Conversations with the Smiths- Part 4

I have sort of a love/hate relationship with having all my kids home for the summer. On the one hand, it's a lot of fun to be together...mostly. We end up enjoying one another's company more than we're able to during the hustle and bustle of the school year. There is time to make music together, cook together and play together. On the other hand there is also time to get on one another's nerves.

Constant exposure to the humor of males ages 11, 12, and 15 means that my own juvenile sense of humor is even worse than usual in the summer.

Two conversations to highlight this point.

Have you ever seen this toy?

My family got addicted to it during our last visit to California, so we gifted Todd with it for Father's Day. (He was the most addicted.) It's a puzzle that is bizarrely difficult for something sold in a toy section of stores. Anyway, since it's summer and we have time, all the kids have been working with it. Benjamin when the ball drops out of the maze making it so he has to start all over again responds the frustration by banging his forehead on the ball. Leading to this discussion:

Todd: Guys, time for scriptures and prayers!

Me: Why is the ball all wet?

Todd: I wiped it off before since it was kind of dirty.

Benjamin: From my greasy forehead.

Me: Why?

Nathaniel: Benjamin has a problem with sticking his forehead on balls.

[silence]

Me and Todd: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!

Todd: [getting himself in control] Okay. Does everyone have scriptures?

Me: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Benjamin: Oh my gosh, Mom! You are so immature!

Nathaniel: I didn't actually mean it that way [though looking smug that I'm still laughing]

Me: [Wiping the tears from my face and still unable to stop laughing]

Todd: [Only slightly exasperated at trying to reel the other adult in the room back in] Emilia, why don't you read first?
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Watermelon is one of my favorite things about summer. I routinely chop a melon in half and just eat that with a spoon for breakfast, lunch, and snacks. Benjamin has been giving me a run for my money this summer though, and will often steal the other half of the watermelon from me.

Half Dollar Hot Dog Night is one of my other favorite things about summer. And while it is lovely to have cheap hot dogs and drinks at the pool every Tuesday, I like to take some fruit to help round out the meal a bit.

The other day as we were getting ready to go to the pool, I asked Benjamin for help.

Me: Here, take this tool and grab a tupperware and scoop out enough watermelon for us tonight.

Benjamin: [Taking one look at the melon ball tool and then the watermelon, then adopting his best surfer boy accent] Dude. Ballin'!

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There are way too many jokes about balls going on this summer. Lilyanna and I and our delicate feminine natures may be forever scarred. ;)

"Summertime, and the living is..."

The next line in that song is "easy".  Summertime is not easy, my friends.  We have many wonderful memories made each summer, but I spend literally months planning so those magical moments can happen.

(It's funny that I'm thinking about summer while we're coming off of a "polar vortex" and having wind chills of -36 degrees F.)

We are blessed to have family that live in places that are full of fun adventures, and blessed to be able to travel adventurous pathways to get there.  But all of that travel takes time and money, which means I start planning in January at the latest for the coming summer.

This next summer we have the following adventures coming up:

20th High School Reunion (NJ)

Scout Camp (OH)

Nerd Camp (OH)

MS Camp (OH)

Youth Conference (IL)

Wedding (NJ)

Family Reunion (WY)

Possible other family Reunion (GA?)

Cousins and Kids Camping Trip (UT, but it's just over the border so we pretend it's still in WY)

Ballroom Dance Camp (UT)

Some of those things happen on top of each other and will necessitate plane trips from regional airports in order to hopefully get to the next thing in time.

And I've only listed the things that require some level of travel.  There are other things that will happen locally.  (Dance Recitals, plays, concerts, possibly high school summer gym, etc.)  But this is why in the summer, for the time that we are home, we try to spend our time either working or playing.  We have projects that have to happen around the house and yard and if we don't get them done in the few weeks we're home, they don't get done at all. 

But the other times, we just relax and and enjoy and soak up the pretty green all around us.  The all too rare Ohio sun shares it's rays so sparingly, we have to enjoy while we can, and there is much time spent at our neighborhood pool, swimming and catching bugs and playing/chatting with friends.

And then when we arrive at our destinations, and are able to spend a few days with our family and dear friends in the beauty and sunshine of their various locales, it is worth all the hours of planning.  Most of my children have really happy, wonderful, memories of our summers.  Even the parts that I'm grouchy for. ;)  They're still having fun and enjoying one another's company and making happy memories.

Lilyanna and Caleb watching the seagulls on the beach in Santa Cruz this past summer.  They loved this trip to the beach and have been talking about it ever since.

We Got Weather.

