The Five Best Days of Summer

A play on the famous Minneapolis Aquatennial campaign, or was it Zommerfest. I can't remember.

Anyway, as the summer winds down, I wanted to recount the top five moments of our summer from both sides of the family:

Arik

5-Camping trip with Matthew to Wild River State Park in July. Matthew's first camping trip. Check out previous posts for footage. Uncle Rocco, Aunt Meg, Fred and 'Sargie' on hand for the moment. Little campfire. A few smores. Sleeping under the stars. A trip I'll most likely always remember.

4-My 77 on Amy's birthday. In a season full of disgusting bad golf, this was my shining day of glory. My only sub-80 round all year, which I really can't believe I'm celebrating. In any event, any sub-80 round at the Dunes is worth celebrating. And I had Amy karma on my side all day.

3-Golf trip to WI. Played 90 holes over three days in June with RJ, Aaron and Half-Man. Our second day we played 36 holes in about five hours. Capped off with 18 at the great Turtleback in Rice Lake. We may not go back (WI townie golf isn't all it's cracked up to be), but it was fun while it lasted.

2-Our day at the Fair. Last year was Matthew's first Fair experience, but this was our first family Fair experience as the girls joined the action. Both kids did marvelously well as we went down the slide, sky ride and hit the kiddie farm. We only stayed for four hours, but we packed a lot into those four hours.

1-Cherish the Cabin. Spent three days at a cabin in No WI with my parents and brother. Yeah, Amy was up half the night screaming at the top of her lungs, and she pretty much kept the whole family up, but we had a blast. Matthew and Amy played down by the beach and just loved being outside all day. We even spent a day at the Siren beach. Ate like champs, too. The final night topped off with a steak dinner fit for kings. We're hoping it becomes a Hanson family tradition.

Angela:

5-Wine tasting in Cannon Falls with Rob and Molly. Outside of college football games, I don't think I have had many opportunities in my adult life to get drunk in the middle of the day. The bartender was quite generous with his pours, and we got to taste 10 wines for $3.00! The added bonus for my husband was that he got to hear me say, "ooh, this one is grapier than the last one" a few times. Come on, that's funny!

4-Very few 90 degree days. For those that know me well, heat is not my thing. I seek out shade and air conditioning whenever possible. We have a neighbor, Kate, that spends most of her time gardening and moving plants around in her yard. It has been a running joke since we moved in that we rarely see each other during the summer. For most people, that happens during the winter. I think she was tired of me by the time August rolled around! I was out and about all the time!

3-Saturday morning walks with the kids. We accidentally stumbled upon a Saturday morning tradition while Arik was off golfing or getting coffee at Caribou. There isn't a lot to do at 7:30 in the morning when your kids are going a thousand miles an hour, so I usually buckled them into the stroller and started walking. Most days we were gone for over an hour. We got to explore the Minnehaha Creek, Lake Nokomis, and the beautiful neighborhood that we live in. Matthew usually talked the entire time we were gone. While one could easily find that annoying, it was usually pretty entertaining. His view of the world is like no other. Amy loves to be outside as much as Matthew does, and would generally kick her feet and say "woof woof" at the doggies.

2-Healthy kids! With the exception of Amy's recent battle with a double ear infection and some wheezing - the kids have been healthy almost all summer. It has been great. No broken bones, no stitches ... life is good.

1- Friends. One of our New Years resolutions for 2008 was to get together with friends more often. I feel like we really did that this summer. I had fun meeting Anne and Leah for walks or coffee. We got to do the wine tasting with Rob and Molly. We got to meet Rebecca and Patrick's new baby AND go out to dinner with them. Arik invited a co-worker and her family to come over for a BBQ one night. And we got to see the Studdifords on several occasions around the neighborhood.

Here's hoping the summer of 2009 was as fun as 2008.