The End Of Summer

For me, Labor Day has always signified the end of the summer season.  I turn my calendar to September and bid a not-so-fond farewell to 100 degree weather!

Aside from the melt-your-face-off heat, summertime is lovely.  It's about vacations and starry nights and watermelon and family picnics.  It's about drinking lemonade, and road tripping with little kids who like to throw their fruit snacks in the car.  It's about S'mores, sunsets, and fireworks.  Summer is for love and adventure; summer is for fun with family.  It's about kiddie pools and baseball games.  It's about popsicles and excursions to the zoo.  It's about making memories.

My "McD Clan O' Four" made countless memories this summer.  (It was one of our busiest yet!)  We ate good food and visited beautiful places.  We packed our car, packed our bags, packed our cooler, and packed our schedule.  There were trips to lakes and trips to national monuments.  There were birthday parties and family BBQs and day trips to snappy locales.

Through it all, we learned several things:  Pack more water than you think you'll drink.  When confined in a small space (like a car) for an extended period of time, children will turn into cage fighters.  The sunscreen you spray is superior to the goopy lotion.  (And easier to use!)  At times it IS necessary to pop your hatchback and change your child's diaper in the back of your car.  Park rangers are nice and polite when your daughter looks at them and says, "Your hats are freaking me out."    

But I think the most important, most eye-opening, most ground-breaking, most shocking, most interesting thing James and I learned this summer happened during one of our family vacations.  It threw us for such a loopity-loop, all we could do was shake our heads in bewilderment.  It can best be conveyed in this video snippet:

 Hotels make kids weird!!!

Have a fantastic, hotel free, end-of-summer, Labor Day weekend!