I will say it again

I {heart} summer. 

It 'tis my favorite season. 

So it snowed today.  The first snow of the season.  Sigh.

My girls were beyond excited as I hauled out the appropriate gear that had to get drug to school.  Miss J started running about the house proclaiming that "we must decorate for Christmas!"  Whoa, little girl.  Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.  This mama does not decorate for Christmas until December.  Sorry.  So at her request I drew shapes for her.  She labeled them "Christmas shapes."  Did you know a hexagon is a Christmas shape?  In Miss J's world it is apparently. 

Well on to the point of this post.  A summer recap.  It does my heart good to look back on pictures of my favorite season.  I can almost feel the warmth of the sand and sunshine on my face.  Almost.  Well okay, not really, but it sounds nice, no?

Summer highlights:

We went to the lakes a few times.  This was the first outing there and the only one I remembered our camera for.  The water was a bit chilly still as it was early June.  These two are testing it out to see if they dare swim in it.

Miss J went right for it.

The swim was short lived and building on the beach seemed a better option.

Miss J got a new sprinkler for her birthday so we tried that out.

I so wish these pictures weren't blurry!

A favorite past time:  jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler underneath.

Chad and I went to New York City on a service project with our church youth group.  It was an amazing life changing trip.  Our group of 48 people were hosted by NYSUM (New York School of Urban Ministry).  I can't begin in a picture caption to describe it all.  Maybe someday I will write a post just on our trip.

My sister and her family took a road trip this summer.  They rented an RV and drove Route 66.  Once they reached the end they headed over to our area and spent a few days in our neck of the woods.  

Then comes our Road Trip 2012 

Another big thing this summer was we bought a summer pool pass to our local city pool.  One of the best decisions we made for sure!  This summer lovin' mama was ecstatic to take her girlies to the pool as often as she wanted and the extremely hot and dry summer was the perfect weather to enjoy it to the max. 

Chillin in the shade during break time.

The eldest and her bff.  They spent more days together at the pool then apart this summer.

Don't let this picture fool you.  She was notorious for stealing other kids' toys.  I'm pretty certain she is handing back this boy his ball after snagging it from him previously. She even would sneak off and rummage through other peoples bags looking for snacks.  (now THOSE are proud parenting moments, I tell you. ugh.)

Her regular pool attire:  swimsuit, life jacket, floaty, pool noodle. Only a monsoon could drown this girl.   

Lastly, I have to throw a couple of these in here.  My nephew is a senior in high school this year.  My sister and I took some pics of him before school started, hoping for some good ones he could use as part of his senior pictures.  I think we got some!

My eldest, the night before school started, declared this "the best summer ever."  I have to say I agree it was pretty awesome and like her, was sad to see it go.  Fall has been pretty nice too though.  Here's to hoping we have a wonderful winter as well.  If not, that's okay,  God is faithful and carries us to the next season.  Summer will come again.