End of Summer Round-Up

We've been busy this summer. Too busy to blog certainly, somedays, too busy even to think. But, we have arrived at our final destination, for awhile anyway and at the end of summer too. It's been a good one, this last season, but the next chapter of our real life is beckoning us to follow and we're anxious, if a little trepidatious, to acquiesce.

For me, summer has always felt like a hiatus from my "real life" story. A departure from the day to day expectations I normally find so comforting. The hot and sultry days instead representing a series of vignettes that don't quite fit the pattern of my routine, the one filled with milestones and goals, achieved or discarded. Summer is the place where dreams are realized or made or replaced with new and better versions of themselves. Where to-do lists are set aside and waistline forgotten. Where children wake-up and go to bed sticky from delicious seasonal fruits, popsicles and ice cream cones, even with regular bathing. Where every day dawns with the promise of fun and possibility. I have always felt this way, but even more so now. Summer has become my/our in between time, usually bookended by major relocations and job, school, language, friend, and everything else changes. This summer fits that mold beautifully, maybe even exemplarily. And, while I've enjoyed the mostly highs of the season, I am and we are, exhausted. Our steam meters were running dangerously low earlier this week before our FINALLY final flights. Even first class seats didn't assuage the lack of enthusiasm shared by all. But, there are no more trips by car, plane, or train on the horizon and knowing that brings indescribable peace.

I know this is the calm before the storm, but I'm ready for what's coming. We've been planning for the next phase of the real life stuff for ages, the anticipation alone has become palpable. Monday morning it begins again -- but, before that, here's a look at the pages we've added to our summer diary this time around. We wrote every entry with gusto and no regrets.

Goodbye Caracas, hello Washington, DC
1 new house
2 new cars (Americans are 2-car families right? We just want to fit in)
1 Back to school night (our first of many)
1 Grad school orientation
4 weeks of visits to grandparents
2 Dinosaur museums
3 firepit BBQs
11 hours in the car for a road-trip to Santa Fe, NM
30,000 frequent flyer miles
1 lost bag
1 found bag
8 suitcases
5 carry-ons
4 passports
6 flights (x 4 people)
1 new cousin
1 funeral
1 surgery
0 trips to the ER!!!
98 moving boxes by boat
17 moving boxes by air
1 never-ending garage sale
Countless hours playing with cousins
4 Grandparents
2 Great-grandparents
7 Aunts
2 Uncles
2 Godparents
47 Different State license plates (only TN, RI, and WV eluded us)
2 carousels
3 trains
100s of ducks and pieces of bread
Mounds of ice cream
Visits to: the Royal Gorge, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, NM, Bishop's Castle, Payson Lakes, and Kangaroo Zoo

And...too much fun to quantify or ever forget

At the bottom of the Royal Gorge

Isaac posing at Bishop's Castle
(go here and here to learn more)

Caleb feeding one of the many giraffes at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

Caleb learned valuable skills this summer like building fires and making s'mores

Isaac riding another in a seemingly endless succession of carousels