End of Summer

With the kids back at school and Labor Day weekend upon us, it is time to look back at the summer and see exactly what items on our summer bucket list we were able to accomplish. Being that I have declared this the "best summer ever", I would say we did pretty darn good.

Visit our local museum
Visit Discovery Children's museum **
Go to a baseball game (minor and/or major)
Miniature golf
Bowling
Movie theater - Madagascar 3, Ice Age 4, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3, Brave.
Drive in movie theater
Going out for frozen yogurt
Concert(s) in the park
Movie(s) in the park
Library summer reading program
Visit local animal shelter
Swim lessons
Knott's Soak City *
Palm Desert Aquatics Center
Swimming in our pool (A LOT)
Swimming at high school pool or spa pools *
Beach (hopefully at least twice) *
River ( A LOT) check out new areas along the river **
Sunburst Splash park
Play dates with friends
Sleepover with friends *
Grilling and eating outside on the patio
Family movie nights
Family game nights
Family dance parties with glow sticks
Water balloon toss
Fireworks
Sleep overnight in a tent
Stay in a hotel *
San Diego Zoo
Legoland **

Most of the things we didn't get to were things that were thrown out as ideas if we got bored but obviously, that never happened. Those items included visiting the local museum and bowling. As far as the aquatic center, I decided to hold off on that because Jadyn wouldn't have been tall enough to go down the water slide and we decided as a family to wait on the zoo, opting for Legoland instead. We also have plans to go camping in the National Park one weekend coming up soon, when it gets just a tad bit cooler.

One item on the list mutated a little bit when our busy swim lesson and sports practice schedules prevented us from using the pool as much as we may have in the past. The solution: night swimming! It became quite the tradition for us.

Last week when we got back from the river, we rounded out our summer with the one place the kids would not give up on going to - Knott Soak City. I did not bring in my phone or camera so I have no pictures but the kids absolutely LOVED it. For me, it was as exhausting as I thought it would be - carrying rafts up the hills, waiting in line in 100+ temps, dealing with crowds and overpriced everything BUT it was worth it to see the smiles on the kids faces, their playful screams when going down the water slides or dodging a wave in the wave pool and then jumping up and down deciding what attraction to go on next.

The next day we met up with some friends for one last playdate at Sunburst Park, the perfect spot for summer because it has both a splash park and skate park for my new bike riders. Here are a few pictures taken over the summer at one or more of our many Fridays spent there with friends:

Friday night, both the kids had their BFFs spend the night and we capped it off with a glow stick dance party.

We spend the rest of the weekend playing soccer games, resting and gearing up for the start of school.

We are not going away for Labor Day weekend (in fact Joe doesn't even have Monday off). We have no soccer games because of the holiday. I can't wait to spend a relaxing weekend with the family. One thing we will be doing is sitting down and brainstorming our list of Fall activities we want to do, so get ready for another seasonal bucket list. In the meantime, have a great Labor Day weekend.