On what I did this Summer....

Every September, when I was a kid, teachers everywhere forced a dreadful writing assignment upon the youth of America. "What I did last Summer."
It was always my opinion that the only thing worse than Math was writing that one was forced to do. I could never think of what to write. Not unlike blogging, come to mention it.
I used to blog every morning, first thing, with coffee. I used to evaluate my daily happenings in terms of their blogworthiness. Is that a word? And I'm so far out of the habit. The upside of not writing for a year or so is that no one is likely to be reading. That way, I have no pressure.

We did a lot this Summer. How come I never had Summers like this when I was a kid? I could have written great papers with this kind of material.

Michael ran off to Denver, first. We sent him on a road trip with a car full of teenage guys. Don't judge me too harshly...the alternative was to go ourselves, and that just sounded like too much smelly-lacrosse-players too be any kind of fun. They were supervised by a very vigilant mom, so we didn't lose any sleep. He had the time of his life.

We went to Maui in July. It was a marvelous trip with a brief visit to California on either end. That's because we drove to California, and flew from there to Maui. We flew back into CA, and drove home again. We have lots of family in California, see, and we wanted to see just how much love we could spread around in a very short window of opportunity. Time with family should always be reprieved by a stint in the tropics; don't you agree? It makes one far more congenial than one might otherwise be.

After our return from Maui, we stayed with my grandparents. This is one place in the world that always feels like home to me. They were delightful. Everyone was, really. We have fantastic family. I think we would be far better houseguests if we uncluttered our next trip.

The problem was all the house-hopping we did. Which, surprisingly, reminds me of an unrelated story.
My Aunt and Uncle were missionaries for many years. They were financially supported in this endeavor by the people in churches all over the Northwest. Every four years they would venture back to the States for a Summertime visit with everyone who supported them. This meant a transient lifestyle for several months to a year. It meant sleeping in other people's homes, and eating other people's food, and being nice to strangers all the time. Can you imagine how hard that would be? I mention this only because visiting several different families on the bookends of our Hawaiian vacation gave me no little appreciation for their former plight. We had our four kids, my one sister, and quite a bit of luggage. We tried to be kind of quiet, to not make a mess, and to sleep in strange surroundings. It was taxing.
The people we got to see were great, though. I like them a lot. I sure wish they'd come visit us here. Where I can sleep in my own bed.
Anyway.
Maui wasn't a bit difficult to enjoy.


In fact,the only thing there that I didn't like at all was the snorkeling. Snorkeling totally freaked me out. I'm normally kind of a daredevil. That little mask-thingy suffocating my nose, while strange fish dive about under my feet, which are trapped in things I can't walk in, all while being suspended in waves which were entirely unpredictable.....? No thank you. I vastly preferred acquiring tan-lines and sand in my suit. These activities were supplemented by vigorous shopping, and not a few margaritas.

Clearly, I wasted no time in styling my hair. This was a trend which seems to have become well rooted in my daily regimen. Alas.

You would think that all this excitement would be sufficient for one Summer, and you may well be correct. We sallied forth, however, into an additional time of family bonding. Always the overachievers....we ventured forth to explore Yellowstone National Park.


Tim fished a lot.

The kids evaluated potential threat from an ermine living near our cabin.

Tim found this branch, which amused him no end. If he turned the branch one way, he could be an elk. The other way, he was a bison. That man's a keeper, I tell ya.

Michael's shore fishing was thwarted by the canoe full of his siblings. He was mostly pretty good-natured about it.

..........Sheesh! That was a lot of Summer. Now we're home, and back to school, and I'm tired of writing. Pity, since there's more to tell.
Perhaps I'll blog again soon.
Perhaps not.