Summer Time Festivities

My fancy schmancy bike, a Trek 4300, smooth like butta!

A glorious 28 years! I can now die (before 30 please)!

George, Jaren and his fickle friends, the ducks.

Dallin and Daddy, a little father-son time.

Jaren enjoying sparklers this year (last year he was too afraid).

I love the summer time. The seasons in Montana are much too short. It seems summer doesn't start until late June and ends in late August. So, I relish the time I have to enjoy the long days, warm summer breezes, popcicles, walks as a family, barbeques, swimming pools. I also love that my birthday is about a week before the Fourth of July. It just seems to be one big party.

This year for my birthday, George bought me a bike. He planned this amazing day where we went on a bike ride by ourselves along the River's Edge trail (one of my favorite places in town) to eat at a restaurant that we love to frequent. It was a lot of fun, just the two of us, riding along enjoying the scenery, avoiding mosquitos, and eating sandwiches and ice cream in the shade. It felt like a real date, which we don't do often enough. The best part of it was that I was able to relax and be myself, not be mommy or the wife, but just be me with my best friend!

Summer time is also a time where I see much more of my husband or at least it has seemed that way the last few days. I love that George does not have to work the day before, during and after the Fourth of July. It's so nice to have some family time with him. Although we need to get our house ready to sell in the fall, I just can't help wanting to play and do family activities instead of landscaping our yard, painting the house (again), and all the mundane cleaning chores that require daily attention. No thank you. I'll procrastinate and play a little while I can.

We spent the first part of the 4th of July preparing food and gardening. I would have preferred to delay the gardening for another day, but George insisted. After a little break in our cool basement (as in no air conditioning upstairs), we ventured to the duck pond and playground. On our way there, we heard a severe thunderstorm warning on the radio. Golf ball-sized hail was spotted in some counties. We thought our plans for the evening were ruined. We indulged the boys for about an hour before the wind picked up and we could see lightning in the distance. Although I love a good storm, the worst of the storm passed us by, but the wind and rain did not. It was a little problematic as we were trying to light our fireworks but we managed to do it, though we were a little wet and received a few drops of water in the eye as we were looking skyward towards the exploding fireworks. The kids seemed to do better than last year and we all had a great time.