The rush to recreate

I think this is like the third or fourth year in a row that we started our summer traveling at the very moment the boys were released from school. I don’t know if we’re just overenthusiastic or what, but I keep forgetting that that’s not really a good idea. Kids tend to want to have parties and things to celebrate—and ours have missed a ton of those because we’re always too busy shoving them and all their belongings in the car 15 seconds after the last bell rings.

I remember one year we got out the backpacks to get ready for the first day of school, and they were still full of crap from the previous June — including A LUNCH — because we’d just thrown them in the house and forgotten about them.

Oh, well. I’ve learned the hard way that if you don’t make plans, the summer will completely slip away from you before you get the chance to do anything. And now Dex has a JOB (yes, you heard that right, relatives; it’s at a car wash), which might really start throwing a wrench into my yay-let’s-go-hiking plans if I’m not proactive.

So we GOT PROACTIVE and WENT HIKING, darn it. It was awesome: