, make "crafts" outta stuff you find on the ground, and to learn how to poop in the woods? I mean, really?But in the spirit of summer camp memories, I will list for you some of my favorite summer memories from childhood. (These memories are in no particular chronological order.)
- My cousin Ben and my brother Joe running around with towels tied around their necks playing Superman and Wonder Woman
- One year, the creek that ran through my parents' farm* flooded and left us a present; a holey trolling boat that our uncle patched well enough that we could at least bail water faster than the boat leaked. We paddled around in that boat all summer--until the next flood took our boat away.
- Passing the swim test so that I could swim in the deep end at our local pool (you have to be able to swim two laps without stopping--yeah, that's all)--it's the same pool I take my children to now.
- The summer I slept from Kansas to California (and back again). The family took a trip to Disney Land in the
brown beastginormous van, and since I got car sick I was doped up the entire drive and pretty much slept the entire way! What a great trip.... - The County Fair! I enjoyed it a lot more after I quit being in it. 4H was great but getting ready for the fair always heralded the end of summer, and that was always a bummer.
Although corn dogs and funnel cakes did make up for some of it. - Convincing my brother and cousins that there was a monster living in the creek. It wasn't even that hard; they did most of the work for me and within a few minutes they had convinced themselves they had seen it--they kind of described it as a giant lobster
butter anyone, it had chased them out of the creek...and that it was all their idea! Ah...the best laid plans.... - The Kansas City Zoo--back when the animals were kept in a confined space so that you could actually see them. I don't mean to sound like I'm anti animal rights or anything but come on! I paid to see animals--not walk across the Serengeti and never see a single animal. (If you want to check out a great zoo for the under 5 set check out this post.)
- Sno Cones! Ah...snow cones. I now know that the best sno cones are actually from Tropical Sno. And if you are in the KC area the only place to go is my friend Seth Golay's Tropical Sno (this link takes you to his fb page, so you can get all the skinny on Sno)! Yum, yum, yum! Watch out Seth! The Mommy clan is descending on you this weekend and I feel the need for a black cherry margarita!
Did I mention YUUUUM? - Camping out in the tree house that my dad made for us. One year some of my family from Colorado came to visit and the "older" girls slept in the tree house--that is until the mosquitoes came out and attempted to eat us alive. That and those city girls were all freaked out about the cricket sounds and coyote calls. *hurump* City kids!
- And my favorite memory of summer from my childhood is... the day my brother was born. I will always remember going to the hospital to see him. Back in the day, hospitals had nurseries with windows so you could see all of the babies and if you could get a nurse's attention you could get them to hold the babies up so you could see them better. I think dad and I window shopped for babies for a couple of hours that day.
Peace Out!
*In this case "farm" is a generic term; it means a home in the country not a farm with cows and chickens and such. I'm not that kind of country girl. I mean I've done my time bucking bales and all, but only because I was forced to by mean parents who didn't understand child labor laws.
