My husband and I finished putting in the dock today - the last two sections are the hardest and we jokingly refer to them as "Rubik dock." Okay, that's my reference. His isn't family-blog-friendly. Every year it vexes us in some way, and every year we beat it in some way. Probably not the same from year to year, but the dock is in, and people can stand on it without worry of it falling down around them. (Although we did manage to collapse it 2x today - but only Willow got wet.)
I bring this up because we were celebrating the beginning of the summer, and at the same time noting how quickly the month of June will go. Don't blink, 4th of July will be here before you know it!
Summer's as a kid seemed to last forever and ever. My mom would load us into the car and head for Lake Leelanau; two kids in the backseat with the dog in the middle and one kid in the back with the cat howling the entire 5 1/2 hour trip. By the end of June we were sick of each other, missing our friends and wishing for the day when we were old enough to stay home and not have to go to no-man's land - aka, "The Lake."
File that under you-don't-appreciate-what-you've-got-until-it's-gone.
Oh, the cottage is still there - kind of. My parents tore it down and rebuilt a few years ago. It's nicer now - you don't have the jiggle the toilet handle and there is hot water for everyone, but it isn't home anymore - at least not mine.
The endless summers of my youth started when it was warm enough to go barefoot. It continued through endless bike rides with no end destination in mind, swimming from dusk until dawn and only "checking in" around meal time. It was watching the news through dinner to catch the weather for the next day and having our parents wake us up in the middle of the night to catch the Milky Way in the sky above the lake. It was swimming lessons in Leeland, the library once a week to restock, a tree house in the woods to escape my siblings, the "Bee Keepers" clubhouse and Camp Run-a-Muck for a week with the cousins every year. It was sneaking in to the cherry orchard behind the house and gorging ourselves on sweet cherries, complete with pesticides and who-knows-what else. It was watching for the barn door to open at the Matson's so we knew that Sarah and Tom were awake and it was okay to go over and find new things to play with. It was 3,000 piece jigsaw puzzles or 3-day marathon Monopoly games when the weather was wet. Summer meant day trips to the Sleeping Bear dunes or Sutton's Bay. It was missing friends at home and racing dad through the field to the main road on Sunday's when he left to go back to home, and work.
So now I'm watching my 7-year old float herself and our newest dog, Willow, on one of the dock platforms as we try to figure out the best way to put the last two sections together, and I'm remembering that when we first moved in she wore floaties and we lived in constant fear of her being knocked off of the dock by one of the dogs as they barreled down the dock to jump off of the end in pure puppy happiness. It was already 4 years ago that we practiced, "stop and stand" to prepare for the inevitable hip-check off of the dock. Now she is herding dogs like a professional with no fear of a). dogs or b). falling - she swims like a fish!
Yea, summer goes fast, but think of how much we can cram into it, and will!
The nice thing about being kids at heart is that for all of the crazy things we did, we'll drag Katrina along with us to do more. Will she hate us for it? Probably a little, but we're still the coolest parents that we know, and she'll appreciate it eventually, right? She will!
Summer has started, people - get out there and get it on! Life is short, so don't blink!
Peace
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