Summertime is when so many sweet memories are made. School is out so I have 8-10 weeks to spend with our kiddos! The smell of sunscreen, sticky chins from eating watermelon, eating dinner outside on the patio, swimming in the pool, mini vacays. Those are all things I savor every year. In today’s blog, I’m sharing some things that I’m going to savor from this summer.

We put up a new, and a little bigger, pool this summer. It’s where we spend most of the summer and where we have the BEST conversations. The other day, I asked the kids to share with us what they hope their life is like when they’re adults. I learned what careers they want to pursue, what they want to drive, how many kids they want to have, what they want to name their kids, and so many other details. Klara even shared what outfit she wants to wear to work under her white lab coat (because we’re assuming herpetologists wear long, white lab coats) and what kind of backsplash she wants in her house in the suburbs.

In my last post, I mentioned how I’m seeking a more simple, fulfilling, slow-paced life. To me, that includes simple pleasures that bring me happiness. Life is too short to pass up on things that make you happy. Planting seeds, watering them, caring for them each day, and finally seeing sprouts. Caring for my house plants and seeing them thrive. Those things bring me joy, so that’s what I made time for this summer. I planted lettuce, cilantro, basil, and oregano.

Our daughter has always been a free spirit who thrives on slow living. She was the reason we planted a garden last summer, and by doing that, I developed a love for planting that I didn’t know existed. The excitement on her face when she notices the slightest speck of green coming up from the soil is unmatched. This summer, she wanted to use her birthday money on things for her raised garden bed. We went to Hobby Lobby as soon as their spring collection went on sale and she picked out her favorite things, along with a pack of Heirloom Cosmos for her raised bed.

I worked summer school during the month of June, but I only worked 8-12. When my kids were younger, I didn’t work June or July, but now that they’re older I work the month of June, Monday through Thursday, to make a little extra money for all the fun things we have planned on our summer bucket list. It gives me the opportunity to serve the kiddos I’ve loved on all year before I go home to have picnic lunches by the pool with my own kids.

Our summer bucket list wouldn’t be complete without going to an Appalachian League baseball game to cheer on our team.

Kylan’s basketball team went out of town for 3 nights to play in a basketball camp at UVA Wise. They stayed in the dorms on campus. He said it was such a cool experience!

Klara attended a 3 day camp with her friend Sara. I dropped her off at 8 each morning and picked her up at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. They tye dyed shirts, did manicures, had tinsel put in their hair, and had a water day. She said it was the best time!

We renovated our entire bedroom! I am planning to post a room reveal blog soon, but here is a sneak peek. These new nightstands are absolutely PERFECT.

One thing I will go ahead and share is that we upgraded from a queen sized bed to a king. Aside from having to spend a fortune on a new and bigger mattress, it was one of the best purchases we’ve ever made. The kids are always asking to have movie nights downstairs in our room now so they can lay with us in our big bed. This is our 15 (almost 16) year olds favorite spot – laying on my lap. He may weigh 35 more pounds than me and stand over 6 feet tall, but I am soaking up every minute of this.

Jordan and I had a lunch date at McAllister’s while Kylan was out of town, Klara was at camp, and Koby was spending time with Jordan’s aunt. I love visiting Johnson City.

One time I heard something like, “We so often mourn losing the newborn stage and the toddler stage as our kids get older, but you rarely hear anyone talk about how incredible the teen years can be.” And y’all, I’m here to tell you – I am so guilty of this. I am constantly saddened by the long lost years of rocking a baby to sleep and making bottles in the middle of the night. Folding and putting away the tiniest baby clothes, holding a baby with one arm and cooking dinner with the other. There is nothing sweeter than having a newborn. I would have a dozen more babies if Jordan would get on board with the idea. BUT, the teenage years have been so insanely enjoyable. They’re just as good, if not better, than the newborn stage. The boys made dinner and dessert on their own one evening. I sat in the next room listening to them talk and truly connect with each other while they prepared a meal for their family.

I mostly share the beautiful parts of our life because there are literally so many moments worth sharing with you, but from time to time we have an occasional unfortunate thing happen. In June, we lost one of our guinea pigs, Gerald. I went to feed them before bed one night like I always do, and I noticed he wouldn’t come out of his house which was really unlike him. When he finally did come out, I noticed he could barely walk. I ran upstairs to get Jordan and once he saw Gerald, he said he thought something was wrong. Gerald’s little face was swollen and he looked like he was struggling to breathe. A few minutes later, he started gasping for air and was wheezing with each breath he took. It was around 9 o’clock, so the only option I had was to call the animal hospital. I called to let them know I was on my way and explained what was going on and the lady on the other end of the line interrupted me and said they didn’t treat guinea pigs because they’re considered an exotic pet. I just sat in the floor with Gerald crying until midnight when I was finally able to fall asleep. Jordan got up around 4 o’clock to check on him but woke me up to tell me that he didn’t make it through the night. The next day we buried him on my mom’s land.

