Days Of.....

I'm sure it's becoming abundantly clear, I love the summer. No, that does not mean that for the next seven weeks this will be all summer all the time, but it could take up a good chunk of our little dot on the web. Mostly, because things are different in the summer, the schedule changes, and we move outside of our normal activities, so there's certainly more to talk about. Seriously, who wants to hear about homework, supper, bath time, bed time, laundry everyday? Not me. That's what the summer is. A break from routine.

A few years ago, as the summer started I was hanging out outside with a few of my friends, and one woman piped up "If we were in a bungalow colony, we could do this everyday!" Another woman responded "Ladies, a bungalow colony is a state of mind." I took that very to heart, and I try to have laid back summers (I still thank her every time I see her in the summer, and remind her how her statement changed my summers for the better). We have it easy too, since half the kids go away for four weeks, these first four weeks become a total change from reality. The oldest kid home is 8 1/2, and it is so easy to make everyday special. If we just stay out an extra half an hour doing...anything, the day was special.

Then there are the days when we really do special things. Like walking 2 and half miles to a friend who doesn't know we're coming on a stunning day. Being the good friend that she is, we stayed for dinner, which was served on the deck, until it got to cool to sit outside. It being the 4th of July, we got a double bonus of a real illegal fireworks show (I mean REAL fireworks) one of her neighbors was shooting off in the schoolyard nearby. Her lawn was the perfect viewing area. Apparently, we live in the wrong neighborhood, because my friend also had some illegal fireworks (courtesy of Pennsylvania), though not anything that shot up in the air. They lit them up for us, and we had a marvelous 4th of July, completely unplanned. It all just came together.

Yesterday, we thought , let's do something fun for these little kids. We decided to go to the Crayola crayon factory in Easton, PA. As we were getting ready, and I was listening to the weather, I decided I was crazy. Why would we go indoors, on one of the most beautiful days this summer? So, we decided to go to Bushkill Falls, in Bushkill, PA. Man,if I lived there, I'd move out on the weekends in the summer. There are a few traffic lights in town that just back up so badly, it took us 40 minutes to drive 12 miles. I know for those of you in New York City that's not that odd, but things don't go that way normally in rural areas. This place has been around a long time, you would think they'd get some cops out there for traffic control or something.

It really didn't ruin the trip at all. The kids were behaving, and the falls were gorgeous. There are some hard trails, which we did not do, because of the age of most of party. MBB did need to carry the Cheese Eater in spots, but mostly she trooped a long. The trails are pretty much carved out, some with gravel, some with wood planking, and some just natural. Obviously all the steps are man made, but this was perfect for us, and I'm really glad we chose to be outdoors.






They offered paddle boating on premises, but after all those steps to see the breathtaking falls, we passed on that and stopped at a roadside bumper boat place instead. It's good my car isn't neat, because I had a towel, and an extra t shirt in the car, so the "big" one could take off her SOAKING wet clothing. How'd she get that wet in bumper boats? The pond the bumper boats was in had a fountain in the middle. A fountain she drove to, and sat under! For the rest of the summer, if we go anywhere I plan to take a long a change of clothing. Half the fun is stopping when you find something. They had such a great time, we finished the night with dinner at....Carvel.

I love the summer.