So, I'm going to take a leaf out of Larissa's celebratory book:
I'm doing a giveaway!
In celebration of all of you who read, comment, and generally remind me how lucky I am to know you, I will give away a $25 gift card to Amazon to one lucky winner.
All you have to do is post a comment below, and tell me about a favorite summer memory. It can be a specific childhood event, fun tradition, a book you read and loved when you were 14, the summer you worked at Baskin Robbins... whatever you look back on fondly.
Next Friday afternoon (July 8th), I will print out all of your comments, fold them up and draw one out of a hat. I'll announce the lucky winner in a blog post that afternoon!
My favorite summer memory? For about 12 years, my family time-shared a houseboat at Lake Powell. So, one week every summer we'd spend a week sweltering in the heat, playing in the water (when we could get our speedboat to work), and sleeping on the roof under the stars (because it was waaaaay too hot inside the actual boat). I still remember the year my dad caught and killed a rattlesnake and let us eat the meat. It tasted like chicken ;-) Now that we're grown up, we don't have those kinds of family vacations to look forward to every year. It was a chance to cloister the whole family together, you know? I often miss those days.
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| Lake Powell, most likely 2002 |
Your turn!
16 comments:
Summer of 2008 - 4th of July.
Drew and I were spending our summer performing at the Playmill in West Yellowstone. We were engaged, and while it was a great summer, it was also a stressful time. We were trying to plan the wedding with my mom, but in different states, and we were having a hard time getting on the same page. Plus, living at the Playmill when you aren't single, but aren't married can be kind of...weird. We had a hard time fitting in.
But on the 4th of July, West Yellowstone does a spectacular fireworks show - especially considering what a small town it is. Drew and I were watching the fireworks with the whole Playmill cast, but something was missing - music. Drew pulled out his iPod, found some music, and put one of the earbuds in my ear, and the other in his. He had turned it onto "Remember, Dreams Come True," the fireworks show at Disneyland. Our worries just kind of disappeared, and we had our own little magical moment. :)
My grandparents had a trailer, and every summer for a week we would go to a hotsprings resort in Montana. It had a waterslide, and I remember my grandma taking water aerobics classes.
You never knew what you would find in the dressing rooms/bathrooms of the pool area. There were often little old ladies that would walk around and shower completely nude.
I remember one year, when I was about 12, making my way towards the showers (fully clothed in my bathing suit). I saw a single white bum in the shower, so I quickly backtracked. A few moments later, we heard my grandpa say to my 6-year-old sister, "Hey, young lady, I think you're in the wrong bathroom." To which she replied, "No, Grandpa. YOU ARE!"
The openings to the men's and women's restrooms were right next to each other...Grandpa went through the wrong door!
Growing up, we ALWAYS got season passes to Classic Waterslides. My mom would load the entire neighborhood into the car and off we'd go for a day on the slides then back home for nachos. I loved it!
I don't remember the "middle years" of my life thus far, but my adult life has been filled with some great summers as well. It's when I performed in most of my musicals and really grew to love being on stage. It's been Lagoon season passports and fun with friends and family.
Okay, I am already SO GLAD I'm having you all share memories! These are fantastic. You kids are awesome!
(Oh, and no, I'm not going to put myself in the drawing, even though I just commented ;-D)
We would go camping every year, and one year my dad decided to bring the dogs. Well Max got out of his collar and got away and although we looked and looked for him my dad finally said it was a lost cause and we gave up. About a half an hour later we were sulking by the fire and who should come running out of the bushes but Max!
Aside from a couple burrs in his coat he was completely fine!
The first summer my sister had here license we both got season passes to Lagoon...It was a great summer of rollercoasters and making ourselves sick on the ferris wheel with the cages that you can spin in circles (can't remember the name!) I think our record was near 45 complete revolutions in one ride!
I'll never forget watching the fireworks from my uncle's boat in Coeur D'Alene, then lighting fireworks on the beach, which were of dubious legality. We built a fire in the sand, roasted marshmallows, and when one of my cousins lit off an M-80, the neighbors screamed "we're not worthy!"
"Bye Bye Birdie"... golly-gee! We had a great time and all, but the girls' nights that followed were FABULOUS!
Love and miss you!
Growing up, we spent a lot of our time at different Camperworlds, swimming, fishing, hiking, biking, cooking delicious food over the fire. I love tin foil dinners!
I'm new here, but I am going to play anyway.
My grandparents had a cabin, and every summer my grandma would invite all the granddaughters to come stay for a week. One summer, everyone kept getting hurt, and so I (as the oldest granddaughter) became the "doctor." I had my patients schedule appointments and checkups, and it really was a big deal.
My youngest sister Michelle was probably about 8 at the time and felt very left out because she hadn't gotten hurt and couldn't be a patient. So she asked my other sister to punch her in the nose. When Lisa refused, Michelle punched herself in the nose, actually managing to give herself a bloody nose.
I let her be my patient
Going to Snowbird,UT has so many fun summer memories. Making crafts, playing games, hiking trails, celebrating birthdays, just being together!! It makes me smile to hear the kids say it's one of their favorite places, mostly because we meet up with their grandparents, and sometimes other family members. Makayla's first trip was when she was 6 weeks old!
Oh summer! I have so many memories! I loved Girls Camp, Youth Conference, EFY, Time away from school, free reading, Harry Potter book releases, and because I lived in Florida, THE BEACH! But most recently, doing Joseph last summer with the Charmios was so so much fun! ♥
Every summer, as a family, we would go to Saint George and even though it was well over a hundred degrees, we didn't mind the heat! We always stayed in the same condo and swam and played in the club house. We would always eat at Pizza Hut and get dessert at Neilsen's Frozen Custard. At the condo, we'd watch movies and eat and laugh and talk. I miss those days!
Since you gave me a shout-out, I have to enter, right?
My favorite summer memories all involve being outside - usually at night. Whether it was camping, catching fireflies, or watching shooting stars on the trampoline. I had so many bonding moments out there. I remember going to get my mother out of bed so she could come talk with me and stare at the stars. We could hear the crickets while the rest of the world slept (except for the occasional barnyard animal noises). I get goosebumps just thinking about it!
I also loved performing in the Hance Pavilion in Piqua, Ohio for Music Warehouse. Good times.
I am catching up! I would love to have been a part of the drawing, but either way, can I still participate?
Summer is full of memories for me. "Deep Summer"...is a phrase I love :)
But...if I had to choose one, it is our family camping trip. We were Idaho farm kids, so we didn't have a camper, or a cabin. In fact our suite cases were plastic garbage sacks.
WE would drive our suburban full of 8 kids, two hours to a beautiful campsite called millcreek. For a week we would fish, eat smores, hike, make forts, take nature drives, pick wild flowers, make squirrel traps. We were allowed to just be kids and let our imaginations go wild as we played together. And spending that time together, just being a family. Just be together as a family.
I have extremely warm feelings when I think of these summers days.
love you!
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