Summer is slipping away more quickly than I can seem to hold it close.
Long summer nights at home with neighbor friends abounding and days of soaking in the beach in California have gradually melded into tennis and boating and sand-castle-building at Bear Lake with extended family who we adore. The neighbors with cute boys have been sufficiently toilet-papered, numerous doctors have been visited, goals have been worked on, cousin bonding has occurred in full force.
Some things I have photo reminders of.
Ok, a lot of them.
The Joy School lessons Claire painstakingly planned out and prepared (completely independently) so that she and her friend could teach their little sisters:
She looked it all up on line and printed out her "props."
It was a huge success except for when "Gunny Bag" made Lucy's friend cry.
(I personally think Claire made quite a professional choice on Joy School teacher attire.)
The "summer school" Lucy was lucky enough to go to:
(I snapped this pic. one morning when we were waiting for her bus.)
The slip-n-slide the Young Women and Young Men in our ward delighted in:
We did our annual "Mom & Me" summer kick-off with a bunch of other families...these girls were pretty excited about that.
We got to get out of the heat and head to our friend's "ranch" for a couple days:
Dave and I took our three oldest kids to see Les Miserables. 
It was a pretty special "date."
Dave and I celebrated our anniversary number sixteen:
Lucy played about a bazillion games of Princess "Go Fish,"
...and she has lined up her princesses and all their paraphernalia over and over and over again.
I got to take each child out on their own special lunch date.
We sort of adopted two stray cats for a couple days.
I really hope my kids did not get some sort of crazy disease from loving them so much.
Not surprisingly I'm sure there are more pictures I haven't even looked at yet bottled up on this computer.
But I find it interesting that some of my very favorite memories are the ones un-captured by photos.
They are the ones that are treasured only with my feeble memory as a keeper:
Lying on the trampoline nose-to-nose with Lucy after we did a little jumping together, her beautiful blue eyes an inch from mine as we discussed all that was coming up this summer.
Claire's huge open-mouth grin as she is does some crazy dance moves with her two best cousins.
The way my heart swelled up with bitter-sweetness when it hit my family that the new deep voice they were hearing up here at the lake was Max's. And the sparkle in his eye when they talked about it and how tall he is getting.
Having the chance, here and there, to snuggle up with my girls and read a book or two.
Memorizing Helaman 5:12 with Max and Grace.
Teaching Grace how to curl her own hair and drive the old beat-up car up here... the confidence it caused to ooze out of her smile.
Having Elle and my Dad beat Dave and me in our family doubles tennis tournament FINALS...witnessing Elle at the net hitting every single ball right back at me.
Oh man I love summer with all my heart.
I must hold it close before it slips away, slowly making way for the schedule that will rule our world once again.Labels: kids, summer
It was a huge success except for when "Gunny Bag" made Lucy's friend cry.
(I personally think Claire made quite a professional choice on Joy School teacher attire.)
(I snapped this pic. one morning when we were waiting for her bus.)
It was a pretty special "date."
I really hope my kids did not get some sort of crazy disease from loving them so much.
