Goodbye Summer.. Hello Fall!

I know the calendar says it's still summer, but if you ask me, summer is over. The kids are back in school, the weather is a little cooler, and we took our last camping trip of the summer. Yes, construction season continues and the kids may still be able to wear shorts a few more days, but the lazy, carefree days of summertime are gone. The kids now have to go to bed at a reasonable hour.. no more playing outside until 10:30 at night. I'll now be making late night shopping trips to Wal-Mart all by myself, because the kids really should be sleeping.

We said goodbye to summer in grand fashion over the weekend. We took our annual Kerzman-McCloud camping trip to New John's Lake on Friday. The Vanderlindens tagged along too, and are now a part of the tradition. We had planned to camp for two nights, but a burn ban, insanely strong winds and crabby kids made us rethink our plan, and we packed up camp on Saturday afternoon. Not until Jake had caught a fish though.

All summer, Jake has been trying to catch a fish. He had not had any success, until Saturday afternoon. He left his fishing rods (one fancy one, one cheesy Spiderman one) propped on a chair on the lake's edge while he came to the campsite for a hotdog. That's when Brad noticed something... he had a bite! Jake rushed to the water, and reeled in his Spiderman rod... with a fish! You can see by the picture, it was a whopper! It didn't matter to Jake.. he was so excited to have finally caught something! He wanted to cook it for lunch. When we convinced him that wasn't a good idea, he asked if he could grill it for a few seconds, then take it home for a knick knack. Again, not a good idea. He let John (that's the fish's name.. because he caught him in New John's Lake) swim around in the dog's water dish for awhile. He had a hard time putting him back in the lake. He kissed him, coaxed him to swim away, then came back to the campsite in tears. We knew then it was time to go home.

Sunday was another hot and windy day, so we used up the last of our Raging Rivers tickets. Jake and Lexi are daredevils on the slides. We coudn't keep up! Lexi's friend Tess (who we joke is our adopted daughter) came too, as well as Kayla, Aubrey and the Vanderlindens. Lizzy had a great time on the kid's slide.. she has no fear of water, heights, or anything. It was so fun.. and a little exhausting.. to watch her play so hard! But what a great way to say goodbye to summer!

Monday was a rainy day, and the perfect transition to fall. As sad as I am to see summer end, I am also anxious for fall and cooler temperatures, and to have a routine once again.