Summer 2012

My mom is a Canadian. She loves the trees and the mountains and white Christmas's. It still stuns her that she has two Arizona daughters who admire cactus, love the heat, and live for the summer....well at least I do! I wait around for the summer all year. There is something so magnificent about sun soaked days, summer storms, popsicles and endless afternoons of swimming.  My parent's always supplied fabulous summers. Now that I have my own family and I'm in charge I once again long to be the kid again! Mom's don't get a break. However, we had a wonderful summer. We road-tripped, flew on a few planes, swam as often as we could, ate an endless supply of popsicles, and managed to keep Joe home for summer's entirety. 

If You have met Gemma then you know that within five seconds of meeting her she will mention horses. We talk about horses all day. This obsession has been going strong for about a year now. So to humor her horse loving soul we took G to several rodeos this summer. She LOVES the barrel racers, does not like the cattle roping, and cheers on cue as loud as any full grown drunk adult. Joe and I loved watching Gemma love the rodeo. I would have to say that was the highlight of my summer.

After two months of almost consecutive travel, Gemma and I decided to join Joe on his work trip to Tennessee. This was a learning opportunity for me. In the past when I travel I do not make a day to day plan. Wandering a new city and playing it by ear is all the fun right? Well, when you have a toddler who needs to nap and eat all the time this just isn't possible. So note to self...next time we travel to a new place I will write out a day to day schedule complete with restaurant options. We really did have a spectacular time and ate all the things southern. The highlight for me was to be able
to see my friend Erin in a wedding dress. We sold enough of them together and had been there for each other's college high and lows so this was a really important event for me. You know those people that you can go years without seeing, but when you do see them its as if nothing has changed? that's Erin. She had a beautiful reception at a lakeside mansion complete with fireflies. Not sure who loved the fireflies more....me or Gemma.

Gemma is a fish. She would swim all day if I let her. My sister would make sure to invite us every time she went to the pool (because I live in Utah now and it is NOT normal to have a pool in your backyard) and G really had no fear this summer where the pool was concerned. She wore a life jacket and followed her cousins around that pool for hours. Next year I think she will need some formal lessons and possible and introduction to Synchronized swimming.

My beautiful baby turned 2. I do not feel I was adequately warned that my baby would get so big so fast. She is smart, fiery, curious, has an excellent slap, loves animals and books, loves to dance. She is quick, outdoorsy, loving, and I adore all the things that make her up. I wouldn't mind freezing her as she is now...but I am curious to watch her grow up.

Every time Summer rolls around I go Straight into Lakehouse mode i.e. buy every single book in my Amazon cart because obviously I will soon be headed for my Aunt and Uncles Lakehouse in Canada where I will spend a month lying on the dock reading a new book everyday. Someone asked me recently where I go to find peace and without hesitation I said the lake house. I haven't been in years but I can close my eyes and see it and smell it and I'm instantly happy.  Well this summer I once again did not go to the lake house and had to remind myself that pleasure reading time comes hard these days. I did manage to read a few books. My favorite by far was the Rent Collector by Camron Wright. I had been wanting to read this book for a while but when I finally picked it up and read the back I really wasn't sure why everyone was raving about it. However, I opened it and read three pages and didn't put it down till I finished...literally. Ultimately the story is about a young mother living in a garbage dump in Cambodia trying to keep her infant son alive. She discovers someone in her life can read and begs her to teach her how to read as well in the hopes that she will be able to someday teach her son to read thereby...changing his fate. When I was 16 years old the boy I was dating told me I was stupid because I read. To this day I am not sure what his intentions were. Why he chose to spit that stupid all over my face is beyond me...because if there is one thing I know for certainty it is that reading can only make you smarter, happier, and better. Anyway...this book had me connecting with it on so many levels. I read the whole thing with a highlighter.

Summer is ending and I am ready for a beautiful Utah fall. The magic of summer lives on into adulthood. Every year I think Maybe I won't feel it this year. Perhaps I am over summer...But nope. Summer 2017 was wonderful and new. Just as Summer always should be.