We've Got the Whole Summer in Front of Us

Watching the season finale of one of the family comedy series came up with the gem “We've got the whole summer in front of us." They sounded thrilled. After the first week, it doesn’t seem so thrilling to me.

Actually, it’s really not that bad. I was told by some of the summer vacation expert moms that always give me free advice; the transition week is always the worst.

One thing on the show that was similar to here was the characters were still wearing jackets the last week of school. Same here last week. We started out in the 40s and now here we are in true summer heat. But just wait, we know it will still get hotter.

The first official day of summer vacation I took the boys to run an errand. At first Ian was not too thrilled about it. When he found out it was to get him a new bike he was all onboard. 

So the first few days was riding with Ian and Nate up and down the street. Ian was on his new bike and Nate was in the trailer I pull behind the mountain bike. It’s a good way to teach Ian safety and keep Nate involved and happy as well. First couple of days down.

This week Pre-Team at the pool finally started. It’s a great way to get younger ones involved at the pool, get to know more kids their age and also receive some great training and practice in the water.

I made the mistake of sharing some big plans with the boys last week. I would be taking them to the pool everyday on the bicycle with them in the trailer. Is this really possible?

While the bike trailer was connected I decided to try a dry run of taking both boys to the pool in it. We all strapped on our helmets, I buckled them in and off we went. Within two minutes of any bike ride out of our street you will come upon a hill. One is not so steep, the other is, well, pretty steep. Guess which one is on the way to the pool?

Ian noticed I was laboring trying to get up the hill and started in with some encouragement or heckling, I’m still not sure. It was hard to pay attention and hear him with all of the groaning and mumbling under my breath going on. That is a large hill when you are dragging almost 70 pounds of kids and a few more pounds of trailer behind you. After getting up the hill and catching my breath it was a breeze. We made it there and back with no real issues.

On Monday morning, at the last minute, I decided that it would make sense to go to the first practice in the car, just to make sure everything went OK.

Wow, I quickly realized you have to take a lot of stuff to keep two kids and a dad going at the pool. Three beach towels, big towels at that, swim diapers and regular diapers for the little one, water for them, iced tea for me, toys for the baby pool to keep Nate happy while Ian is busy and don’t forget, sunscreen for all. That’s a payload for a Toyota, not a Trek.

Being green will have to wait. I’m making a vow to start to pare everything down so we can take the bike to the pool soon. It’s silly that we can’t now, but I’m not taking any chances forgetting anything.