![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Ahh...we're home.
Aug. 13th, 2011 08:25 pmAnd the summer is done. It's been a fun one. First, some friends of ours from grad school came through for a day on academic business. The more people you have, the harder it is to find complete family friend matches, but this is one case where everyone gets along great. The husband is a classics professor and my husband consults him sometimes for a second opinion on Latin stuff. The wife is an ESL teacher (my masters was in ESL). They have five kids, some of whom match up on age with ours, and they are smart and artsy and adventurous. Also, I admire their relaxed parenting style. Yes, they discipline their kids, but they do it without getting emotionally worked up. Something I aspire to!
Then the oldest four kids had swimming lessons, and actually learned something this year. And following that, the girls had a folk dance class that they LOVED. My one son's soccer group was cancelled, but he got to go to scout camp up in the Tetons. He hiked Devil's Staircase, ran into scary girls up there, got a ton of merit badges, and saw a moose. We saw the great grandparents. The kids had friends over quite a lot, and we planted a garden that actually produced a few things. We did a Harry Potter movie marathon and took the oldest two to see the last movie in the theater. And we did a lot of reading aloud.
When DH's semester ended, we took a loooooooooooooong drive to see as many of our siblings as possible. We succeeded. The only direct family members we didn't see were my parents (my mom turned 80 today--it would have been nice to see them, but they are in Arkansas). But the kids got to see all of their cousins, shoot a bow and arrow, go swimming, play board games and climb the apricot tree, run around in Grandma's back yard, playing monster, and hike a river trail. DH made his usual Happy Summer Stalking Cake (don't ask) for his youngest sister, which even included moveable parts. If this sounds like it would require a great deal of energy, you are right--by the time we got to my sister's house, we were all literally falling asleep. Er, sorry. Next time we'll be more awake!
This week is school registration, and classes start next week for real. On the one hand, there are things I'd like to do that are not exactly conducive to Summer Fun (ie, writing), but I wish it didn't coincide with Winter. The one nice thing about the end the summer this time, though, is that We Did Not Move. When we walked in the house today, it had that nice, clean moving-in smell--but all our furniture and books were already set up, and all we had to do was dump our laundry into the washer, and we were done. I think I like vacations a LOT more than moving!
I hope your summers were fantastic, and that you have good things to look forward to in fall!
Then the oldest four kids had swimming lessons, and actually learned something this year. And following that, the girls had a folk dance class that they LOVED. My one son's soccer group was cancelled, but he got to go to scout camp up in the Tetons. He hiked Devil's Staircase, ran into scary girls up there, got a ton of merit badges, and saw a moose. We saw the great grandparents. The kids had friends over quite a lot, and we planted a garden that actually produced a few things. We did a Harry Potter movie marathon and took the oldest two to see the last movie in the theater. And we did a lot of reading aloud.
When DH's semester ended, we took a loooooooooooooong drive to see as many of our siblings as possible. We succeeded. The only direct family members we didn't see were my parents (my mom turned 80 today--it would have been nice to see them, but they are in Arkansas). But the kids got to see all of their cousins, shoot a bow and arrow, go swimming, play board games and climb the apricot tree, run around in Grandma's back yard, playing monster, and hike a river trail. DH made his usual Happy Summer Stalking Cake (don't ask) for his youngest sister, which even included moveable parts. If this sounds like it would require a great deal of energy, you are right--by the time we got to my sister's house, we were all literally falling asleep. Er, sorry. Next time we'll be more awake!
This week is school registration, and classes start next week for real. On the one hand, there are things I'd like to do that are not exactly conducive to Summer Fun (ie, writing), but I wish it didn't coincide with Winter. The one nice thing about the end the summer this time, though, is that We Did Not Move. When we walked in the house today, it had that nice, clean moving-in smell--but all our furniture and books were already set up, and all we had to do was dump our laundry into the washer, and we were done. I think I like vacations a LOT more than moving!
I hope your summers were fantastic, and that you have good things to look forward to in fall!
