.: Summer 2014

This spring, when random strangers would ask me when my baby was due, and I would tell them late August, the conversation would generally end with the stranger informing me that I was in for a long, hot, miserable summer. Despite all of this well-intentioned well-wishing, I actually managed to have a really great summer. Was I a little warmer than I might otherwise have been? Sure. Did I melt like the Wicked Witch of the West? No.

We started off our summer with our first long road trip with children. We packed up our minivan and drove eighteen hours to Hilton Head, South Carolina. We took two days to get there, and despite the fact that the novelty of driving across the country was definitely starting to dwindle by half-way through day two, I found the whole experience to be decidedly bearable, and, in fact, preferable to flying with children.

Once we got there, we relaxed on the beach for a week with Grandma and Grandpa and a few cousins. I took a nap every day, snuggled up with Ivy. It was awesome. Asher told me at the end of the week that Hilton Head is his favorite place on Earth.

After our week at the beach, we drove three hours to Grandma's house in Florida for another week of playing and relaxing. When it was time to head back home, Asher told me that the problem with Wiaconsin is that it doesn't have a beach.

We managed to have a pretty good summer at home even without the ocean. Wisconsin, whose views on weather are not generally in line with my own, blessed me with the coolest, most beautiful summer of all time. Asher and Simon took eight straight weeks of swimming lessons four days a week, during which Asher jumped into the deep end of the pool and then swam back to the side completely unassisted, and Simon overcame his fear of swimming. Ivy's big accomplishment of the summer was growing enough hair for it to get into her eyes.

Other than the swimming and the hair-growing, our days primarily consisted of doing whatever we felt like. We went for walks, ran around pretending to be superheroes, built with Legos, did craft projects, went shopping, sold rocks and sticks to the neighbors, cleaned out closets and cupboards, and generally soaked up the freedom of summer.