Summer 2018, days 1-25

Oops.

In summers past, I enthusiastically blog every day (or as much as possible), highlighting all the great moments of my favorite time of year. And each year, I artificially pick some day in May that feels summery and declare it the first day of summer. So imagine my surprise when I got to June and realized ... I missed picking a first day of summer, much less blogging about it.

The last few weeks have been busy for sure. Ben's birthday was May 19, with my mom and stepdad in town for Michael's confirmation. School ended, and we enjoyed a fun Memorial Day weekend Saturday followed by two rainy days. Michael graduated eighth grade, and then had a basketball tournament the next day. Ben had a swim meet and Michael already has had two. The weather got really hot, killing some of the new grass I had been growing. I've resumed working from the pool in the morning and in the backyard or porch in the afternoon.

And just like that, we're nearly halfway through June. I've always lamented that the first couple weeks of the boys' summer vacation goes so fast, and before you know it, you are in July and already think about summer ending. Michael starts high school on Aug. 10, so it's going to go by really fast ...

But at least now, I'm documenting summer, establishing that Ben's birthday was Day 1. Day 25 featured Michael swimming both practice in the morning and a meet in the evening. He did all right, still getting back into shape. Ben had swim in the practice. I worked from home all day and at the meet. And the next wave of heat is coming.

Good to be on track finally. Now to have an interesting, documented summer!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Summer, Day 8

Today was Memorial Day, and as far as Memorial Days go, this one seemed somewhat anticlimactic. The sun came out after three less-than-stellar days, perhaps preventing the weekend from being a total bust. I worked late last night but was awake earlier than I wanted to be this morning. I fell back asleep and woke up around 10:30 to a thumping sound outside. Michael, Lori and my father-in-law got the rest of the sand in the base of the new basketball hoop, and Michael and his friend from across the street were shooting around. This was Lori's parents' last day in Utah, so we treated them to The Cheesecake Factory at the new City Creek mall downtown. I had the macaroni and cheese burger and most of a piece of Oreo cheesecake (no matter how much I pushed on my sons -- they wanted to share Lori's banana cream cheesecake). The boys and I wandered City Creek a little and came home. The afternoon wasn't much more eventful. Michael and I took Popcorn to the park for about
Read more

Vacation finale

Image
As expected, the last three days of vacation were much less eventful than the first 12. This happens every year -- we get back from Wisconsin for at least one day before leaving for Utah, and it's just wind-down time. And that's OK -- going nonstop for two weeks isn't easy, especially with kids. And vacation is supposed to be a time to relax, and for the past three days, that's what we did. The past few days weren't that relaxing, however. Monday, we met my mom, who is in Chicago this week, for lunch and then to Old Orchard Mall. That night, we met some friends at the new Superdawg (my favorite Chicago hot dog restaurant) in Wheeling. Tuesday, after pondering going downtown, we ended up just seeing the Smurfs movie with my dad. Last night, we went to dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant here in Edgebrook. Wednesday was mostly devoted to getting ready for our return trip Thursday morning. The heat and thunderstorms finally subsided -- this might have been the m
Read more

Nine days after the solstice

Image
The summer solstice was nine days ago, but I'm only now getting around to writing my annual reflection that is supposed to be created on the first day of summer. Nine days ago, I was frenetically trying to finish up work and get ready for a road trip to Denver, where Benji was competing in a swim meet. We got back Monday afternoon, but I was too exhausted to come up to my usual spot in Donner Park. The last three nights were overcast (though the skies cleared a little too late to embark on my quest last night), spoiling the goal of watching the sunset. So, nine days later, I'm finally here. And now that I am, I'm not totally sure what to write about. To say the last year has been a blur would be cliche, and I don't think it's gone faster than any other past year. But I've been struggling to wrap my head around the current summer and, thus, what's really on my mind. I could write about how we're a year away of having two kids in college and being sort of
Read more