Remember those end-of-summer essays...

...the teachers seemed to love to assign the first day back to school? "What I Did During My Summer Vacation" Do you remember how you couldn't think of anything exciting that you'd done? How you'd spent that past three weeks desperately waiting for school to begin so you could wear your new school clothes? Use your new lunch box? See the friends you hadn't seen since school let out in June?

Well, as in days past, I, too, was ready for summer to end. Like the blogger at The Intertidal Years, I always feel like the new school year is the start of The New Year.  Still, reflecting on our Summer Vacation is putting a smile on my face, so I thought I'd write my own "What I Did During My Summer Vacation" essay...after all, I like feeling a smile come to my face as I remember the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Who doesn't?

What I Did During My Summer Vacation - Part One

by The Nagle5

During our summer vacation, we went camping.  Twice.  Both camping trips were fun, but they were quite different.

During our first trip in June, we went without Superman, which was weird for us all.  Still, we managed to keep it interesting.  Valiant did an amazing job helping me set up our trailer.  We learned new things, too.  For example, did you know that you can use Crazy Glue in lieu of stitches if need be?  Yeah, I didn't either.  However, when you combine a 15-year old boy, a pocket knife, bad habits, and a little time, you have the perfect storm.  Yep, Valiant sliced right up the back of his ankle, narrowly missing the Achilles tendon. 

So, we laid him out on a covered picnic table, held the slice together until the crazy glue good set and reinforced with butterfly bandages. 

Kept it wrapped in an ace bandage for the remainder of the trip and he was good to go, albeit slowly and carefully. 

Did I mention that I took the knives away for the remainder of the trip.  I can only deal with so much, you know?

 The rest of the trip was uneventful.  The weather was beautiful.  Look at the sky as we headed out for this trip.  Wasn't it gorgeous?

We had some stowaways who were full of high spirits.  They were found hiding in the trailer microwave.

Then I saw some of them in the tree.

The group of them tried to steal a bike.

They kept insisting that Buttercup had invited them, be she denied knowing any of them.  I have my doubts, especially as I found her sharing her bed with them! 

Still, their pranks were harmless and they really didn't eat much.  It was all good.

We had some visitors.  This squirrel was sure we were holding out on him.

This butterfly just came by to share her beauty.  We were grateful.

We made the kids do chores, too.  Here are the boys (Valiant and Two-Bit) doing their share of the dishes. 

Oh, and we saw a giraffe. ;)

There you have it..."What I Did During My Summer Vacation - Part I"