Start of Summer

I'm not sure when summer officially begins. Google could tell me, but my personal definition is when the temperatures hit the 90's and pools and lakes are warm enough to get in (and doing anything outside for more than five minutes makes you hot enough to want to get in regardless of the water temp) -- that's the start of summer. And summer is simple and easy and familiar... it's too hot to start new projects and it's layered in the comfort of home and friends before the start of a new school year.

This weekend was the start of our summer. We're unpacked, and but for four boxes containing our carefully padded china and crystal that's waiting patiently for a nice new modern sideboard that perhaps we'll purchase ourselves for Christmas, the house is settled. It's renovated, painted, and fully functional. It's amazing how little time it takes for you to know what's behind every cabinet. Our first weekend here I was always opening the wrong cabinet for glasses in the kitchen, but now the blueprint is there in my head and I move around my day knowing where everything is, or at least, is supposed to be. Humans are so adaptable.

Anyway, summer. Summer is many things, but for me it's about fun, heat, margaritas, and water. This weekend we had all four, plus visitors! One of my best Austin friends drove over with her husband and 3-year-old daughter (Landon's old swim lesson partner). Their adorable squishy 4-month-old stayed back in the care of her grandparents, which was a little sad because I wanted to soak up her adorable squishiness, but also great because it was just us and the big kids (and Claire, who thinks she's a big kid). We crammed all the car seats and grown-ups in our Highlander and showed them around town, or at least our small corner of it. We spent 50% of our time in the pool, which we followed up with margaritas and mexican food, a trip to the water gardens, and then much beer drinking out by the fire pit in the backyard after the kids were in bed. It was fun and fabulous and we already miss them. This morning we went on our long walk to the park, which they found beautiful and also eventful as Landon had an epic (EPIC) meltdown(s) along the way.

But while I enjoyed every second of their visit, except perhaps the part where we ended the walk with our screaming almost-five-year-old slung over JP's shoulders while my friend carried his bike, it was the Saturday afternoon in the pool that captured exactly the kind of afternoon I hoped to have when we bought this house.

friends


beverages


poolside service


fish


horse


fun