Summertime

My Sweet Boys

The 4 cousins in their cute matching shirts made by Aunt Gini

Ryan was serious about digging. The boys spent hours building elaborate castles surrounded by deep moats.

Boogie boarding

Playing with John on the beach. They had created a huge map in the sand.

I'm back. It has taken me all week to download my pictures and now Blogger has been messing up on me. I have changed the template, hoping that this works. We spent last week in Hilton Head with the whole family. Thank goodness we go to the South Carolina coast and not the Gulf coast. I can't watch the news coverage anymore with all the oil-coated animals and people who have lost their livelihood. It is devastating. I heard yesterday that the oil crisis in the Gulf is now 8-10 times worse than the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The boys had a great time at the beach as usual. They spent all their time either building in the sand or boogie boarding in the ocean. We only went to the pool once.

I feel like it is taking me a long time to recover from this trip! Mountains of laundry, and out-of-sorts boys are not motivating me. Plus, we have been in swimming lessons every morning this week and that has come with plenty of drama. Their swim teached pushed them both very hard this week. Ryan screamed the whole time for the first 2 days, but ended the week doing great. It is still somewhat of a disappointment to me that my children did not inherit my swimming gene, but that is a whole other post.

I am trying to find the balance between keeping my boys busy this summer, while not over-scheduling them. Will is a creature of habit. He does better on a schedule and wants to know what is happening and when. He thrives during the school year and seems out-of-sorts during the summer. Ryan on the other hand is more go-with-the-flow and would be happy being a couch potato.

I love summer. I have always loved summer. I remember spending endless days at the swimming pool and tennis courts behind the house I grew up in. The smell of food on the grill while walking up through the path to my backyard. Riding my bike everywhere. Long, hot days at swim meets.  I also spent a couple of weeks every summer on both of my grandparents farms. I feel like everything was so easy then, but that was probably just in my 10-year-old mind. I probably really drove my Mother crazy.

The summers of my teenage years were filled with weeks at church camp, nights spent at friends houses, days spent on the lake skiing behind our boat, and jet skiing with friends. Nights spent driving around with the windows down blaring 10,000 Maniacs while looking for friends (boys.) Waking up on Saturday mornings just in time to watch "Saved by the Bell" at 10 and putting off that summer reading list until the last possible week in August.

I just hope my boys will have good summertime memories.