Summer's over for us

Sadly, today was Collin's first day back to school. He has to report a week early every year, so our summer gets cut a little shorter than the students'. But jeeze! Where did the summer go?? As I was sitting in my chair here, reflecting, I remembered that, although it seemed to fly by, we really did lots of fun things this summer! To cheer myself up a little, I thought I'd list a few of my favorites:#1: SNOW CONES! We had lots and lots of these this summer. My goal was to try all the flavors---but I now realize that unless you've got the stomach for endless sugar-water, that's not really humanly possible. Favorite flavor? Split between pink lemon sour, strawberry daiquiri, and raspberry colada. Least favorite? (besides grape, of course--blecchh!) Birthday cake! Yes, I tried that one!
#2: Bike riding. . . ah, I will miss this during winter! I already do, since I moved I have been a loser about riding my bike. But I really love being outside and also knowing that in my small little way I'm sticking it to the guys who charge so dang much for gas.

#3: Camping--even though we went on one trip all summer, it was great, as you probably read by the blog-master Collin.

#4: Sleeping! Man, it was rough when Collin had to get up at 7:00 this morning! I know all you morning people and early risers are bah-hahing, but if you know me at all, you know that I HATE getting up early. And 7:00 is early to me. We'll see how good I can do at getting up to make Collin lunch this school year-- it has slowly dropped lower and lower over the past 3 years, but I'm determined to keep trying! Anyways, I'm really going to miss not having to get up until like 8:30 or 9:00 every morning!

#5: Little Trips! We've had enough free time to do some fun day-trips this summer, as well as fun weekend trips. We've been to a few places around here, and most recently we went to Twin Falls to the temple open house. Beautiful, of course.

#6: The 4th of July! My single-most favorite part of the summer, and it's over already! darn!! It flew by way too fast. I'm already on the countdown for next year. Oh, and since I just looked at this picture I guess I better mention. . . congrats are in order because Sam, my little bro, just got engaged a couple of weeks ago. He's marrying a girl I haven't met yet--Megan. She's from Tennessee and the date is Dec. 30th in IF. I'm sure you'll be hearing more later but I guess I'm a little rude for not mentioning it before. What can I do? It's SAM! ;)

#7: Girls camp--the true wild week of summer. Can't get crazier than this, folks. What would I do without a week of sleepless nights, crazy hair, flashlights, bug bites, outhouses, and ugly clothes? I hope I never have to find out the answer to that question.

#8: And of course . . . our new house! I really think that's the main reason summer seemed so short! As soon as Collin got out of school, we were packing like mad and then ended up moving like 2 weeks later. We were gone 2 straight weeks, and then had the task of unpacking! It was crazy, definitely. But it is such a blessing to have our own little house to live in and take care of, and so far it has been wonderful!

So. . . that is my summer recap . . . hope you enjoyed. And now we head back to the grindstone! . . .