Late July

Continuing my "summer of never being home"....

The day after arriving home from our beautiful Farley's trip, I took off again, for a quick "girls trip" to Muskegon Michigan with my chorus friend.  

Lake Michigan is my favorite great lake, that's all there is to it (sorry Lake Erie).  And Muskegon was adorable, full of great restaurants and beaches and fun spots to kayak. It was a relaxing week away.  

Just realizing that this summer I got to enjoy a whole range of different travel styles, from solo international to family reunion to family vacation to vacationing with a friend. Each brought their own distinct joys and unique challenges.  What a gift, to have the time and resources to do all of these wonderful things in the summer sunshine.

And home again.  Time to fill the end of July with Beach trips and lake view and pool parties and cocktail choir and swim team championships...

And seeing the Barbie movie of course.  I love this photo because of the moment earlier in the evening when Jack had to run upstairs to put on his pink pants, and we twinned our way to the movie.  Sometimes I don't know what to do with this young man in my house, he's a beautiful mystery to me and I feel very separate from his life a lot of the time.  But we still find these moments of connection and he is smart and witty and a whole lot of fun. 

Greek Fest!  They moved it a whole month earlier this year so in some ways the last weekend of July really felt like the end of summer to me.

But summer's not over yet!  Especially when there's a weekend to spend at the Highland heights pool.  In the rain.  And the mud. It was a memorable champs for sure, huddled for 12 hours a day in our swamp of a campsite, navigating mud-slicks and puddles to get to the pool deck for the kids' races.  It wasn't as bad as all that, really- but the weather did make some long days even longer.

The kids were rock stars though.  Ivy dropped 20 seconds off her freestyle time (that's what 4 weeks away from practice at the lake will do, I guess?) and Jack was district champ in all of his events, including relays.  

Closing out July with a beach sunset... is there any better way?