My Favorite Summer Memory

Today is the last day of school!! My kids have had a great year and they are full of all kinds of new knowledge. At the same time, they are excited for summer break and the chance to live life a little more laid back for a while. It won't be completely laid back, though, because my husband and I both work full time. 

Benjamin is going to stick with day care for the summer because it's an environment that he's familiar with and he enjoys it. Frances and Henry have a variety of summer camps scheduled. It's a lot of planning and juggling, but it covers most of our childcare needs and it's fun for them. 

I don't remember much about summers when I was a kid. We didn't take big vacations very often, and the ones we did take were to visit family. My parents worked opposite shifts and my older brother is nine years older, so I imagine that summer was a laid back, hang around the house thing for us. 

Once I was in high school and college, I had summer jobs. There was time for relaxation, but mostly I worked to save up money for the future. I enjoyed my summer jobs babysitting and working at KMart. They kept me busy and gave me the funds to buy new books, put gas in the car, etc. 

1/3 of the Brainard grandkids

My favorite summer memory as an adult was back in 2013. We had a family reunion for my dad's side of the family. My aunts, uncles, and cousins got together to spend some time together and catch up. My dad has three siblings, two brothers and a sister. Together they had nine kids. Those nine kids have 9 kids (with one more on the way, I hear!) 

My cousins and I have about a 15 year age difference from oldest to youngest. It seemed like a lot as kids, but now it doesn't seem like much at all. I love getting together with my cousins, but even better is getting my kids together with their kids. Their age range is only about nine years, and they get along really well when they see each other.

If you are a genealogist, please skip this part, but we got tired of trying to figure out who was a second cousin and who was removed from whom, so my kids call my cousins Aunt and Uncle and they call their kids cousins. 

The reunion of 2013 was in my parents' town. We had a picnic and went hiking at the park and then spent some time at Claytor Lake State Park. There were plenty of adults and we naturally fell into a zone defense: watch the kids near you and don't worry about the rest! I love being able to completely rely on the village method of child supervision. I knew I could get after my cousins' kids if I needed to (and they would listen to me) and I knew that my kids would listen to someone else. 

My cousins brought some recording equipment and we sat around asking my dad and his siblings questions about family history. It was so fascinating to hear stories about my dad as a kid. I especially loved familiar stories from a different perspective! We certainly don't get together as often as I'd like (there's another reunion in the early planning stages right now), but when we do I thoroughly enjoy it.

He's probably telling a story about his favorite daughter!

Welcome to the Secret Subject Swap. This week 16 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts. 

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts.  Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

Baking In A Tornado

The Bergham’s Life Chronicles

Spatulas on Parade

Dinosaur Superhero Mommy

The Momisodes

Stacy Sews and Schools

Sparkly Poetic Weirdo

The Lieber Family 

Battered Hope

Southern Belle Charm

Someone Else’s Genius

Silence of the Mom

Confessions of a part-time working mom

Small Talk Mama Searching for Sanity Climaxed

My subject is "What is your best summer vacation memory?"  It was submitted by Sparkly Poetic Weirdo

I'm also linking up with Ginny Marie's Spin Cycle.