winding down

I really can't believe this summer is winding down already.
School starts Thursday.
Of this week.

As always, it went way too fast.
Only this time it went WAY too fast.
I kind of feel like we had such a barrage of visitors and houseguests this summer that we really didn't DO much. We did keep our house clean and hang out at the pool a lot. :)

We did manage to squeeze our own fun in there here and there and amidst and around our visitors: VBS, swim lessons, we visited the zoo here and there, we had lunch with Ryan a few times, we rode bikes, we did our traditional car cookies, we swam, we had the slip-n-slide out almost non-stop, we took a quick weekend trip to friends and we spent a whole week at the coast.
But the overall gist of our summer was that we had at least one houseguest per week, sometimes more. There was one week where we had four different sets of overnight visitors within a six day period!
I just counted it up and discovered that we had guests here 34 days of the summer. That's over half of our nine week summer (school end to school start)! Sheesh!
(and I'm not complaining... we loved it! it's just that in hindsight, well... that's a lot!!)

Anyway.
I can't believe it's come to an end already.
We're trying to throw a few last minute summer fun things in there this week... we went to the Adventure Science Center and had lunch with good friends today. We want to try and get out to explore the lake this week before school starts. There are a few storms in the forecast, so I don't know that'll happen, but we'll find something to do.

I'm not ready for summer to end. Usually by this time of the year, I'm ready for it; ready for the cooler weather and the routine of the school year. This year, notsomuch. Maybe it's that we had such a full calendar, maybe it's not having the time to take in all the summer stuff in a new state, maybe it's that we never went camping (yet!)(but seriously, how can it be summer without camping?!!). But I'm not ready to send the kids back to school and say goodbye to the sweltering summer weather yet.

I can feel I'm almost there... almost longing for the change in wardrobe; almost ready to break out the long sleeves and deeper fall colors... almost longing for some cool, rainy, just-want-to-curl-up-and-read-a-good-book days... almost ready for the crisp fall days perfect for baking and cooking up warm hearty meals like pot roast and simmering soups.
Almost.

But today I'm still content with my shorts and flip flops and our AC and our pool bag/beach bag and not minding if these morning clouds will still give way to a sunny, 90° day where we complain *just enough* about the heat and humidity and eat cold sandwiches and need to go for a swim.