Finally.....FINALLLLYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!

It's summer.  Not meteorologically, but in my head, it's summer.  Jackson will be graduating to 4 year old preschool next year, as well as continuing speech, and we have no more of either for a few months.  It's summer.  SUMMER.  I love that word.

The weather kind of sucks right now.  It's been cool (today is rainy and 60's) and I'm seriously wondering if or when we'll get to break in that cool pool membership that I paid a million dollars for.  I always calculate that we have to go to the pool at least 10 times each summer to make it a worthwhile purchase.  So far, ZIP.  But we'll get there one day.  Of that I'm sure.

We had our annual family vacation last week--Minnesota.  The first few days were spent in Baraboo, WI, where we visited Circus World (Jackson and I rode an elephant).  We visited a big cat rescue, and ate at some fun places (a restaurant that delivered our food by train!).  Of course, we swam in the hotel pool, which was indoors but could have easily been outdoors as it was warm out!  Then we drove to Bloomington, MN, and stayed in a hotel across from the Mall of America.  It was a lot of fun!  We spent one morning just riding rides at the mall, including my all time fave, THE LOG RIDE.  Oh my word, I could ride that every damn day.  EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE and never tire of it.  Jackson loved it, too, which was fun!  We visited the aquarium there, went to Como Zoo in St. Paul, and Paul took Jackson one day to the Children's Museum (gave me a free day at the mall!).  The hotel had the bomb of all pools, so our mornings were spent out and about, then lunch, then nap, then pool, then dinner, then bed.  Lather, rinse, and repeat.  It was a great vacation!

Jackson's going to be taking t-ball this summer (2 evenings a week).  We signed him up for evening classes so that Paul could participate.  He had his first one last night, and it went well!  The coaches are all young college students who help the kids get excited about it.  They do a lot of repetitive stuff--running around the bases, practicing standing in the outfield, etc.  It's a basic class that just gives them the fundamentals, but Jackson really needs those.  His idea of what t-ball is and what it really is are completely different.

LOTS of busy weekends this summer--baby showers, birthday parties, weekend visitors, Waynee World....so much going on!!  At least the weekdays will be quiet and semi-uneventful.  Not what we're used to, but definitely welcomed!!!