I’m linking up with Monthly Musings to talk all about summer traditions and travel!
Share Your Summer Plans
June- stay home and explore our local area, take care of all of our homestead animals, host friends and family as often as possible, and just enjoy the nice, warm weather and some much needed family time!
July- More of the June schedule with a fun trip to the Hines family reunion in Northern MI!
August- We got our teacher schedule and we will be back into the swing of school (as a teacher) the first week of August! We will manage to squeeze in a DeValve family reunion before the official first back to school day.
What Are Your Summer Traditions?
- Hines family reunion in July
- Visiting lots of local parks and splash pads
- Hosting family and friends for dinners, Bible studies, playdates, etc
- Taking care of all of our animals
- Running in the beautiful, warm weather
What Is Your Favorite Summer Destination?
Northern MI is truly the underrated summer gem location. We go every summer for our family reunion and it truly is beautiful up there! We’ve also had the chance to visit the Sleeping Bear Dunes and Mackinac Island and those were some of our absolute favorite trips!
Do you prefer the Ocean or Lake?
Lake. The last time Theo and I went to the ocean, we quickly realized that we are not ocean people. But give us hiking/lake/outdoor excursions/kayak, etc…then we are all in! But, the ocean really does make for a nice backdrop for pictures! And I would like to take my kids so that they can experience (they have been once but they were 4, 2 and 6 months old and don’t remember it all, and everyone cried the whole time haha)
Do you have any pool time planned?
No 🙁 And I find this to be one of the hardest parts of summer living in our area. There are almost no public pools, and most of the private pools have very high membership rates or wait lists. And we don’t have a neighborhood pool or any friends really close by with one. But I bet we will be invited to one or two houses with pools this summer! We do have a local public lake with a beach that we frequent quite often in the summer!
Best Travel or Packing Tips
I am probably the worst person to answer this because it just doesn’t feel like my area of expertise!
Favorite Summer Movie
Also no expertise in this area. I watch almost no movies. Now if you asked me my favorite books…we could talk for hours!
Beverage that says summer to you
Mulberry lemonade! We started making this two summers ago with fresh mulberries from our trees and it is AMAZING. It’s SO GOOD.
What Songs Say Summer to You?
Country music. All of it. I made a half marathon playlist that is 99% country and it’s my pump it up music. I also feel like country music is played at music festivals, street festivals and the county fair, so it really sounds like the background of summer to me.
What Do You Like On Your Burger or Hot Dogs?
Cheese, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, Ketchup and Mayo. No mustard or relish! Have you guys ever eaten fries with mayo? I guess it’s a European thing, but I always eat my French fries with both ketchup and mayo.
Charcoal or Gas Grill?
Um….neither. I have a (gas) grill and have maybe used it twice. It just intimidates me and makes me nervous and I have to stand outside in the heat next to a fire to cook something, so I’m out. Maybe I need to make a summer goal of grilling out once a week!
It’s safe to say that summer is and has always been my FAVORITE season! Even though we don’t do any grand travel, we absolutely love the time that we get to spent at home, and we love to dream about different places that we could go during the summer- Red River Gorge, Hocking Hills, the Grand Canyon, many of the National Parks out West, a family camp at a local Christian camp. Maybe slowly but surely we will check some of these things off our summer bucket lists!
What are you up to this summer?
We don’t have public or private pools here either; it is just NOT a thing. I like my fries with vinegar and salt and I was told by my English grandfather that that is a real English way to eat fries. LOL. I have no idea if he’s right or not but whatever. I have also dunked my fries in BBQ and even a milkshake a time or two but never mayo.