Top 10 Favorite Things About SUMMER!

Summer is probably my second favorite season, fall being my favorite of course. Summer definitely has so many exciting activities and the weather is almost always perfect which makes it nice for doing things outdoors. I complied a list of my favorite things about summer that I'm looking forward too!

1. The Weather--I love that it's almost always sunny so this makes it perfect to be outside for everything from swimming to bbqing.

2. Water Activities- from skiing to rafting, swimming, tubing, boating the water is my favorite activity especially when the temps get high. Rafting is probably at the top of my list. This summer we're going to NJ so we'll get some beach time in...so excited!

3. 4th of July--I love this holiday! Not only is the 4th a perfect reason for a BBQ but I love all the patriotism and the red, white & blue.

4. No School---Well I haven't had to really worry about school for the past three years now but I always looked forward to summer because I was ready to be out of school and having fun.

5.  Summer Activities- Boise has so many great free activities to do in the summer, from Eagle Fun Days to Meridian Dairy Days, the Boise Music Festival, Art in the Park, Alive after Five, First Thursday, The Museum Comes to Life and many more that make for a great summer!

6. Everything Outdoors- With summer comes the ability to be out and about, some of my favorite outdoor activities include: walks, leisurely hikes, biking, picnics, bbqs, park time, water water water activities!

7. Camping!- Every summer our family would take a camping trip to Silver Creek which is just North of Crouch, ID, they have a natural hot springs and we absolutely loved everything about Silver Creek. We still try to carry that tradition on and as many of my siblings that can make it each year go. We also would go to Cascade, ID for the Lewis Reunion and Bear Lake, ID for the Brown Reunion (my Mom's side) and both of these trips were camping trips too. So we grew up camping each summer, regardless of what Keith will say about me and camping haha.

8. BIRTHDAYS BIRTHDAYS BIRTHDAYS!- June-August alone there are almost 20 birthdays within my family and two more that will be born this year (one in July and August)! Keith's is next SUNDAY!!! Birthday parties are always fun and summer ones are especially fun. So in our family we're celebrating a birthday almost every week with some weeks that have 2-3!

9. Sleeping Outside-- Summer nights are seriously so perfect for sleeping outside. In our family growing up we did this all the time. You had to race to secure a spot outside "in the middle" because nobody wanted to be on the end. My mom would always bring breakfast outside too and we'd wake up to breakfast outside. It was a fun tradition with so many good memories of telling stories or jokes with the sibs, we try to carry it on still and do it in the summers when we get together at my moms.

10. Imagination-- Since school was out we had to use our imagination as kids to keep ourselves entertained, of course having a ton of other siblings to play with helped a lot too, but we didn't go somewhere every day we had to keep ourselves entertained and get creative. My mom of course still made us do chores, practice Math, Science, Spanish, and a few other subjects but when it was play time we as siblings got creative we did things like; made forts in the downstairs basements, made up dances with my sisters (and niece Chelsea-- candy dance haha!), played vote ( we voted on which games to play like fruit octopus, upset the fruit basket, water game etc.), had parades around the house with various "instruments" and bikes, biked into Eagle (about a 30 min bike ride there)--sometimes just to get the free cookies at Albertsons, haha yah we got that bored sometimes, movie nights, lots of hours spent on Castle Hill ( on the the hill in our backyard we built a little village), made water slides and before we got a small pool yes, we swam in barrels that we would fill with water, water ballon fights, play baseball (since we have enough players for two teams), my mom would have us choose a country and we'd research it and teach each other about it and make food from that country, we'd also do things like science experiments and hands on activities. Oh the endless possibilities of free, fun, creative summer activities you can do right in your own home!

What are you most excited about for summer?