For my job, I run a little daycare out of my home, so I get to spend the hottest time of the year with lots of adorable little ones. We live with a big sports complex right behind our house, and it is like a personal playground for us. One of the best things about this are the sports fields - particular the soccer field. Because when the summer drought sets in - they set out sprinklers!! Large sprinklers, and I love to get swimsuits on everyone and run down to them. No one can resist the powers of the sprinklers. Inevitebly, someone will not be in the mood and will pout that I am making them go, in the process refusing to put on a swimsuit and absolutely declaring with crossed arms that they ARE NOT getting wet, and am not going to have any fun. Fast forward 5 minutes and they are running through the sprinklers, their clothes soaked, screaming the loudest of all - and not that I would point it out to them, because that might make me petty - but they are having the most fun. ( My favorite year for sprinkler hijinks was the year that kids got the bright idea to bring umbrellas down. So fun!)
Other fun water memories are from water guns and water balloons. I like to have certain days set aside for these. This summer we had a water gun fight day where the kids brought their own water guns from home. That was a scene! My daughter snuck upstairs and was squirting them too - and it was so funny, because they could not for the life of them figure out where it was coming from. The thing about water balloons is that 1. They are super fun. 2. They take hours to fill up. 3. They take minutes to throw and use up. This is another example of an activity that all kids love - except for that one stick in the mud, who doesn't want to have to go outside, and crosses their arms and says no matter what, NO MATTER WHAT they are not getting wet and are not going to have any fun. And then guess who gets the wettest and has the biggest smile on their face. Bless.
My family belongs to a wonderful big baptist church. And our daughter is in the church's youth group, which is made up of jr. high and high school kids. The youth group is made up of wonderful people who work hard to both minister to these kids, but also make life fun for them, offering them lots of field trips and fun things to do. So we joined them last summer for their Labor Day camping trip. Every single year where we live in the Midwest, Labor Day is always very cool weather wise. It never fails that we get invited to a pool party, and the day is cloudy and temperature in the 60's. We still always have fun albeit shivering beside a swimming pool. So camping in this weather was right up our alley! And when asked to chaperone we leapt at the chance! Well, the big day was here, and this year - of all years - the temperate was 100 degrees. Sigh.
We had been swimming at the lake the year before and had driven through the campground there - just because. We laughed and laughed because in the middle of all the big fancy tents, and primarily campers with electricity, was this one single hillbilly tent with - no joke - an air conditioner sticking out of it. We couldn't believe what kind of idiot would do this. Until we were the idiots camping in the sun in a tent when it was 100 degrees. I hate to admit, that we installed an air conditioner in our tent. In fact, we weren't even the only ones! Don't judge until you've walked in our shoes!!Once we got the comfort level a little more comfortable, we settled in for the weekend. At first none of the kids knew what to do. We were in a beautiful huge lot with an enormous state of the art pavilion with electricity, a fire place, a water pump, lots and lots of grass for sports, hiking trails at our fingertips, and the water before us. But the kids couldn't find anything to do. So I corralled a little group to walk down to the water. We were sitting on a nice little bench watching fish and dragon flies and hypothesiseing about could be on the other side of the lake, when God decided to shake things up a little via a water snake. When you see a black snake swimming right up to the bank you and the kids are siting on, what do you do? Do you freak out or do you remain calm? Do you go running off, thus losing sight of where the snake goes - like right towards your tent? I chose a combination of being calm/total panic. That recipe is that I very calmly told the kids that a snake was headed our way. The total meltdown was all them. We did however watch it when it got on land to make absolute sure it was not headed in the direction of the tents. Mainly, my tent.
Once that had kind of broken the ice, we got down to business. It was so fun. Everyone pitched in and helped cook, and campfire food is delicious! Our leaders had some really fun and creative games planned. After a really fun, but hot sweaty day, I decided to walk and try to find the showers. A group of girls and I think one boy decided to venture out with me. I should never be allowed to do this - I am not the brightest light bulb in the box. So we made lots of little detours along the way. The paths we were on kept taking us to the wrong places. We did eventually find the showers, but never could figure out the right way, so every time we had to walk the same "wrong way" to find them. Every day is an adventure!Then there was the night that our leader decided to lead us in a night hike. So fun! I love hiking, and anything outside after dark is always fun. There were enough of us in our group that I didn't worry about rabid animals - all of our commotion kept everything away. Although I can't imagine what all the other campers thought about all the screaming. Teen girls tend to be afraid of every little thing after dark and they scream a lot. The youth leader wasn't helping when he kept brushing the bottoms of the hiker's legs with sticks, making people (me included) think our friend the black water snake had caught up with us. But the best part was when he ran up ahead of everyone and hid in some brush for the most fragile group of girls, then jumped out at them in the dark. The best part was that my husband Bret was hiking right behind these girls and he wasn't in on the prank. I think he screamed loudest of all!!!!
And I can't bring this post to a close without remembering July 4th 2013. We went to a cookout at a good friend's house. They had a lantern just like the ones in the Disney movie Tangled! They lit it and set it off into the air - only to have it get stuck in a tree:) What do we do if it sets the tree on fire? was certainly going through my head! But it didn't - it unstuck itself nicely and floated off into the beautiful night sky. We sure have some good friends to keep life interesting!
Now that fall is just around the corner, we are heading towards the pumpkin patch and the maze there - (the maze is a blog post that writes itself! ) Hayrides, bonfires, halloween parties, leaf piles, and hoodies. I can't wait for it! But there is always a special place in my heart for summer. “Some of the best memories are made in flip flops.”
― Kellie Elmore
kkkkjTrust In The Lord With All Your Heart
And Lean Not On Your Own Understanding
In All Your Ways, Submit To Him
And He Will Make Your Paths Straight
Proverbs 3 5:6
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