our june gloom

Ahhhh, June is here! We felt it crawl in early with high temperatures and the release of school and work. I love celebrating those "last days of school," as it is such a relief when each kiddo finishes. It's as if a weight has been lifted off my shoulders, as well. Instantly I want to dive into the days of leisure. Maybe its the reminiscent feeling of when the kiddos were younger and we'd spend our days together. As the vacation days quickly end, I feel anxious and saddened that year another school year begins and another summer has ended.

We've had an amazing, fun, memorable summer. I'm especially thankful as the summers with kiddos are limited before they'll be off with their friends, dismissing any opportunity to vacation with their parents.

We voted: June, 2016 has been a favorite. Don't they say "June gloom?" Hmm, I challenge that.

My school year ended and I celebrated by spending the day at the spa with a girlfriend before bidding her farewell on her journey to SF. She's off to be with her hubby, which is right where she is supposed to be whether we Rotners like it or not. It was a bittersweet day to say farewell to this face but is it really good-bye if you're texting 30 minutes later?

The boys took surfing lessons again this summer but the bonus was finding out the class only had 4 kiddos and the other two were some of their best buddies. Our boys absolutely love this class even when the reality is your pants may come down a time or two. Annnnnd, your mom may have even caught it on video or time or two.

While the boys were in the cool water, KK was at weigh lifting OUTSIDE twice a week and went to basketball camp. As you can imagine, no pictures were taken and if they had been, I'd be dead meat for posting them.

We spent more time on the water with our baseball family as we celebrated the end of the season with a BBQ and boat rides. Man, we had so much fun this day and it was 117 degrees! Watching the dads act like 10 year old boys on the water then feeling like 70 year old men the next day was priceless.  It's a good thing the only injuries that occurred were on the adults as the boys had a play off game the next night.

The play off game led us to the championships. So proud of these boys who worked hard, played well and shut out the 1st place team 9-0 for the win. What a killer ending to a rather challenging season.

B went to Lego camp with some of his friends. I love seeing what he creates when it's open ended.

C prepared himself for leaving for four days to join friends up North for our church junior high camp. This was a mental challenge for him, talking himself into how much fun he knew it'd be yet leaving us (ok, his dad) for that long. He succeeded, as we knew he would, and had a blast! He came home happy and tired.

While C was away, my parents and in-laws had our other kiddos in Flagstaff...which meant, "NO KIDS AT HOME!" We had so many fun play dates with friends and slept until 10 a.m. two days in a row.

(Ok, mom and dad, we didn't have that much fun. We worked hard at packing up our house as if we were moving, to prepare for the painters. I promise, we did.)

My parents were in Flagstaff for the month, so we took many trips back and forth, sometimes with a kid or 5. Every week it was a different arrangement of kiddos and adults coming and going. The weather was perfect and the kiddos even enjoyed a major thunderstorm.

While it looks like teenagers spent time on their phones and littles spent time on the couch, they did. But they also spent hours of time outside - for evening baseball games on the golf course, hunting for golf balls in the stream, fishing for hours and playing catch on the road.

Fishing was a big time commitment this trip, thanks to Papa Bob. He spent hours getting poles ready and guiding the kids with tips and encouragement. While each kiddo did catch a fish or two, it was B who deemed the title as fisherman with his 23 fish in one day.

I was amazed watching these kiddos handle the bait and the fish themselves. Ok, maybe not the girls, but their brothers did a stellar job handling the job for them.

 

While in Flagstaff the kids don't need much more entertainment than the community offers but when I was there I snagged the big kids a few times. I love my alma mater and the town of Flagstaff so much that I felt the need to take them everywhere! I schlepped them all over, from coffee shops to football fields, Lowell observatory-both day and night, Beaver Street Brewery, Target (because, well, duh) and a drive through campus every day. Trying to convert these natural born Sundevils to Lumberjacks one tree hug at a time.

Speaking of tree hugging, this is pretty dang close. I also guarantee they're both wearing Birkenstocks, too.

We've been enjoying family vacations at this cabin for over 15 years and sadly, this was our last time as it was just put on the market. There may have been some tears shed as we said good-bye for the last time. Years of amazing memories have been created there. My babies have spent many summers there and have the fondest of memories on these steps.

We spent a week at home in the heat which really means, I signed the kiddos up for camps, classes and VBS.

We "made" C take a study skills course - which amazingly...he survived! Maybe it was the frozen custard but he said, "Mom, I actually had fun in that class." For about 8 minutes one day, I felt like a good parent who'd made a good decision.

While C toiled through his class, both KK and B went to Vacation Bible School. KK went as a volunteer (because I lovingly signed her up), spending all day with hyper, sweaty children. It may have tortured her a bit but guess what? She said she actually had fun and she survived, too! That makes two good parenting decisions this summer. B had a blast, of course, because he was with friends and had access to junk food and loud music about Jesus.

I love to read. So, I make my children read every single day. You see, when they read, it allows me to read in a quiet house. I had goals for myself this summer, in terms of how many books I wanted to read. I had goals for them also. Slooooowly, they have learned to love to read. There is proof in the pictures.

Over Fathers Day weekend, J and I headed to San Diego to celebrate his cousins wedding.
We arrived late Friday night at one of our favorite establishments. We were welcomed with a fire on the patio and handed a beer. I like our "Whittaker Weekend" excursions.

While we escaped 120 degrees at home, we were worried about excessive heat in San Diego. The wedding was to be outside in a park. The weather turned out to be beautiful, almost as beautiful as the wedding. This day was so well planned and celebrated and her dress was amazing. So honored to be included in their special day.

 

Early Sunday morning, we awoke at 5:30 and gingerly tip-toed out to the truck. We resumed our audio book for the next 6 hours and arrived just in time to greet our kiddos by noon and celebrate Father's day. We did so just as J desired-- on the couch, in and out of naps as we watched baseball and ended the day with ice cream. It's funny people say the kids look like me, I think they look just like their father.

We headed back to San Diego, this time taking our off-spring and a few other families. This week is always highly anticipated by our kiddos and quite honestly, never disappoints.

Baseball on the beach.

Building sandcastles.

Boogy boarding.

Moms.
Dads.
Kids.
Lots of kids.

Friends.

 

Fires.

Uno.

I mean, hours of Uno.

This picture is one of my favorite from the trip. It was a spontaneous glimpse I caught that reflected the entire week. Every where you look, you see groups of people, the sidewalk, patios and rooftops. That's how the entire week was. You'd see moms gathered in the morning for coffee, teenagers mapping out the next coffee shop to try and kids plotting a bike ride for ice cream.  Two dads chat business on the beach, moms still gathered on the patio, this time for Bloody Mary's. A 16 year old and 8 year old grabbing lunch at the sandwich shop while tweens play smash ball. A 42 year old talking sports to an 11 year old. My 8 year old son feeling loved all week by three younger girls.

A week of cultivating. And really good food.

C, while suffering through a severe sunburn and avoiding the sun, was so happy to spend a day at Seaworld with his friends and an evening overnight with his teenage cousin. I'd say he made the best out of a bad situation. And yet, he missed two days on the beach, he still had a great time.

We love our beach time, and we love it even more with friends. A highlight for all three kiddos was the evening football games, kids versus dads. Those are the memories these kids will never forget.

Hours in the waves, hours on the sand, all hours of the day and night.

If this is June gloom, we'll take it. 

I rather like it.