The end of Summer

Tomorrow night is the last night of summer. I am devastated. It may sound a bit dramatic but it is true. I love summer and I hate when it is not summer. Not that there isn't good things about the non summer season- there of course are, the problem is all the good stuff gets over shadowed by school. School is great, it is wonderful to be educated, to learn, to be with friends and away from Mom. It is good for me to have some time without so many little shadows. But it is still school, you have to go everyday whether you want to or not. You have to be there at 9:00 whether you were up past midnight or not. You have to do homework, and turn in assignments, and take a lunch everyday. You have to wear clean clothes without rips or holes. You have to do your hair even if it is tangly and eat breakfast before 8:50. You have to go to bed at least by 10:00 if not earlier if you can manage it. Basically you have to follow the rules and be responsible - and I just don't like to do that. (I have to be careful not to let my children see that confession.) I don't like schedules, rules and most of all someone telling me what to do, when to do it and how it should be done. Although I don't mind being the one doing the telling.

I love summer vacation. I get to clean my house as much or as little as I want. I get to take my kids to the park, the pool, the zoo, bowling, hiking, grocery shopping, to a movie, out to eat or wherever the heck I want. Or I can stay home and sit in front of the tv in my pajamas all day long if I want to and guess what-it doesn't matter at all, no one is around to tell me what I should or shouldn't be doing. I am the boss and I like it. We can eat breakfast at noon or have a bowl of cookie dough for lunch. We can wear the same crusty clothes 5 days in a row if we feel like it. We don't have to wear shoes unless we want to. We can put on a baseball cap if our hair is a mess or just let it be messy. But just try sending the kids to school with a tub of cookie dough in their lunch box, a baseball hat on their head, and no shoes on their feet and just watch the phone start ringing.

Anyway so for our last week of freedom we tried to play hard. We accomplished a bit of fun but still have a big long list of things to cram into the next couple of days. I think we will cheat and pretend it is still summer for the first couple weeks of school. This week Rick took Taylor and Dallin to Lagoon, the little kids and I went with Jeff and Stacey to the Bean Museum then to 5 guys Burgers and Fries. We went to the pool with Mark and Amber. We went bowling and then back to the Bean Museum. We went school shopping, to the county fair, and to the demolition derby. We tried to go swimming but got rained out. We went camping, (some of us twice) and played with every friend in the neighborhood.

We still have some camping, hiking, caving and horseback riding to do this summer. There is still 7 peaks, coldstone and a National Park or two to visit. We still have some friends to invite over, some movies to watch and a trampoline to sleep on. Too bad we only have two days.