Wait, summer! Summer! Come back!

Instead of lamenting all the things we didn’t do this summer (for example, we didn’t picnic, we didn’t barbeque even once though the grill’s replacement parts arrived long ago, we didn’t shed those extremely stubborn 7.2 lbs despite the semi-consistent-mid-day-melt-your-skin-sun-runs in the park <note overly-inclusive use of the word we here and elsewhere>, we didn’t make our favorite watermelon salad with mint and red onions, we didn’t clean out the guest room a.k.a. hoarding room and in fact added to the chaos, we didn’t bust out the brand new yet unused ice cream maker as we’ve been vowing to do for the last 5 summers, we didn’t plant any flowers or herbs in our side garden which is really just an attractive way to provide a buffet for local critters, we didn’t re-furbish our laundry room with kelly green walls and a checkered floor according to fantasies developed with the help of many pinterest boards, and we never set up a sprinkler in the lawn so that we could skip through it with glee) – nope, we didn’t do any of these things, but as summer comes to a close, I’m trying to focus instead on some of the great things we did do…

We went to the wonderful and very-manageable Bergen County Zoo at Van Saun Park in Paramus, NJ where we got a lesson in good posture from the prairie dogs:

We spent the weekend in NYC where we saw good friends, ate bagels, and gazed up at TALLLL buildings:

We discovered a full roll of paper towels in the back seat of the car then pretended that we didn’t:

We learned the fine art of smooshing sunglasses onto our face:

We took approximately 450,000 turns on swings located in Rockland County and beyond. Code words: higher higher!

We hosted many excellent chalk installations on our driveway, thanks to our creative babysitters, Emily and Jamie. One of latest included, HOP-CHALK, as coined by Ian:

Lastly, we went to the pool a lot. A lot. Did I ever mention that our local pool has a blue mushroom?

In the words of Ian, “Good bye-bye mushroom pool.”

Come to think of it, all this is just the tip of the iceberg – we have had a wonderful time with friends and family, including a whole host of other adventures (Cape Cod, Wisconsin, Delaware and beyond). Hope everyone has had a fantastic summer and that you are savoring these last few moments. Cheers!

And those things we missed this summer? I guess we can get to them next year. After all, the future is bright…