Summertime Memories

Summertime is quickly arriving and with every warm morning I am reminded of childhood days. 

I had the best summers and every year those memories pop up, as I step outside and feel the sun and warmth on my face. 

There were summers spent in Corpus Christi with my aunt and uncle, where I rode bikes with friends, played my favorite board games in their game room, went grocery shopping with my aunt and loved visiting my friend's house, where her mom had a beauty shop. I mean, those were the days!

There was a Maverick Market across the street, where we would get Icees every day. My favorite was the Coke and Cherry mixed. Yum!

I also have wonderful memories of summers spent with my dad and stepmom. We would have watermelon on the porch at night, visit my Aunt Julia in a big, southern house in town, where she had pictures hanging on the wall of my Uncle John with past presidents. We would head to the lake on some weekends, with a cooler full of Shasta drinks, sandwiches and snacks. The truck would be loaded down with new floats, beach towels and kids. What great memories those were!

I also have hilarious memories of popping fireworks with cousins and my dad's joking around leading to my grandmother's beehive hairdo catching on fire when a spark landed in her hair. Hairspray and fireworks don't mix! But they do make for some crazy memories!

Then there were the summers when I had my own children to play with. I still treasure those memories just as much.

David and I lived in the first home we bought - a little brick starter home, with a fenced in backyard. It wasn't fancy, and we could hear the train go by very loudly, as we were just a block away from the track.

We bought that house as a foreclosure and wallpapered everything we could get our hands on, it seemed. We were so proud of our little house. 

I would keep the little, blue plastic pool right out in the center of the backyard. Every summer morning, about 10:00 a.m., I would take my son Ted outside and he would play on the swings and slide and run back to splash in the pool. I would sit in a lawn chair and enjoy his laughter, read, or have a friend over to chat. It was a simple life and it was the best!

By the time Collin was born, we were packing up the little house and moving to a better neighborhood, but we created a fun backyard there and made even more memories of homeschooling, legos, new puppies and Chester the cat.

As the years do, summers changed as the boys got older (and so have I), but I still go back to those memories when I walk outside on that first change of season and feel the summer mornings warm my face.

I will treasure those days forever.