Summer is in full swing

The boys have their last week of summer camp starting tomorrow (I'm downright giddy - summer camp is incredibly expensive, the locations are varied & far away from our offices, and the hours mean a lot of unpredictability for our work schedule). I've taken copious notes on how to avoid this next summer. It was our first summer in a new area, so these things are bound to happen.

Favorite camps of the summer:

• All day soccer camp. This is through their select league, and the hours suck (9-4), and the kids play soccer for that entire time, save for a 30 minute lunch break. It's nuts. They come home sweaty & so tired they can barely move. But, it's their favorite. I had to start packing coolers & giant water bottles on top of their normal stuff once I realized that they would indeed be playing soccer in the sun for the entire day. 
• Sleepaway camp! This place was a hidden gem in the mountains near Santa Cruz. Huge outdoor water park, beautiful new cabins. .. when we drove up, I wanted to stay! It was a YMCA camp, so expensive, but not crazily so. The boys want to do two different (not back-to-back) sessions next year. It was also super fun to get a few date nights in with M while the boys were at camp, so I won't say no to that!
• Another local sports camp. I'm glad this was a hit, because it had super flexible hours, and the location was the most convenient of all. We will likely only do this camp, the mandatory soccer camp, and sleepaway camp next summer.

Another lesson learned is that very few camps are open in August (kids go back on August 18th). The boys have also requested a week at "Nana & Papa's Camp" (i.e. my parents house) next summer, so we will try to arrange that as well.

So, last week of camp coming up, and soccer practice starts tomorrow as well. Luckily, the weather has cooled down a bit and it's been around 80 for the past few days, rather than the high 90s we've been having.

I'm also in the throes of getting ready for our family summer vacation (my parents, my sister, my nephews, etc). We are going to our vacation house on the Oregon coast, and I'm very excited to relax & spend some time with the family before school starts up again.

I finished all of my school supply shopping today, and we topped off the afternoon with swimming lessons, and "free" ice cream cones at Thrifty. Our Rite Aid has a Thrifty ice cream shop inside, and when I scanned my Rite Aid card, it used my UP rewards! I had no idea this was an option - and, it's probably dangerous to know that I can get "free" ice cream on a whim. ;-) So, the total OOP was $.29 or whatever was left after the rewards. What a nice treat.

I'm planning to make risotto tonight (with a glass of wine, of course!), finish the menu, and hopefully list a few things on Craigslist.

What about you? How are you spending one of the dwindling summer weekends? :-)