Like all things, the summer of 2017 had to come to an end, which wasn’t a terribly sad goodbye in some respects, since the world around me saw some pretty dark days, including a total solar eclipse, catastrophic hurricanes and flooding in Texas (Harvey) and Florida (Irma), North Korean nuclear threats, and white supremacist rallies.
Luckily, amidst only a couple moments of deep sorrow, my corner of the world was significantly more happy, bright, and carefree. In fact, my 2017 “summer-of-the-vacation” will go down in the books as a wet and wild one that had me skipping through sprinklers, patronizing local water parks with my BFF (Ash), exchanging my beloved baths for new & exciting showers (especially double showers!), and watching in awe as Grandpa rebuilt our driveway three times after torrential rainfalls.
This was the summer of warm & humid days, filled with dairy breakfasts and Rudy’s root beer floats. It was the summer of embracing Grandpa’s retirement, sending Ashlee to high school, cherishing time with the Docan-Morgans during their too-short return from South Korea, seeing my best college buds off to grad school, meeting Genesee, growing into my big brother role, and painfully learning about the circle of life as we said our goodbyes to the larger-than-life and always jolly Uncle Harley.
This was the summer where you could find me growing taller, biting my nails non-stop, becoming a night owl, fishing in the dark, assembling new patio furniture, eating suppers on the deck, roasting marshmallows over the fire table, sleeping in the master bedroom between on top of mom and dad because every day is a weekend, getting excited about the “P-U-S guy” with every brown truck sighting (UPS – United Parcel Service), and requesting my new friend Alexa to blast my favorite song on repeat, “Just the Way You Are” by Bruno Mars.
Endings and new beginnings, discoveries and familiarities, giggles and tears…. this was the summer of 2017. Also affectionately known as “The Summer of the Vacation!”
He moves like Jaeger 