It’s so easy to just “slow down” when we visit my mom. We enjoyed the views from her hill, rocked in rocking chairs, sat on my papaw’s porch swing, and looked through old recipe cards. My favorite recipe was on a piece of paper, handwritten by my grandmother’s sister over 25 years ago. It was her chicken and dumpling recipe. I remember begging her to make chicken and dumplings for me every Sunday after church.

Me and Jordan had dinner at one of my local favorite restaurants, Nick’s. Their oatmeal cake is scrumptious after you indulge in some southern cooking!

Friday nights are still for eatin’ out and getting ice cream afterward.

Every summer starting on July 1 we start our summer bucket list. Every year we kick it off with Pancakes and Pajamas! We have went to Perkins in our pajamas at 6am, we have made a pancake buffet at home, but this year we drove to McDonald’s in our pajamas and brought home 5 orders of pancakes!

We had a fun Jurassic World movie night with movie themed foods and decorations.

We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for the 4th of July and went to see fireworks.

We went to one of my favorite festivals – Jonesborough Days.

If you’ve followed my blog for awhile, you might remember that each one of our kids has their own “yes day” on our summer bucket list. It’s a day set aside for them to have any breakfast they want, dinner of their choice, and we go wherever they want to go (within reason) and do whatever they want to do.

This summer Kylan chose to get Pals cheddar rounds for breakfast, to go shopping, and to get smoothies from Java Juice. Something I’m inserting here so I will never forget how caring he is – when we went shopping, he didn’t pick anything out for himself. He was buying things for Koby and Klara for Christmas in July because he is constantly putting their happiness before his own.

On Koby’s day, we went shopping and he picked out these headphones. I have never seen someone so excited over a $7 purchase. For lunch he asked to get Mexican food so we went to our favorite place, La Carreta.

For her special breakfast, Klara wanted McDonald’s pancakes, eggs, and sausage. She wanted to go to Target, buy a new sketchbook, and do her nails.

For Christmas last year we gifted our kids with experience gifts. One of those gifts were season passes to Dollywood and we have LOVED using them all summer!

On our way home from Dollywood one evening we stopped at Buc-ee’s for the first time! Now it’s a tradition to stop every time we’re in the area.

The kids had their yearly physicals.

We’ve loved on our pups all summer!

They even met new friends when they stayed with our puppy sitter while we went out of town for a few days.

One thing I have loved about this summer is family time on the patio playing games until bedtime. We will eat dinner outside, then pull out a deck of cards. I’ll always remember this summer as the one where we taught our kids how to play rummy. One night on the bucket list was family game night. We laughed until we couldn’t breathe, especially when we played Googily Eyes and Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza!

Every summer we have a pirate day on our bucket list. The kids are basically grown, but they love doing the scavenger hunt and finding their treasure at the end!

One of my new favorite traditions on our summer bucket list is fondue night. Yum!

Slow mornings, dancing around the kitchen in an apron, making homemade pancakes is life.

One of my favorite ideas for a fun summer is bowling! We sign our kids up for the Kids Bowl Free program and my husband and I paid the one time fee of $25 so we could join them. ALL SUMMER. It’s one of the best resources out there.

We went to Just Jump, paid a small fortune for Klara to attend an art camp, and have sat in the high school gym for 8 hours watching our oldest play the game he loves.

Our secret to lasting through 5-7 basketball games in a hot gym? Fuel up with breakfast bagels and iced coffee. My life was changed the day Jordan ordered a peanut butter and toasted marshmallow iced latte for me.

Every year for one week in July, there is a festival held in Kingsport called Fun Fest. This year we took the kids to see the hot air balloons glow and we ate some of the best BBQ nachos I’ve ever had!

Our kids love Christmas in July on our bucket list every year. In the past I’ve only celebrated for one day, on the 25th. This year I thought it would be even more fun to celebrate Christmas Eve on the 24th and Christmas Day on the 25th.

On Christmas Eve we put up one of our smaller trees and decorated the living room. We listened to Christmas music and put our traditional Christmas Eve meatballs in the crockpot. We hung our stockings on the mantel and watched Christmas movies. That night I surprised the kids with Grinch Night. Grinch Night is something we’ve done ever since Kylan was little, and I’m pretty sure it’s their favorite Christmas time tradition. We put on our Christmas pajamas, then had popcorn and Grinch punch to go along with the movie.

“Christmas” morning was magical. I made the same sticky buns I make every Christmas morning.

Once we finished breakfast, it was time for presents and stockings!

There was a special delivery from the North Pole under the tree. Santa sent the kids their yearly Christmas ornaments! We hung them up on our tree for the rest of the day.

We couldn’t celebrate “Christmas” without an Elf movie night!

My aunt and her son, Aaron, came to visit the last week of July. There’s truly nothing better than family, and there is nothing like a bond between cousins. Being able to watch these kids grow up together has been a blessing!

We spent the last few days of July and the first few days of August in Pigeon Forge. We’ve stayed at this resort before, but they have recently added on to their waterpark and had so many fun things planned. We had the best week!

Other June and July snapshots that left my heart so full –

These memories are the ones that I will savor forever.