The Best Summer Ever

Teachers are very into summer. And why wouldn't we be? We get to catch up on our life, hang out with all of our teacher-friends (which, in my case, is almost everyone), and hang out on the beach, at the pool, at summer fest, downtown, and a thousand other amazingly, wonderful things.

If you had asked me a few months ago, "Beck-what was your best summer ever?" I would have answered quickly, easily, "the summer I turned 21." That summer was amazing, it was spent with my three best friends Jenn, Kathy and Brandy, lots of boys, and lots of family time. We spent Tuesday-Saturday night at the bars, we switched of "DD," and each night we would come home from our summer jobs, sleep until 9 pm, then get up and shower. We were out every night until bar closing, drinking, flirting and having fun with each other. I went to work...more times than I am proud of completely hung over, once didn't show up to work. We (felt like we) were celebrities at the bar. One particular time, the four of us got all gussied up, and we went to our favorite bar of the moment. When we walked in the door, the DJ looked at us, POINTED, and played "our song" (just for a laugh--it was "Dip it Low" by Christina Milian...and yes we knew the entire dance...and taught it to my little sister too!). It was so much fun. I don't think I made a dollar that summer, because most of my money was spent on cute clothes for the bars (we very rarely paid for drinks at that time).

Well, I have an announcement. I have a new "best summer ever"...it's this one. Summer has technically just began for us, but we have been doing some really fun, wonderful things. We have been to the zoo, to the aquarium, to the park, played with our new friends--Tenley, Alexis, Genevive and baby Reagan (in utero), played with our couins Addy, Ava and Grant, and just in general have had an amazing time.

Now, obviously, this is a different kind of fun. But it's better...it's better than I ever imagined it would be. In the last week we have been to: the zoo, the aquarium, the Chicago lakefront, the park (twice), walked the bike trail several times, lunch with friends, on several visits to friends houses, grocery shopping, swimming with Grandma and tomorrow we are going to swim in the lake. Today was another perfect day. We started off playing with Addy, Sarah and a ridiculous amount of bubbles.

Then went to Grandma and Papa's to go swimming, now we're napping, and tonight we will walk over to Highland Fest.


And I get to do it all with my little peanut, my angel-boy, my little man. And it's awesome. It's so much better than drinking and partying.