Summer Collage

So a few thoughts on Summer. I remember growing up in Las Vegas and having HOT summers, our neighborhood was close as in families could let there kids out and play and not worry about them getting picked up by a child "monster" or getting into some type of trouble. We would gather at dusk and play games like tag, roller hockey, basketball, hide and seek, and even kick the can (yeah we even went there). My family was able to grow up in a house that had a built in, real life swimming pool. I mean this thing couldn't have been better for some kids that could have found fun with a stick and a Toby. We would move our trampoline to the edge of the pool and jump from the roof to the tramp and into the pool, all to the pleasure of our mother. I also remember (this sounding like I'm ancient) Toby teaching himself how to swim by the ripe old age of 2, he would just fall in and float face down for a second and then flip himself over and float on his back until he could get to the side and then try to walk across the bottom while moving his arms, also learning how to ride a 2 wheeler by then as well (we have great video). There was and still is no fear with that guy. The ice cream truck wasn't a scary deal, the treats were between $.01 and $3.00 and they had lemon heads and fire balls if you just had change. We would run out with any spare change we could take from my moms fanny pack even when she repeatedly said no, and get our goodies and then just play it off like we found the stuff when asked by mom. Another really cool thing my parents put in our house was a water fountain, it was the best thing they could have done. No cups, no mess with friends great, great, great!!! Walking or biking anywhere wasn't uncommon either, we were active. We had no idea what a Nintendo was until introduced a couple of years after it came out, and I think the only game we had for it was Commando? It was a cheesy game, you had to move the guy around by unloading a springy, bionic arm type thing (Trav could probably remember). Oh, oh and the Swap Meets and the skating center. We rarely would go to the strip and well 13 years ago that wasn't a big deal anyways. Let's see, we had a Phillipino family that lived across the street (there house smelled like fish, rice and yeck...but it was SPOTLESS) that was a fun regular spot to find us, we had a 50ish year old lady that lived in a log cabin type house that would dress us up in old cowboy clothes, she had an old bar layout in the backyard and video tape us ordering drinks, smoking, and dancing... all pretending of course. The next door neighbor had 2 Alaskan Huskies named Mischka and ? The coolest dogs ever, they would play tug o war with a rope with the kids and it would just come out so bloody, I don't think we ever heard them bark once. Soccer was another great thing about the summer, playing in 100+ degree weather and loving every minute of it. My fondest memories are in Vegas, I think because we were still way young and us siblings were very close. Summers were great because of them, and I love talking about our fun times together. There are so many other fond memories and I'm sure I could bore you all with them, but I wont. The reason why I brought this up is because I just don't see those summers anymore and there are many reasons why BUT I just hope my kids develop some great memories. So far Kylee has had an eventful summer, with gas being so high we haven't really vacationed. We've been to St. George for the good ol' family reunion, and to Elko for the nephews 1st birthday, and those were wonderful times....I just hope we can make some great memories doing things like I did. She's learned how to finally ride a 2 wheeler, after weeks of protesting. She's been to the castle park countless times, and swimming. We never lived close to family (cousins and such) and I hated reintroducing myself to my cousins every time we would meet up again, I hope one day my siblings and I could live close to each other to have those opportunities (we're all close, I just can't imagine our kids not getting along too). Well now that the summer is winding down, I hope we can savor just a few more days of fun!!!!