Starting the Summer Off Right

It has been such a weird weather year here. After a miserable winter with seemingly endless amounts of snow, it finally all melted in mid-March. Then we had some incredibly warm days at the end of March, before a mostly cold April and May. Then all of a sudden, this past weekend it got really hot. We jumped from highs in the mid-60s to highs in the mid to upper-80s, I think. I suppose that's no different than anywhere in the US, probably, but it was just such a big change all at once. Since it has suddenly become so warm, the boys and I have taken many opportunities to get outside.

We've all done some golfing. I had my first of three golf lessons about 2 weeks ago, so I've been more interested in getting my pitching wedge out and practicing what the golf pro wanted me to work on. Zach pretty much never needs an excuse to hit golf balls, and Drew is loving getting in on the action, too. The whole family went out to the driving range and putting green one evening last week, and it was a lot of fun. Drew made me a little nervous, but once we explained how he couldn't go forward to retrieve his balls at the driving range, he was good. He mostly liked putting (as in put, not putt) his ball into the holes on the putting green. Sometimes he even used his club for that! :-)

Here's Drew practicing with his favorite plastic club.

And Zach giving it a good whack.

Here's a little video of the boys golfing. The golfing part is short, but I think the best part is Drew's first comment to the camera.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

It seems like once the snow melted, Zach started asking about setting up the swimming pool. It'd be a balmy 60 degrees and Zach would say, "I think we'll be able to get the pool out today!" I kept telling him we'd have to wait until after his birthday, but I broke my promise this week. Monday it was almost 90 degrees and humid, so we decided it was the right time to break out the pool. The boys loved it. Drew enjoyed Zach throwing buckets of cold water at his back and tummy, and Zach was happy to oblige. Drew was also thrilled to wear his new Lightning McQueen swim trunks, and Zach was happy to squirt anything he could with his little water shooter. I was happy to get some sun!

Yesterday Zach had a preschool friend over for a play date, so we went up to the park for a while and then came home for lunch and some more playing. After Drew's nap, I suggested we head back outside, and play firefighters, pretending the boys' jeep was a fire engine. Well, they loved that idea, but insisted on taking it one step further and getting in full costume first. I tried to talk them out of the costumes because of the heat, but they wouldn't hear of it. I put my foot down at wearing snow boots, though.

We got some parts from my vacuum so they could have hoses, and I'd sound the alarm and off the little firefighters would ride. Most of the fires took place at Brad and Molly's house two doors down. The boys would hop out of their fire engine and spray the fire, then drive back to our house and clean up their engine like real firefighters would do.

There was also a fire at the mailbox. Thank goodness they got it put out and all of my junk mail was not charred at all!

Here's a very shaky video of the little firefighters.

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After putting out all the fires, we decided to join Molly and Cooper on a walk. Since we'd already walked/ridden bikes up to the park once that day, I gave in and let the boys ride in their jeep. Normally I don't allow the jeep for anything over a ride around the block, but I just didn't feel like arguing, and we'd all gotten plenty of exercise already, so it was fine. The boys wore their costumes the entire ride and got many happy looks from passers-by.

Today the boys and I took the dogs to the vet and then headed down to a big lake down town. We had packed Zach's bike in the car so that he could ride his bike on the trail while the dogs and I walked with Drew in the stroller. It's a 2 mile loop around the lake, so I wasn't sure how Zach would do, but he did awesome. He stopped once or twice just to talk to me and once because he needed a rest. Once we got back to the car, we got out the picnic lunch we had packed and headed over to a shady picnic table for lunch, and we were hungry! Our table was right on the beach, so it was just a short walk down to the water from there. The boys enjoyed throwing sand and sticks into the water before they decided to really go for it, and then Zach took off his shoes and socks and waded in, while Drew got down on his hands and knees and really dug his hands into the sand right at the edge of the water. They got good and sandy, that's for sure. I had brought my camera to the lake, but left it in the car, along with my cell phone, so I got no pictures of the fun day!

After a quick clean-up in the bathroom, we loaded up the car and headed out. We took a round-about way home so we could stop at DQ for a little ice cream treat, and this time I had my phone to get a good picture.

So, it's safe to say we are definitely enjoying the start to our summer and making the most of the decent temperatures. It won't be long before it's so hot and humid that it could be miserable to be outside, so I figure we better take advantage of it while we can!