The Last Day of Summer

Where did the summer go? Did I accomplish the things that I had planned? Nope. Oh well...another summer has gone by and I can still answer that question with "NOPE!" I did accomplish some things such as learning to play golf, starting to teach my boys to golf, starting to run again, etc. All very fun things, but once again, I did not accomplish that academic-side of things that I had hoped with my children. Did they read as much as they were supposed to? No. Did we research topics like I had planned and then do something fun related to the topic? No. Did we practice "bridging" activities? Well, yes, thanks to the GRASP program for Ethan? Whew! I get to answer that one with a YES! Am I upset about not accomplishing these things? Not really - except for the reading part. I love to read! Why do I have such a hard time encouraging my boys to read. I admit that I find it difficult to find the time to sit down with them, but that isn't really a good enough of an excuse. So, to make up for a lackadaisical summer, I had both of the boys read tonight. Ethan read on his own while Alexander sat and read to me while I did dinner dishes. That wasn't exactly the best environment in which to encourage reading, but we made it 25 minutes!

On to a line of questions that won't make me feel guilty...Did we enjoy the last weekend of summer? YES! Was today a fabulous day? YES! Was there time spent this weekend golfing, hiking, biking, and swimming? YES, YES, YES, and YES! Whew! Some affirmative answers.

Our day today was split into two main activities biking and swimming/hanging out at the beach. Our biking adventure was a Elm Creek Nature Preserve that is filled with fabulous bike trails. This is a place that we haven't been to for about 4 years and it was as fantastic as we remembered; in fact, it was even better than we remembered because most of their large construction project is now complete. Kyle agreed to go with us since I don't have a bike rack yet and both of us have been wanting to get up there, so we combined our trip. I am really proud of the boys because we ended up doing at least 10 miles today. They were really good troopers until we hit this hill (E and A were not pleased that I was taking a picture of them trudging up the hill):


Here is a lovely picture of a sweaty, tired me at the top of the same hill as taken by Mr. Alexander:


Here are Ethan and Kyle waiting for Alexander to catch a grasshopper:


Here is Alexander and his grasshopper friend:


After the bike ride, we were going to play at the swim pond, but decided that it was a little too shallow and unexciting for the boys; instead, let the boys play for a little while at the big climber at the park:


At that point, it was already well past lunch time, so after 15 minutes or so, we hit the road again.

Kyle dropped us and my bike off at my place and the boys and I changed into swimsuits, grabbed our towels and water and headed off to West Bush Lake beach where the boys enjoyed another afternoon of digging in the sand.