An August Evening

Today was my last official day of summer vacation.  SIGH.  I mean, of course I have the weekend as well (classes start on Monday), but considering the amount of Greek I have to read between now and Monday, I am using the term 'weekend' very loosely.  SIGH again (this time to the one hundredth power).

Next week will be filled with classes and Greek and meetings and thesis-writing and orientations and back-to-school picnics and although - honestly - I am excited about the start of this year, I am still mourning the loss of this summer.  Because, well, it was summer.  I could stay at home to have that extra cup of coffee in the morning.  If I wanted to work-out at 10 am instead of 6 am, I could, because most of the time, there was nowhere I had to be.  If I wanted to stay at home and watch Mad Men all day (see: July), that didn't matter.  I had time to mourn my second miscarriage, and - almost more importantly - time to recover from it.  I could wear flip-flops and ratty old t-shirts, and straighten my hair, um, NEVER, because I wasn't going to see anyone all day.  I could clean and bake and have a second breakfast while Preston had his first breakfast (he sleeps much later than I do), and plan meals and blog and lie down on the couch and read Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, and just BE.  And oh my goodness, it was awesome.

Another thing that the summer has allowed us to do is to take the dogs to a local dog park where they can run around unencumbered by their Most Awful Leashes.  This dog park has proven to be a fantastic discovery - it's in a beautiful spot that gets us Preston and me out of our neighborhood, Callie gets to pee in sixty-seven different places and Ness gets to run at full speed for half an hour (meaning that she's exhausted when we bring her home).  WIN-WIN.

I hope that we'll be able to continue our dog park trips during the school year, but I know that soon the school year will wrap us up in a flurry of activity, and that, inevitably, trips to the dog park will become lower priority.  We certainly won't stop going altogether, but those trips will likely become fewer and farther between.  So tonight when we went to the dog park I took my phone and snapped these photos, so that in a few months, on that cold and drizzly November morning, when we're stressed and sleep-deprived, and have a million things on our minds, we'll be able to look back and remember these lazy summer days.  We'll be able to look at Ness' goofy face, and at the full, leafy trees and to remember not only that summer will (eventually) return, but also that, at the end of the day, these moments, this family - that's what matters.