One last memory of summer...

Now that fall is officially here (is it as cold where you are as it is here?!?!  I've been FREEZING all day!) I thought I would do a re-cap post of my summer adventures.

If you haven't been reading along for very long, this past summer I had the opportunity to just relax and travel after 3 years of working in DC.  Thus, I went on a lot of adventures, to a lot of weddings, and had a LOT of fun!  So here's a little summer re-cap, as I sit here freezing my buns off!

The summer of fun...

It all began with some summer sun,

Bethany Beach, where we had tons of fun!

Cousin together and laughter galore,

Jess did our hair, how could we want more!

Then we were off to the wild wild west,

Sis and I were on the move and there was no time to rest!

Just us and Budgy what more could we need?

Vegas, Grand Canyon, weird B & Bs...what can you do but follow our lead!

Then it was time to bid Tighe goodbye,

Her new home out west, quite beautiful, no lie.

Off on my next great adventure I go,

Down south to the beach to celebrate a beau!

Then to Sewanee, to see my big sis,

Marry her sweetheart, I surely wouldn't miss!

Back up north for a few days and nights,

But before long, the 4th - celebrate with lights!

That was quite a weekend, 15 in the house,

My aunts slept in the foyer, watch out for a mouse!

And then it was back to ATL once more,

My first time as a bridesmaid, so much in store!

If your still reading then you deserve a prize,

I told you my summer was busy, no lies!

The rest of the summer was packed full of camps,

The first was amazing, so inspiring, not damp!

The kids all had cancer, but smiles on their face,

Just running and playing, brought me back to base.

The second, a reunion of friends near and far,

They all traveled in with their very own bars!

OH I had so much fun at my summer home,

Reconnecting with friends and just roaming to roam.

And then it was time to get down to the grind,

Start classes again...actually use my mind!

Oh what a summer, it's one for the books,

Such fun and laughter, even some strange looks :)

Well I hope you enjoyed my little poem :)  It sure was a fun summer of adventures, now I might go make this little diddy into a picture book...

Do you have any special memories from the summer?  

Summer fruit, yummm

As I chomped away on a delicious peach yesterday I thought about how much I'm going to miss summer fruit very soon.  The juicy ripe tastes of fresh melons, sweet peaches or succulent strawberries...I will miss them all.  So today I decided to join The Vintage Apple's Pinteresting Wednesdays and pull some summer fruit love from Pinterest...

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Don't you just want to eat these right up?!

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How I wish I could just happen upon this little stand :)

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The colors just overwhelm me, they're so bright and fun!

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But even though summer is ending and my favorite fruits will disappear, it's important to remember...

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"If dreaming made things happen, if wishes could come true, camp would last forever, a summer all year through"

Uhhh how I wish the above quote was true, but alas, all good things come to an end...I guess that's what makes them so special.  This weekend (as many of you know since I've been posting about how excited I've been) I attended the 85th camp reunion at the summer camp I went to for 10 years.  It was absolutely fabulous, I couldn't have asked for a better weekend.  We slept in the cabins, swam in the river, sang camp songs, stargazed (I saw 2 shooting stars!), and so much more.  It was so neat to be back with friends, some of whom I hadn't seen in years, and just fit right back in, right where we left off.  

I think I had a smile on my face just about the whole weekend.  I barely slept because I was so excited to be in such a special place.  Waking up to the cool air in the mornings makes you feel so rejuvenated and glad to be alive.  Something that was really inspiring for me (since this was my first reunion) was to see all of the generations coming back to camp and how the love never changes.  As a camper and counselor as you grow older and understood the true meaning of camp your love grows deeper.  But by the time your one of the oldest at camp your love is stronger then many of the younger campers because you've been there longer and are just more mature.  Coming back this weekend was different though, we'd all been there about the same amount of time and everyone, though in some cases generations between, had the same love for camp.  A beautiful legacy.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

Friday night dinner  

Dance party...got a little wild!

Team comp, the Buffs cheering!

Green Team snake 

During the deck tennis team comp (learn more about deck tennis here),
all three of us were green team captain as JCs :)

Crimson Sunset on Carrington Deck :)

My JC group, love them

Camp for 2 days or 2 months?

Anyway, it was a wonderful weekend and I could probably go on for hours with all of the special moments and rekindled relationships.  My mom (who was also there for the weekend and went to camp as a little girl) and I talked about the weekend the whole way home, such a sacred and unique bond that we get to share.  After the weekend, although very camp sick, I'm feeling rejuvenated and re-centered on what's truly important.  Weekends like these help you remember what life's all about, so happy I was able to be a part of it.

Do you have places that help you remember your childhood and bring you back to what is truly important?  

Happy Tuesday, glad to be back...and still catching up on many of your blogs!!

Beach time!

Happy Tuesday!  The beach is absolutely beautiful, it's so lovely to spend a little time relaxing on the shore.  Yesterday I picked up my grandmother and we headed down to the beach.  We got here and ate some lunch and just did a little relaxing.  Then my mom taught me how to paddle board - it was so cool!!  My wonderful cousin is very into paddle boarding and has her own that she brings down here.  Last time she was down here she left it for us to use.  I've been too scared to try it because I've been scared of falling in...I know I'm a wimp but when I was little I got a bad jellyfish bite from being in the water and have since been scared.  Anyway, I tried it and LOVED IT!  It's very relaxing but also challenging because you have to keep your balance.  I didn't get any pictures of myself but here are a few of my cousins and mom from the 4th:

I'm really enjoying being down here because this is the first time I've been at the beach without a big group.  I can just take some time to read and relax and reflect a bit.  Especially after this intense week at camp, it's nice to just take some quiet time for myself before the craziness of school starts.  Today I'm headed to the beach with my mom...first time to the beach in a month - how crazy!  I'm excited because I just got three new books  - one of which is the second book in The Hunger Games series (I started yesterday and am already halfway done!!).

