This summer was just kind of off. We never got around to posting our list on our kitchen wall as a visual reminder of what we wanted to accomplish. Joey was on his "drug holiday" (which was not as smooth as it had been in the past). The boys really got into skateboarding and were content to hang around the house and improve their skating skills. I did not do well at all with keeping everyone updated on the activities that we did mark off. The whole summer we were just happy to be not doing much of anything.
While we did not complete our goal of 30 activities we did pretty well. Here's the last couple things we marked off our lists.
Family bike ride- We actually did this a couple times over the summer. We
love our Metro-parks and when we visit our bikes usually come with us. Our first ride we rode 3 miles down the path to get to the McDonalds, where we stopped for break and a drink then rode the 3 miles back to the car. We made the whole 6 mile ride in 55 minutes!! Our other family bike rides were at another Metro-park where it is a bit more challenging with the hills in the path, but manage another 3.5 mile ride and a 5 mile ride. As the boys are getting older I'm realizing that I'm the one now asking to breaks and having a harder time keeping up with them Lol :)
Go to the beach- There weren't as many visits to the beach this year as the weather just wasn't warm enough. However we made it to the water's edge 4 times this year. It has become sort of a tradition that I bury all 3 boys in the sand at least once at the beach.
Silly string fight- This turned out to be a better in theory, then practice activity for us. Jordan and Jacob were all into it, but Joey not so much. Joey loved straying everyone else but could not stand the feel of the string on him. Everyone was given to cans of silly string, the first can was for them to get each other so I could get pictures and video tape. The second can was for a free-for-all and they could spray mom also, and spray mom they did :)
Make pretzels- A few years ago (wow! 7 years ago) I worked in the mall at a pretzel shop and thought it would be fun to teach the boys how roll pretzels. The recipe we used left the pretzels tasting more like rolls, but once we dipped them in liquid cheese they were more like "real" pretzels. The boys didn't master the art of pretzel knotting but had a fun coming up with their own way to form the pretzels.
Kid movie marathon- This just kind of happen on a a day that it rained all day long. No pictures though, we didn't realize we had marked this off until after we did it.
Visit a splash pad- Friends of ours love a splash pad that is about a half hour north of us. On one of the rare really warm days the boys and I went to check it out. There was a fence that surrounded the whole splash pad area with gates that closed. It was really nice to know that your kiddos could be contained to just the splash area and less risk of them wandering off. There were tables and benches along the outside the of fence where parents could sit and watch with out getting splash themselves. There is also a playground near the splash area and walking paths.
Go fishing- There was a scheduled fishing derby through the scouts at the nearby Metro-park. The boys decked out in the scout uniform and excited to fish with friends. I was excited that there was going to be other people there so I didn't have to worry about putting worms on hooks or taking fish off hook. It was suppose to be a 6 hour derby, and we got there 2 hours after it was said to be set up. We drove area the area we were directed to and didn't see anyone. Turns out scouts decided to cancel the derby and didn't send out an email to those of us that had planned on attending. Not to let my boys down we set up their fishing stuff and just the three of them fished. Jordan wasn't thrilled by having to keep putting worms on hooks for his brothers, therefor not getting to relax while he fished. No one caught any fish, during those few and far between moments they weren't reeling in their lines for a better cast.
We had also planned on marking off camping in a tent and picking up trash with the scouts. There were two clean-up scheduled for the VFW hall and both days were canceled due to rain. The boys were super excited about the camping trip which the date was TBA. It was never announced to us, I learned from a fellow blogger on Wednesday the week of the trip it was to be that weekend. We don't have any camping equipment here, all that kind of stuff gets stored with Papa. There was no way I could have rearranged our schedules and gathered the camping supplies within a couple days. I was a couple day after the missed camping trip that both boys decided they no longer wanted to continue with scouting. The kicker is now that my boys have called it quits, I get tons of emails from the den leaders.
We came close a lot of days to all day in Pj's, just puttering around the house. Usually sometime in the afternoon the boys would find real clothes so they could go outside to play.
We attempted to catch fireflies but the couple times we went searching for them there was none to be found. We've decided to blame the cooler temperatures for the lack of fireflies.
We managed to find 3 out of 5 Geocaches back when we got distracted by the new to us park. Just never ventured out to find the other 2. Now that we have found most of the "caches" near our home and surrounding cities we're finding it harder to want to seek them out.
Trying to watch the sun is harder than you think it should be. We just couldn't get the timing right. We'd head out a bit earlier and then get busy playing while we waited for "the right moment" and end up missing it LOL
I personally was looking forward to the glow-in-the-dark party. I'm not sure when we will actually get around to doing this, but we're going to still do it.
That concludes our Summer Bucket List 2014. Thank you to all who followed our very inconstant journey this year.
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