. . . Summer

With just 9 weeks of summer break, it seems to just fly by too fast. Every year I have these grand plans of all of the fun things I'm going to do with my kids while I have them home: trips to the zoo and museums, weekly library visits, lots of reading and gardening and making crafts together--you get the idea. But every year I also have this list of things that have to be accomplished before the fun can begin. Things like organizing my file cabinet, painting the bathrooms and cleaning up the basement. And, every year, the list never gets done, the fun never starts and my kids spend most of their summer playing video games (at least Stephen does!).

Well, this year I've decided to take a different approach. I decided to set the fun in stone and fit the list in around the edges. Week one is over and we did pretty well! Doug and Stephen and Jessica went fishing, I signed the kids up for the library summer reading program (and they are furiously filling in their "water drops" on the tracking form) and on Friday we went for a hike!

I did learn a few things from this first summer hike:

1. When the high is forcast to be 90 degrees, 10:00 am is too late to get started on the hike.
2. Plan to bring at least 1 liter of water per person (Jess and I both ran out).
3. Plan to carry Kaitlyn's water.
4. Plan to carry Kaitlyn at least 1/2 way on the way back to the car.
5. Prince may be 13 (pretty old for a dog), but he's still not to old for a 2 mile hike!

As we were heading out the door in our walking shoes with water bottles in hand, Prince suddenly stood in front of us and would not stop barking. When Stephen finally said "you want to go for a walk?" he stopped barking and jumped into the air several times as if to say "yes! yes! you guessed it!" He was not so thrilled when he found out that he had to get in the car before we could go on the walk (he hates the car!).

We went up north to Fox Run Regional Park and took the trail from the trail head down to the twin lakes. It was really beautiful and not too difficult for the little ones, for the most part. But it got really hot and I had to keep reminding Lindsay to take drinks of water. Her little cheeks got so red! So here are some photos from our little trek.

Here we are starting out. Everyone was really excited and full of energy. Kaitlyn was literally running down the trail!

By the time we got to the lakes, Prince just waded right into the water and started lapping it up. It was really funny. He didn't seem to want to get out and went right back in anytime we got close to it!

Lindsay and Kaitlyn posing by the water

All of the kids together by the lakes--such cute kids I have!

This is Kaitlyn shortly before we headed back up the trail

And this is Kaitlyn after we started back up the trail! She just begged me and begged me to carry her. At one point she was crying so loudly that I told her if she didn't calm down that a bear was going to come and eat us (great parenting skills, huh?). That seemed to help for a little while. But eventually I had to bite the bullet and carry her for quite a while. Stephen and I took turns with her on our shoulders. She was happy then.

This is the crew at the end of the adventure. By this time it was noon and really hot, but they were real troopers and in pretty good spirits still. They were even asking if we can do this again every week this summer (provided we go earlier in the day!). I guess it was a success!

Hopefully I can stick to my resolution and post a bunch more fun things that we do this summer--and maybe post about some things I've accomplished on my list too! Wish me luck. . .