This is a common phrase in Ohio.  It baffled me a little at first.  Weather?  Everyplace has weather.  In fact you don't have it.  It just is!  But when they say it here, it never means anything good.  To say, "There's going to be weather this afternoon."  means there is going to be a tornado/blizzard/wind storm/pouring rain/flooding.  And all of those will cause our power to go out.  I didn't know it was possible to lose power as often as we lose power.  We live in well established suburbs of a well established city.  But the wind blows and we lose power.  Maybe that's why so many Amish people settled here.  We're all pretty good without electricity around here...

Anyway.  I just found these pictures from a summer afternoon this past August at our town's swim club.  We love it there.   Tonight there is weather in the forecast.  (This time weather means snow.)  These pictures make me happy to look upon to remember warmth and summer and a lazy afternoon with my kids in which I didn't have to pick up after them.

Benjamin learning to dive off the board.  He is finally doing much better off the block, but the diving board seems much further away from the water.

This one is probably going to hurt.

And this one.

But the splash isn't too bad.

Lilyanna doesn't mind Benjamin learning to dive.  It means she gets to sit longer in the grass and eat bugs.  Mmm...bugs.

All done with the bugs.  The thumb isn't so crunchy.

"Harses, Harses, Harses, Harses"

My nephew enjoying a ride.

What could be more Wyoming than horseback riding??  When I was growing up, my Grandpa Bradshaw always had horses and ponies for we grandkids to ride whenever we came out.  So even though we were a bunch of city slicker easterners, we could still hold our own on a horse.  It did not even begin to occur to me that not everyone knew how to ride horses until the year I took Todd horse back riding.  It became quickly obvious to everyone watching that riding is actually something learned and people don't just know how to do it.  (Although, he can beautifully navigate through every major city's mass transit system with zero problems.  We all have our strengths.)  

Warren's first time on a horse.

Nathaniel and Benjamin trying to remember how to do this.  It's been a few years.  "But Mom, WHY do I need to put my feet in the stirrups??"

Anyway, my parents have failed their grandkids in providing horses to teach them these valuable life lessons, but fortunately they know people who can help.  Some cousin of mine (second-ish, I think) was absurdly nice and loaded up a bunch of horses and a pony and drove all the way from LoneTree to the rodeo grounds in Lyman just because my Dad asked her if she could help out his poor deprived city slicker grandkids.  Some of whom have Never Even Been On A Horse!  

"Horses are stinky!"

The summer that I was 16, I went out to Wyoming to live with my grandparents for the summer.  Every morning my cousin Cassie and I would go down the dugway to where my Grandpa kept his horses.  Apparently, I pleased him that summer, because shortly before he died, he mentioned what a "fine horsewoman" I had become.  (For a city girl.)"

Anyway, it was fun to share some of my love of horses with my children.  I'm grateful that they, too, have Wyoming Grandparents and that they can see and experience some of my favorite things from my childhood.

Aunt Rachel decided that the pony was more her size.  ;)

Caleb, on the other hand wanted the big horse.  He actually trotted for a little bit.  (Not on purpose, and it spooked him a little bit.  But he did get back in the saddle one more time after that.)  Good boy!

C'est moi!

Lilyanna and HER Grandpa Bradshaw teaching her about horses.

Early Summer

I love summer. In our first week we have:

-spent every day at the outdoor pool

-Benjamin decided to join the swim team which practices every day there and discovered that he is built for such a sport

-The boys all got their first prize from the library summer reading program and just picked up the summer reading program for Half Price Books, also.

-I slept in and missed two early morning workouts, which is particularly problematic since I'm feeling miraculously not so terribly sick. The whole being able to eat again and not working out thing is not going to fly.

-have had fabulous day long play dates with good friends twice this week

-Caleb and Nathaniel both agreed to and received summer haircuts!!

-picked lettuce, black raspberries, and stawberries from the garden

-and I've nearly finished Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It makes me happy inside.

Oh, what do you do in the summertime?

We assemble the gingerbread house kit that has been sitting on top of the fridge since December. While not assembling this in December made me look like a rotten Mom to my kids, letting them assemble it in June made me like an awesome Mom. It all averages out, right?

Summer

Have I mentioned how much I love summer?

I love having days that are simply full of possilblity and NO set schedule.

I love seeing my boys enjoy popsicles in the backyard. (NO POPSICLES IN THE HOUSE!!!!)

I love being in water most of the season.

I love camping with my family.

I love spending hours at the library or pool, just because we feel like it.

I love being in my garden and then eating the fruits of my labor.

I don't necessarily love the summer long diet to make it possible to be in my bathing suit for most of the season, but I can wait until winter to have that cake. Are bulky, baggy sweaters making a comeback any time soon?

And with that, we are off to the beach and farmer's market. When we get home, we'll put on our pjs and eat dinner and cuddle on the couch to watch a movie.

LOVE summer.