September

Well, this is awkward.

It's September.

My last post was in March, and I've got some catching up to do.

We went to Mexico.  It was awesome.

I hit the big five-oh.

There were growing up milestones.

Our youngest graduated elementary school.

Our oldest bought a house.

Another one of our boys bought himself a new truck.

It's been a gloriously hot and sunny summer.

 We did Niagara Falls.

Boldt Castle and a Thousand Islands Boat Cruise.

Toronto Zoo.

Camping at Killbear Provincial Park.

And a WEDDING.

Our oldest son is now married, and it was a beautiful, wonderful, magical day.

Then another one of our boys went away to school.  That was hard.


And on the first day of school I realised that my youngest child is in high school.


I have been proud and happy and wistful and sad and nervous, sometimes all at once.


And now that everyone is settled, and the house is a little quieter, I'm feeling strangely adrift.


Time to get back on course!

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That's a Wrap

Saying goodbye to September with one more look at those last weeks of summer.

I'm ready to embrace the magic of autumn now.  I see you, red tree.

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In Denial

It's been September for over a week now.

Kids have been back to school since yesterday.

The first day of fall is still two weeks away, but summer is officially over.

And I am in denial.

I haven't flipped the calendar over.

I'm still wearing flip-flops.

I haven't ordered any pumpkin spice concoctions.

Despite the fact that sunset is now before 8pm, and there are red leaves showing off around the neighbourhood..

Instead I choose to re-live summer, flipping through my mental rolodex of the past two months.  Like days spent at Wasaga Beach.

 And our weekend trip to Boston. 

The seafood!  I could've eaten lobster rolls all day.  I really miss them.

I took 535 photos of whales.  Most of them look very similar to these.  I may have been slightly obsessed.

We ended our weekend on the beach at Good Harbor Beach.

We spent a fun day in Toronto, and thoroughly enjoyed Ripley's Aquarium.

The African Lion Safari was a great way to kick off summer.  Posts here, here, and here.

And a relaxing week at a cottage was the perfect way wrap up summer.

In the end we didn't accomplish everything on our Summer Bucket List, which I expected, but we did manage a bonus trip that we hadn't planned on.  All in all, it was a great summer.

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Goodbye August

Tomorrow is September.  One more week until back to school.  I can look back on the past two months and say that we enjoyed our summer, and for that I'm grateful, but I'm not ready for it to be over.  I've always secretly dreaded back to school while everyone else seemed to be jumping for joy.  Partly because I'm SO not a morning person, partly because I hate homework and schedules and assignment deadlines, and partly because packing lunches while it's still dark out sucks.

We ended our summer with a one week cottage rental up north.  The weather wasn't great, we had rain five out of the seven days, but it was a good week of relaxing, kayaking, board games, puzzles, fishing, fire building, movie watching, and reading.

Yesterday was laundry, all day.  Today was back to work.  One more long weekend to look forward to before we put summer away.

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Week In The Life | Monday & Tuesday

I'm working on documenting this week for Week In The Life, and it's an intimidating project for me.  Trying to find interest in the day to day, often mundane, happenings in our lives is no easy task.  I tried it last fall, and I found that some days were easier than others.  In the end I was pleased with the result, and it was an important reminder that our lives are a combination of memorable events and forgettable daily routines.  All of it is worth remembering.

This week started with the last day of our weekend in Boston.  It was an amazing weekend and I would love to have had more time there.  I will share more from our weekend road trip later.  

Monday morning we set out to find a beach.  We planned to be on the road and on our way home after lunch, so we were up and checked out of our hotel by 7am.  The front desk staff suggested Good Harbor Beach and we were the first to arrive at the beach parking lot.

The tide was out.

It was a gorgeous beach, and the water was beautiful.  A few salty mouthfuls reminded the kids that this wasn't the fresh water they were used to swimming in.

We ventured into Rockport for lunch.

My second lobster roll of the trip.  I think I could eat these every day.

We found some candy for the road.

And piled into the truck for the long ride home.

We got home late, half unloaded the car, and fell into our beds with the ocean sand still on us.

On Tuesday the big camera took a break, and I barely remembered to stop once in a while and snap with my phone.  

I captured this gem.  The obscene post-road trip laundry pile.

And the mess in the truck.

Going back to work was hard.

Groceries looked like this, after eating out so much.

And dinner looked like this.

Beating the heat and catching up with a friend after dinner. 

Ending up trapped in a gazebo while a thunderstorm passed through.

Linking up with Ali Edwards here.

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