The End

It's the end of summer! The kids start school on Wednesday. For some reason, this summer flew by quicker even though I purposely didn't sign them up for many summer camps because I just wanted time to PLAY. And yet summer is gone and we didn't do half of the things I wanted to do. What does this mean about LIFE???

So what do you do to cram in summer the last two weeks? First, I let each of my kids plan a day. For Skyla's day we went bike riding to the park, Panda Express for lunch, and flew some kites. Karsten's day included swimming all day and a bike ride to Jamba Juice. Sierra wanted Adri and Kyla to be able to participate in her day and they were out-of-town, so for her day we're going crabbing in Sausalito tomorrow.
And OF COURSE it includes the Jelly Belly Factory! (FYI - if you go in the summer with all the lovely tourists, there could very well be a 1 hour wait... Ugh.)


OF COURSE last minute summer cramming also includes one last camping trip! Marianna and I took the kids to Big Basin (near Santa Cruz) for one last big hurrah. It was awesome. Here are some general facts about our camping trips.

1. We always gain 5 pounds from our wonderful camp food. We've got it down to a science. And that includes whipped cream with our hot chocolate, orange sauce with our french toast, and the yummiest pork chop dutch oven dinner. And of course smores - an absolute must!




2. My car battery dies. Every single camping trip it happens. No exaggeration. This was camping trip #6. We are VERY good at jumping car batteries.

3. No child comes home even remotely clean or we feel it would not have been a successful trip. My kids even refuse to brush their hair. It's scary. We do still brush our teeth if we by chance remembered to pack tooth brushes...

4. We are terrorized by raccoons. I know we shouldn't be afraid of them because we're bigger and we have fire, but I have to admit I am. This trip we didn't actually see any but we kept hearing them in the bushes which is worse. Did you know they can open a tent door? Luckily we don't know that from personal experience...

5. Marianna and I don't actually sleep very well as night. Whether it's a deflating air mattress or a crying child or a skunk eating our trash, we seem to wake up several times a night. We come home exhausted. Yet are so eager to do it again...



And OF COURSE our final summer days include the circus! A friend let us know about half price tickets (Thanks Kelly!) so how could we resist elephants and tigers and clowns! For David and I, I don't know if it was more fun to watch the show, or the looks on our kids' eyes as they were watching the show that was more fun. We had great seats and it was magical!


Luckily we still have two more days to cram!!!