Soaking it up

I can feel it.  The bittersweet "it's almost time for school to start again" cloud hanging over us.  I love school.  Andie loves (for the most part) school.  I love fall.  We all do.  It is a beautiful season.  I love apples, hay rides, cool nights, warm days, sweat shirts, hiking, leaves changing and all that fall has to offer.  But fall is bittersweet to me.  Fall brings an end and a beginning with it.

An end to relaxed mornings (notice I said relaxed not late....we are not late sleepers around this place) and a beginning to feeling, once again, in a routine.

An end to an empty calendar and a beginning to fun events through sports, church, and community.

An end to lunches on sandy beach towels where you get a little bit of crunchy sand in your otherwise creamy peanut butter sandwich and a beginning to packed lunches and remembering lunch money.

An end to forgetting to read to the children for days (gasp) on end, then spending a rainy day reading books all day and a beginning to reading charts and chapter books once again. 

An end to sun, sand, water drenched skin and a beginning to clean, new (to us) clothes.

An end to flip flops or bare feet and a beginning to running shoes.

An end to being exhausted at night because of the days adventures and a beginning to being exhausted at night because of the days events.

I am excited for it and then I am sad.  I can't wait for it all to begin but I don't want the summer to end.

But end it will, and it has been a wonderful summer.  First one for us in 6 and half years where I haven't  been pregnant or had a new born so we have really enjoyed a little more freedom.  This last full week of summer is going to be HOT and sunny so we are soaking it all in with swim days, potentially every day, at our new favorite swimming hole at a local state park.  Our next week is going to look a little like it did today I am sure:

We found this gem 3 weeks ago and have been enjoying it weekly since then.  It has trails, a river to walk in, and a sand bottomed swim pool.  The bonus is that we can swim in the morning!  Perfect for us morning people. We hit it up at 9:00 this morning and it was basically empty, swam for 3 hours (almost) straight.  Then left as it was starting to fill up with bigger kids.

First order of business:  test the water,

Add in a few snack breaks:

and some sand time:

I may be biased (or hopeful) but Isaac sure looks like a swimmer shaking out his arms in this picture:

Had some great company when my mom joined us for 2 hours.  And snacks, Nana brings the best snacks. 

And just enjoyed some sibling swim time.  We are soaking it all up here.  All the sun, sand, water, crunchy bites of peanut butter sandwiches we can get this week.