It's Here

It's here.  Summer.  Technically, it was here a few days ago, I think.  But today was our first official acknowledgement of this season that we love so dearly.

The morning was spent on Spin class, house cleaning, laundry and the official summer homework that I initiated for both of our kids.  Ellee's preparing for kindergarten with a little coloring and writing each day.  Christian is absolutely devouring books, one classic at a time.  My good friend Laura has graciously loaned him books including Robinson Crusoe, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  Today, he started and finished Robinson Crusoe, and then spent the day reflecting on how Robinson felt when he saw that strange footprint, and what a funny name "Friday" had.  I'm pretty sure I'm in awe of my seven year old son's reading abilities.

After all of our hard work, we headed out to the bay.  

I'm a big fan of our little beach by the bay.  Granted, I love the ocean and definitely anticipate many afternoons spent out there.  But the bay, is our close beach.  It's not as grandiose and the waves are much smaller, but it's pretty awesome all things considered.

And it's absolutely prefect for the kids.  They can wade out pretty far and happily spend their time floating around on their boogie boards.

It was a gorgeous afternoon.

Everyone's happy at the beach.  The kids don't fight and they entertain themselves beautifully.

I was excited to try out my new beach umbrella today.  It's a Costco beauty, and worked wonderfully.

The best possible way to leave the beach today was to be lured away with the promise of ice cream. 

So, we stopped by a little shop that advertised a .99 cent "Recession" special and got three happily topped soft serve twist cones with rainbow sprinkles.

Summer for the Herrs has officially begun.  

Happy Summer to you too!