, it was a nice time and a good ending to my trip (I made up for the calories burned by eating lunch at Burgerville after the bike tour).
My summer term started the day I got back from my Oregon trip. I had a bit of a freak-out during that week because it seemed like I had a lot of work to get done and my school switched class websites so everything was really unfamiliar. After three semesters I've realized that I'm probably always going to have a first-week freakout, so I'll plan accordingly for the fall. Taking a class summer term has actually turned out to be not too difficult. I'm a bit behind on reading and need to catch up. Otherwise, the assignments haven't been that hard and the content is really interesting. There are a just a few weeks left, then I get a few weeks off before I take two classes this fall.
Little Dude got baptized the weekend after I went to Portland. I had been stressing about the baptism quite a bit, and thankfully it went smoothly. Plenty of friends and family came and we all enjoyed the day. Little Dude also started Cub Scouts and has really had a great time so far. He got to go to day camp and couldn't decide if shooting BB guns or arrows was more fun. The last weekend in June we drove down to Las Vegas for the kids to do "Grandma Camp" while I went to a conference (my dad was there too, but for some reason it's "Grandma" camp and not "Grandma and Grandpa"). The ride down was a bit stressful due to some technology issues. I thought I had downloaded an audiobook from the library on the iPod, but when we were getting in the car to drive away I could not find it. We listened to CDs for a while, and at our first rest stop I downloaded Overdrive onto my phone so we could listen to a different book. Then, once that was done, I discovered that my iPhone doesn't want to cooperate with the audio system in my car. It was frustrating, but really just a first-world problem. Our road trips now are much more comfortable than road trips ever were when I was a kid.
The first few days we were in Las Vegas I stayed at a hotel on the Strip so I could attend the American Library Association annual Conference (or ALA). It was pretty overwhelming--just what I heard from a lot of people who had attended before. It was also a lot of fun; I hung out with friends from work, attended interesting sessions (some more interesting than others), and browsed the giant Exhibit Hall. Three days of conference were a nice little break. The conference ended on Monday afternoon and Friday was the Fourth, so took the whole week off and spent the rest of the time hanging out at my parents' house. There was plenty of swimming time, a trip to the children's museum and the state history museum, a trip to M&M World on the strip (probably won't do that again), and a day at the indoor amusement park at Circus Circus. I didn't wear my watch, ate a lot of good food, relaxed in the pool, and generally had a good time. Las Vegas is a bit too hot for my taste, though. Coming back to Utah was a relief. The last few days I was there, my older brother came down from Utah. One night my parents took us out to eat at a super delicious Spanish restaurant; I'm still craving the apple/fennel salad with Manchego and the flan. We had a little adventure on the Fourth when we climbed up on the roof to watch the fireworks, only to get dumped on by a massive desert thunderstorm. The kids were a bit traumatized, but we all survived.
The rest of July has been busy too. The kids did swimming lessons for the past two weeks; this week S-Boogie is gone to a summer science camp run by the school district; and next week S-Boogie and Little Dude get Grandma Camp 2 when they go to Yellowstone for a few days with my mom and her friend. The day after they get back is going to be S-Boogie's birthday party, then the next week S-Boogie is attending a half-day creative writing camp for a week. It's funny that just a few months ago I was looking forward to summer as a break from our crazy schedule, and now we can't wait for school to start so things calm down a little. Actually, they won't really calm down--I'm discovering that older kids mean more lessons, school programs, and busy schedules. This fall we'll have P-Bibby in a music class, the older two kids doing piano lessons, Activity Days, and Cub Scouts--all on top of school activities too. It doesn't seem like a lot compared to some families I know, but it feels like plenty to me!
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