The Beginning of The End

Well, it's only mid-August but it feels like it is the beginning of the end- it seems that summer is practically over.  Sure, it's not officially over yet but with school starting next week for most of the valley and most of the biggest summer events having come and gone, there's not a lot of summer left to look forward to this year.  But, honestly, I'm OK with that.  I know I'm strange, but I've always liked the start of fall and even though summer is lots of fun, I'm not dreading the coming changes.  I like warm days and crisp nights. Fall seems to bring people back inside and back together after all the independence of Summer.  I also love that Fall always feels like a new start to me... kind of like an early new year.  After all, throughout childhood, fall brought a new school year with the hope of a fresh start, showing how you've grown and changed and the twitterpation of reuniting with friends and the wonderment of what this new year will bring.  I guess as an adult I've never really lost those feelings.  Now, since I'm not in school I'll have to live vicariously though my own children.  I bet they'll just love that, but we've all lived through it and it's the circle of life. 

We've had a pretty easy going summer. No real vacations or anything extra spectacular but we've been doing some fun things here and there.  This summer would have been ideal to take a real family vacation somewhere exciting since Kole is still technically jobless and it's like being on permanent vacation. Unfortunately that means less money to do all that fun stuff.  Stay-cations were our fate this summer but I'm not all that disappointed.  We still made some memories.

Thankfully, even though we're part of the 10% unemployment rate in the nation, we are not living on the street...yet.  Kole has been doing some landscaping for the doctors' office that his mom manages. (See all his nice work.  If only our own yard looked so pretty.  But no worries, I fully intend to keep Kole busy around here.  In fact today he is slaving away in our yard.  Don't worry, I'm going to "help" as soon as I'm done blogging.)  Anyways, the landscaping keeps us a float for now. Of course, he really needs to find a stable job before it gets too cold to landscape. I don't know exactly what will end up happening in the future, but we're still optimistic that things will somehow workout for the best. For now I still have really enjoyed having him home so much. He is so helpful around the house and with the kids. I feel pretty pampered and it will be a rough change when he finally does get a full-time job.

For the first time ever our little family went to the Cliffton fireworks. You're probably thinking, "What? Where?" Cliffton is a tiny little town outside of Preston, Idaho. I don't think I would ever pay much attention to it or probably even know where it is except that Kole's Grandma lives there. Normally, there's not too much to do around there unless you love cowboys and hayfields but they still managed to do a fireworks display on the 24th of July (even though it's technically a Utah state holiday). It's not overly grand or that impressive compared to the fireworks in other towns, but they set off the fireworks so close that they are right over you when they pop. What they lack in the "greatest show ever" factor they make up for in the "WOW!  I wonder if that firework is going to land in the crowd or start a field on fire" factor. Somehow risking your life and the life of your children makes watching fireworks so much better.

I'm not sure how or why but Uncle Nick ended up as the kids' jungle gym that night.  Even kids we didn't know ended up hanging all over him.  Hmmm.  What kind of negligent parents let their kids hang all over some strange guy they don't even know?  I, of course, only let my children hang all over strange guys they do know.  

The kids finally took swimming lessons.  Eve LOVED it.  Just the opposite is true of Jack.  I did a "mommy and me" class with him and he screamed and cried every time, the whole time, for the whole two weeks.  If you ask him about it I'm sure he'll tell you just how traumatic the whole experience was... though I don't really think clinging to me or the wall in total terror really counts as swimming. So, basically family swimming is out for the rest of summer.

Sadly, Kole's Grandpa Nielsen passed away a couple weeks ago but we ended up with a blessing in return... Kole's brother Keaton surprised everyone and came home from Iraq for the funeral.  He got to stay around here for a week and instead of having to go back to the Middle East, he got to go back to his base in Seattle since his unit was so close to coming home anyhow.  We're all happy that he's back stateside and he's safe and in one piece. 

We went to the Cache Valley Fair this last weekend.  I always feel like this is the last big summer event for Cache Valley so we just had to go battle the heat and crowds and overpriced attractions.  The kids loved seeing all the stinky animals and downing the cotton candy.  I however was not impressed that it costs $3 per kid to ride a dinky little ride for two minutes.  Seriously, who would pay $6 for two kids to do something for two minutes?  Answer: Grandma and Grandpa.  

Even my Grandma Louise was well enough to go to the fair.

My better side.

I feel a little sad for Eve that she is not starting kindergarten this year like all of her friends.  Since her birthday is not until Halloween she is still too young.  But then again, it's nice to have another year with her around more often.  Also, I think it is good that she'll be a little older when she finally does start going to school.  So many teachers have told me it is such an advantage to have them start when they're a little older.  For now, she will have one more year of preschool a couple afternoons a week.  Jack should be able to start preschool in January when he turns 3.  I think this time schedule should work out pretty well... Jack and I will get some one-on-one time together during the next few months while Eve is at school and then when January rolls around it will be helpful to have him in pre-school a couple days a week so I can have some one-on-one time with the new baby.  Sometimes it feels like so long until the baby will be here but when I think about all I need to do over the next few months, I think it's going to fly by pretty quickly.  Maybe, just maybe, I will post some growing belly pics in the future.

OK, time to get off the computer and go enjoy the last little bit of sweet, sweet SuMmeR.