Last winter was so long and cold and we had so much snow that spring came as such a relief. School ended and I was so excited about spending the whole summer with my babies! And as always, summer just flew by. The girls start school next week. Here are some highlights of our summer!

Concerts I’ve Attended

Okay, so this really was more of a recital. Lily had her first piano recital in June, and she was amazing! It always surprises me how much Lily loves to perform. She had all her pieces completely memorized, and even played one of her own compositions.

Activities We Did

Swimming – Lily signed up for the swim team this summer, and so I drove her to swim practice every day for about six weeks. At the beginning of the summer, I knew it was going to be a big commitment. The first week was cold and really hard for Lily. She had to swim laps for two hours and didn’t know anyone else on her team. She was worn out and lonely, and wanted me to come early to watch her swim. The weather was so crummy this summer that several swim meets had to be postponed and rescheduled. Lily persevered, made friends, and by the time she had her conference meet, she was already saying that she can’t wait to be on next summer’s swim team!

Emmy continued her swimming lessons this summer, and even though she is resisting, she’s ready for swim team next summer. She can swim 50 yards with no trouble at all! We’ll have to see what happens, which means I’ll probably sign her up and she’ll complain the whole time. Her favorite activity? Staying at home to play!

Not only did we go swimming at the pool, but we also went swimming at Lake Michigan AND in the Pacific Ocean.

Blueberry picking When we go to Michigan to be with family, one of our traditions is to go blueberry picking! My daughters love spending time with their second cousins, and we weren’t able to spend very much time with them this summer. But we did go blueberry picking! We picked over 7 pounds just for my family, and have a freezer full of blueberries!

Birthdays We Celebrated

Emmy turned seven this summer! She is heading for second grade next week. Can you believe it? Because seriously, I can’t. She is growing up right before my eyes!

Books I’ve Read

One of my favorite things about summer is sitting by the pool and reading during my daughter’s swimming lessons.

The Goldfinch – The summaries I read didn’t even come close to scratching the surface of what this 700+ page book is about. It’s a good book, but it has too much drug use and fuzziness for my taste. There were several times when I just wanted to reach in and give the main character a good shake!

Destroyer Anger – I love Anna Pigeon, Nevada Barr’s feisty Park Ranger. While this book was fairly predictable, especially if you’ve read other Anna Pigeon books, it was a great summer read.

Me Before You – Heartbreaking but also wonderful. I loved this book.

Movies We’ve Seen

We don’t go to many movies in the theater, so our pick this summer was How to Train Your Dragon Two. Even Ed liked it! (He is not a movie guy. He’d rather be outside doing something!) The girls loved this movies, and think Toothless is the cutest dragon ever!

Places We’ve Traveled

Less than a week ago, we arrived home after a fun-filled two weeks in California! Our travels deserve their own posts, which I’m going to write soon. We went to four National Parks and visited some other great places. Not only that, but we dragged one of my sisters along for the ride!

Seriously, as I look back, I think it’s okay that summer is ending. We managed to pack a lot into a short amount of time!

Tell us what you did on your summer vacation, and feel free to link up any summer posts this week on The Spin Cycle! Be sure to visit my partner, Gretchen, to see what she’s been doing this summer!

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