Snapshots of Summer - Phase I

It is horribly "glass-half-empty" of me, but I tend to think of the 4th of July weekend as the pivotal point of the summer. (Sigh). Maybe it's because I'm still working, albeit at central office with adults instead of at my school with kiddies, but I think I'm all-to-aware that the second half of the summer (post-July 4) absolutely flies.

So in an effort to keep me from being sad about what remains, I'm going to dwell on the great things I've already been able to enjoy with the 20 days off (that's very "glass-half-full" of me, isn't it?)

-I got to take a 4 day trip to Blacksburg to visit with my former Young Life kids, who are now lovely young ladies. On the return trip, I visited Rockbridge (the camp where I used to work), and had a great dinner with great company in Charlottesville.



-I explored Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, located less than 2 miles from my house, simply because I had the time and inclination. My new digital camera came in quite handy. Here are a few favorites.





- We celebrated summer solstice (theoretical longest day of the year) with the longest sub Subway will construct (those cool sandwich artists) - and watched "Hitch" on the side of a downtown apartment building once then sun finally went down.

- Father's Day. Nuff said. Love that guy.




- Boating on the James River with the Pritchard family (too scared to bring my camera. Have you seen the way Mr. Pritchard drives that thing?)

- Bridal shower for a high school friend of mine. I'll be reading Scripture in her August wedding.

- My best friend forever (BFF as the yearbooks would say) is Melanie (sigh - can't help but do that cause I just love the girl so much). Wish she lived here, but she's very good about visiting despite her crazy busy life. She works for the American Red Cross saving the world, AND she's planning a wedding for March, but again she found a time slot to come to my place. We drove to Franconia, took the Metro in to DC and met up with our college buddy Patty and her mom who drove down from Jersey. We spent the day in DC and took cover in Union Station when it started to pour seeing as how our cars were both 50 miles away. Despite being the only girl in the group to not be engaged (yeah Patty's getting hitched in October), I had an absolute blast. We pick up as if no time has passed, which is such a breath of fresh air.





- And Mom's 55th birthday yesterday.

See? I've got nothing to complain about! I just need to savor each day instead of looking at that dang emptying glass of summertime. :)