Even busy bees need to sneak in a little bit of lazy during the dog days of summer, but mostly, we did our best to soak up all the sun’s kisses, because unlike our tan lines, summertime memories never fade.

Two apple orchards in one day?! My sister is a lucky duck! Thankfully, I got to come along for this ride because Mom picked both of us up after school so that we could meet up with Noah and his parents at Ferguson’s Apple Orchard! But, with more rain in the forecast, we had to quickly make our way to every corner of the farm and then move our party to Features Bar & Grill in Holmen. Because it doesn’t matter where we have to gather, just as long as we’re with treasured friends.

While Genesee still thinks our parents are cool, Mom jumped at the chance to chaperone her 1st grade class field trip to Cain’s Apple Orchard. There, they got to learn all about apples, pick some apples, and even shop at the apple gift store! You’d think they would have come home with apples, but instead my mom found pistachio fudge on the property. Everybody does the apple orchard a little differently, I guess.

After leaving Cain’s Orchard, Genesee and her friends got to eat lunch and play at a Black River Falls playground. But soon after that, it was time to head back to school and Genesee cried when she had to part ways with our mother, who she wouldn’t see again for another 3 full hours. [insert eyeroll] Despite the tears and a few rain drops, it looks like nothing could totally dampen the collective cheer of a bunch of 6 and 7-year-olds on a field trip.

I’m not sure how many times I’ve been to Ferguson’s with Colin, but it’s a good tradition I have going with one of my lifelong friends. I hope we still meet up here even when we’re really old, like in our thirties. Imagine how tall we’ll be!

This year’s Battle on the Border was more of a massacre. In fact, the only eventful part was when we got stuck in traffic on our way down to Kenosha due to a police pursuit of a stolen semi on the interstate. Yikes!

Needless to say, we didn’t arrive to the Happy Acres Kampground until 9:30 p.m…. just in time to set up camp for the night, meet our friendly campsite neighbors, and then hit the sack to rest up for the big soccer tournament.

Although we lost all three games by double-digits, we still played to the bitter end, and our coaches assured us that losing builds character.

Outside of the losses, there were some wins. The most obvious, of course, was that we looked darn good in our new uniforms, am I right? And we got to enjoy the perfect soccer weather! But my absolute favorite highlights are documented below:

1. Yours truly scored the only goal for our team! [See video below]

2. Mom’s good friend, Donna, came to cheer us on!

3. And we also got to visit one of the Great Lakes: Lake Michigan!

I mean, who needs a medal anyway?

We trekked across the state for the first soccer tournament of this fall season and returned home with awesome memories to show for it.

Oh, and character, too. Lots of it.

Mom says time is a thief.

But like it or not, we all have to grow up. So, today I entered the 4th grade and Genesee began her journey as a first grader.

It was a relatively smooth send off, except for my non-compliance with the obligatory photo shoot on school grounds, and minus the part of me becoming too cool for public hugging, and nevermind the few, quiet tears that were shed, not by my 6-year-old sister, but by my 44-year-old mother, as she held herself back from the public humiliation of outright sobbing.

“Have kids,” they say. “It’ll be fun,” they say!

But as I grow older and wiser, I start to better understand the complexity of parenting, and all the hard things that likely go unmentioned in that handbook distributed to new parents at birth.

In fact, I recently overhead someone tell my mom that the parent/child relationship is the only one you enter with the goal of separating. And since there is likely some sadness that accompanies such independence and liberation, once I returned home and was out of sight from any onlookers, I made sure to give my mom the biggest hug my 9-year-old body could wrap her with.

Because time is indeed a thief, and so we have to love hard and intentionally.

We jump and we cheer
because another year is near!
We’ve got all our new school gear,
and prepped for pictures in the mirror.
We have no fear,
and we will shed no tear
’cause we found out where to go
when the first day of school is here.

On the final weekend of summer vacation, we had to go out with a bang! So, we headed back to Champions Resort once more, but with Sara and Abe this time!

After we soaked up the sun, we headed to The Trempealeau Hotel, where we waited much too long for our food, but were in good company while our bellies grumbled.

If summer has to come to an end, it’s best to ride out into the sunset with cherished friends (and kiddie cocktails).

I love a good camping weekend, because I appreciate the great outdoors…. even when the great outdoors consists of stormy weather that pushes our festivities inside. Because I also love the great indoors.

Luckily, the storm passed by morning, and so instead of playing another Go Fish tournament, we spent our Saturday tubing the calm(ish) waters of Lake Arbutus. We were all so brave. And wet. But mostly brave.

Camping is my favorite! We eat good, play hard, and sleep well… except when an angry neighbor pounds on the door to awaken us because our boat’s bilge pump was shooting rain water onto their tent. (Whoopsie doopsies!) Usually we like to make memories instead of enemies, but besides that little snafu, we got what we came there for: quality family time, hosted by nature.

Still bitter and bruised from being bucked off the enemy during his childhood, Dad refuses to allow his kids to desire an untamable horse for a pet. So, in the spur of the moment, when Dad wasn’t around to sabotage Genesee’s love affair, she snuck over to the neigh-bor’s place to spend time with the forbidden animal.

At first, I was nervous this could stirrup trouble and turn into a night-mare, so I hoped Genesee would get colt feet. But, I must admit: They were pretty cute together and their relationship seemed really stable!

Although Aunt Julie probably told my sister to keep her budding romance a secret, Genesee softly and excitedly shared her newfound joy into every ear that would listen, including the ear of our disapproving dad.

And that’s how my sister became the horse whisperer.

Instead of a horse owner.

…Until she’s able to get back on that saddle. Because once my sister falls in love, it’s hard for her to giddy up.