Summer In Retrospect

As sad as it is for me to write this, this weekend marks the end of summer. Which means it's time to reflect on the Summer of 12, taking comfort in the fact that another summer awaits us, Lord willing. So here is a pictorial reflection on our summer, with commentary.

Summer 2012 was a time for...

Hanging out as a family. My oldest daughter graduated from high school in June and the only thing that kept me from falling apart over the summer was the fact that she decided to stay home this year and not go away to school just yet. She's taking classes at our local community college and deciding what to do with her life. I think she made a wise decision. She's got the rest of her life to be "out there" in the wide wide world. I'm so glad to have more time with her.
Fourth of July. We spent the Fourth of July at our neighborhood pool then came home and had an All American dinner, did sparklers in the driveway and went back up to the pool at dark to watch the men of the neighborhood put on a very impressive fireworks display over our lake. It was truly one of the most perfect Fourths our family has ever had.

Winning. Here are my four champion swimmers from our swim team proudly displaying their trophy after the team banquet. I was able to capture the moment when the team found out they won the league trophy on video. I will admit to watching it more than once. It was such a fun, happy moment. They were undefeated this year in regular season. I will add that they also went on to win the All Star meet. Just sayin.

Swimming. You might get the feeling from this post that we spend a lot of time at our neighborhood pool. You would be right. This picture was snapped of all my men at the Fourth of July party.

Being silly. When you're really bored, it's fun to dress up the dog. The dog, thankfully, is a good sport about wearing tutus. If you can't see, he has a scarf around his neck, a tank top and a tutu. Poor thing.

More being silly. A napkin at a restaurant becomes a beard...

Or a mustache.

Signing books. I had more than a few book signings this summer, promoting my new novel, The Guest Book. If you haven't read it yet, it's good to read even when it's not summer. I was extremely grateful to all the people who bought a book, came to my signings, or even just acted interested in what I was doing. I am so blessed that I can do something like this and call it "work."

And now we move onto fall. I'm consoling myself that summer is over by pinning lots of great decorating, food and craft ideas onto my "Fall" Pinterest board. I linked it if you want to stop by and take a look.

What will you miss about summer? What are you looking forward to about fall?