I can’t believe it’s only July 28 and that is the title of my post! But it’s the truth: in one week, Isabella returns to school, and me, just a day after. It seems to creep up earlier every year. Whatever happened to school starting in September and ending in June? Oh well, I guess I can’t complain about still having two and a half months with my girls. We did so many amazing things this summer, starting with swim lessons and trips to the zoo, the trip to Rhode Island, and the road trip to Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky. I finally got to see the Ozarks and slip into the state of Oklahoma.
The tubing day down the Current River was a blast. Isabella is a fish and had to be dragged out after five and a half hours of submersion! Even Luna liked sitting on the edge of the six-person raft. Poor Zak had the girls climbing all over him in his tube all day. And seeing the Big Spring, the largest natural spring in the world, pour out of the mountainside with a never-ending gush of water, was amazing.
In Tennessee, we had a nice time visiting with Bruce’s parents, siblings, and nieces and nephew. We had a long drive through Sweetwater on Route 11 and discovered a dairy that made its own cheese. Now that’s my kind of place! Aunt Donna watched the girls that night so Bruce and I could have a date in Knoxville at one of the local restaurants in the Old City. We of course had to visit Mr. Gatti’s, my favorite pasta and pizza buffet. Bruce’s parents also bought the girls some beautiful “spinny” dresses while we were there. The girls loved playing on Nanny and Pappy’s swing and seesaw, as well as feeding the horses in the pasture next door. And Nanny and Pappy’s cat, Tiger, just rubbed up against their legs all week, happy for the new attention!
When we returned to Kentucky at the end of the week, we drove up to Illinois for a day and took a hike through a cypress swamp. All of the duckweed made the water seem surreal, and the girls loved the idea of “trees with knees,” as the cypress roots grow up out of the swamp. They even caught two frogs! On the way home we stopped in Metropolis to see the Superman statue. I always loved watching the Superman movies growing up, so much so that I believed he actually existed!
After that road trip, we had a few days to rest and weed our garden. We packed up a multitude of green beans from the garden into the Food Saver bags–another gift from Nanny–and picked the rest of the red leaf lettuce and plenty of squash and zucchini! Then we were at it again, packing up our car for a weekend camping trip with our friends the Mentzers. Isabella and Reuben became friends in preschool, and soon we were all friends, especially with the convenience of them having three boys who are the same ages as our three girls! Though we probably didn’t plan the trip as well as we could have, we still had a nice, though somewhat cool, weekend camping in a KOA near Cripple Creek. The kids love running through the woods, playing “hunting cats,” roasting hot dogs for dinner and marshmallows for s’mores, and telling scary stories around the fire before running around with flashlights chasing each other. We took them on a hike to the not-so-impressive Florissant fossil beds, and watched as they went a bit wild in the game room that had no games during the afternoon thunderstorm! On Saturday evening, the adults took turns watching the kids and taking a nice break in the hot tub. We were lucky in picking our tent mates, as Dana is a chef and prepared a couple of gllorious meals for us all despite the somewhat catty weather!
Now the two older girls and Mentzer boys are in Construction Camp this week, where they build various types of projects each day. During the two hours that they’re there, I’ve been squeezing in some nice bike rides, trying to get in training for riding to work more this year. Other than that, we are planning one trip to Lakeside Amusement Park with our library coupons, at least one more trip to the zoo, another free movie for kids, and at least one more swimming event, if the weather cooperates. And that… ties up our summer. I wish I could stop time, drag it out, make these moments last longer, because they’re growing up too fast. But I can’t. I just have to count my blessings and accept the fact that summer is over, and change the ticker on my computer to count down to fall break… 
A teacher’s life is so hard…
