Summer Memories

Wow, summer is almost over. My kids go back to school next Wed. Seems like summer has just flown by. We have had a busy one, but a good one. It started as soon as we got back from Tennessee. We had family weddings to go to the Saturday after we got back. My little girls were the "gift carriers" at the reception, and my other kids had fun goofing around and dancing with cousins. My parents came to visit the next week. We had a good visit with them, which included a trip up on the mountain for a picnic and "rock" baseball. The next week my little sister and her family came for a visit, which included cemetary hopping, kids running around playing and swimming, and an adults out to lunch. The day that they left we had a friend from Tennessee come for the weekend. We had to take him around to see the desert and the mountain, both which were new experiences for him. The last few weeks have been full of summer stuff - swimming, mowing the lawns, working in the garden, and school shopping, along with a ice cream/game night at a friends house, and a trip to Snowflake to watch "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat". Last week my youngest got her hair cut. She has been growing it out for the last two years in order to donate it to "locks of love". She was able to cut off 8 inches to donate, and now has a cute haircut and is ready for school. It's been one of the fastest summers that I remember, but it has been a great one. One full of family which is the best thing there is. As I have thought about all of it, I am so grateful to have family to spend time with, and I realize how much more important that is than anything else we can do. Hopefully we will continue to create memories of family and friends, and spend time doing the things that mean the most in this life.