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Have a great day, wherever you are!

Book Review Thursday!

So lately I've been reading like crazy...I've finished 2 books in the past week (which is not usually like me because I'm a SLOW reader).  But I've been sitting at the pool a lot and trying to get lots of reading in before I start classes as I know things are going to start to get a little crazy once that happens.

Anyway, one of the books I read this week was called Heaven is For Real by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent about a four-year old who undergoes a traumatic experience and almost dies.  A few months after the whole experience the little boy, Colton starts talking about his experience meeting Jesus and going up to heaven.  Slowly the family learns that Colton had a very unique experience when he was undergoing surgery, an experience that very few have.

The book is so interesting because it really makes you think about what heaven is and why this little boy had this experience.  Everybody has different ideas and opinions about religion but I did find this book reaffirming and coming from a 4 year old it seemed very innocent and real.  I would definitely say if you are interested in religion to check this book out, it's such a quick read and I don't think you'll regret it.

Lovely Summer Weekend!

Well this weekend was a HOT one in Baltimore but luckily I spent most of the time by the pool cooling off.  On Saturday a few of my friends from KaBOOM! came to visit and sit by the pool, we had so much fun catching up, catching some rays, and relaxing poolside!  I got to play hostess which was kind of fun, although I'm kicking myself that I didn't take any pictures of our smorgasbord of food we had.  I made a lovely fruit salad and we had crab chips, guacamole (not made by me but by one of my friends that came), salsa, hummus and lots more!  We also had some yummy summer lemonade and my new favorite, diet grapefruit soda from Wegman's!

It was a fun fun day:

Relaxing poolside

We blew up this float (above) that my mom had given me for my Birthday.  It was very difficult to get in and out of (as you can tell by the pic above of me trying to even see my friends in it).  Also you'll notice my lovely sun hat my mom gave me for my Birthday, I absolutely ADORE it!  I had been looking for a sun hat that was not straw because I think the straw color looks very weird on blondes and so for my birthday my mom went to Nordstrom's and found this PERFECT one:

You can find it here, and it's 50% off!: Nordstrom's Brown Hat

We had a lovely afternoon and a wonderful dinner (which again I'm kicking myself for not taking a pic) - we made crabcakes, tomato and mozarella and corn...a perfect ending to a wonderful summer day!

love these girls!

Then on Sunday I got up early and went on a long hike in the Patapsco Valley with another friend of mine (didn't bring my camera so sorry no pics!).  We did a 5 mile hike and it was so nice to be back in nature and see a new part of the Baltimore area!  I came home and was exhausted so spent the rest of the afternoon hanging by the pool again...tough life I know!

Anyway, that was my lovely weekend, what did you do this weekend - get in some good beach/pool time?  I'm off to Annapolis today to meet with one of the other counselors for a camp I'm volunteering for next week, can't wait!

Five on Friday

Today I'm copying lovely Amanda at Simple Girl, Simple Pleasures and writing about 5 random thoughts, check out her blog, it's super cute!

1.  I'm so excited to sit by the pool this weekend with three of my favorite DCers!  It's supposed to be over 100 degrees tomorrow so we will definitely be doing some swimming and catching up on all of the gossip...wish my pool looked like this but I'm not going to complain :)

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2.  I began the process of cleaning my room last night and I'm feeling so much better now that I started (my room currently occupies 2 rooms filled high with boxes from my move to DC).

3.  I realized that we have a bunch of peaches at the house that have not been eaten, as soon as I finish this post I'm going to chow down on one, yum yum yum!

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4.  The Help is coming out super soon (August 10th to be exact) and I CANNOT WAIT to see it!!  Have you seen the trailer?

5. Beat the heat - it's supposed to be blazing hot this weekend (at least in Bmore) make sure to drink lots of water!  (My brother just left for a lacrosse game on a turf field which makes it even hotter, I hope he'll be ok!!)

Have a great weekend friends!

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Sweet Summertime

So this morning I was thinking about things and realized that summer is almost HALF way over!!  It made me realize that I need to continue taking advantage of things because before you know it it will be fall and I will be busy busy with school and will be wishing for those lazy days of summer...plus this may be the only summer in a long time that I will have just to hang out and actually be lazy!  So I am trying to take off my gloomy, almost all my trips are over, I'm kind of bored hat and put back on my I LOVE SUMMER hat, because, why not!

To help me do this I found a few lovely images on Pinterest:

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And so I am now off to embrace summer again, because...why not, enjoy it while it's here!

Also linking up to Money Savvy Michelle and Crunchy Frugalista Thankful for Friends Thursday, check them out!

It's a colorful kind of day!

This past week I've really felt like summer is upon us...so this calls for a colorful semi-wordless Wednesday...just a few shots I found mostly through We heart it - very cool website with awesome pics!



Enjoy a bit of COLOR in your life today!

Neat painting done by Beatriz Milhazes

Who wouldn't want to drink a cup of pink coffee?

Smiles

Artsy

OBSESSION - I could write a whole blog about these tasty
little treats...

Can't wait to get down to the beach in just a few short weeks...

Anyway, a very simple post but I hope it makes you smile this morning :)  Do you have any fun summer plans?  I know I have lots to look forward to...can't wait for it all to begin!!