Livin' The Dream

School is out! Summer is finally here. Summer is my favorite season. I love the sun, I love vacations, I love the water. I remember growing up that our favorite thing to do every day of the summer was anything in the water. We would run through the sprinklers or fill up one of those plastic pools in the back yard and hang out. Every once in a while we would get to go to a pool. Boy was that the best or what. My sisters and I would be so excited when we would get to go to a swimming pool. My Dad was in the National Guard and a few times each summer my Mom would takes us to the outdoor pool at Camp Williams' Officers Club. This was so great. We loved this. We usually had the pool to ourselves or maybe one other family was there and we would pretend it was 'our pool'. Because that would just be the dream, to have your own pool in your own back yard right? We would stay and play in that pool at Camp Williams all day long. My Mom would pack a lunch for us and we would get to buy a pop out of the machine they had there and it was heaven. We stayed so long that we had little sores on our toes from the bottom of the pool. We were so tired by the time we got in the car to go home we all fell asleep on the way. I remember it was dusk when we got home and I always felt a tiny bit sunburned. (who wore sunscreen then?) I loved that feeling and could not wait to go again. That is the memory that came back to me when we had the opportunity to buy a house with a pool in the backyard. My dream could really come true. I could walk right out my back door all summer and my kids could have that experience all day every day. You would think. So what is it, day 4 of summer vacation? I am already hearing "I'm bored", "There is nothing to do". This infuriates me. I took a few days off to spend that quality time out by the pool with my kids this week. My sister and I were sitting by the pool discussing those days at Camp Williams when my 12 year old informed me that she needed me to find her and her friend something interesting to do. Now, I looked around. The sun was shining, the pool was sparkling, there was a cooler full of drinks under an umbrella. I looked at my sister, then again at my daughter and smiled, "Honey" I said, "We are livin' the dream!" My sister and I laughed hard and loud and long. My daughter was not amused. That night I fell asleep exhausted and a little bit sunburned. Later.