Welcome to Summer!

I love summer! I love not having to wake up with an alarm clock, not being on a schedule, staying up late, relaxing and being with my kids. I try to keep summer as unscheduled as possible. That being said, I do have a plan. My kids do homework and read almost every day over the summer. (One of them enjoys it much more than the other.)

We started our summer by saying goodbye to our good friends the Stones. Jensen and Charlie have come home with us pretty much every school day since shortly after Christmas and have become more than friends. We miss them a lot. For one final goodbye, I checked them out of school early and we went to the zoo's new splashpad -  Waterfall Junction (which is awesome by the way).

Before I picked up the kids from their last day of school, I decorated the car. I found these really cool window crayons at WalMart. They are easy to use and wash off with a spray of water. Definitely going to have some fun with these.

One of our favorite summer kickoffs is the annual Storyfest at the State Museum. It's a fun event the first Saturday after school gets out that starts the summer reading programs at the county libraries. They give out free books and have the authors available to sign autographs, there is face painting, crafts, snacks, story telling, etc. It's always a fun day. 

While there we ran into our friends the Baltzeggars. Thank goodness their mom had her camera because I didn't have a phone or a camera and would have missed out on any pictures.

The State Museum is right across from the Edventure Children's Museum so after Storyfest we went over for a quick visit there as well. We have a great children's museum. 

On Tuesday, the kids and I went to walk over the Saluda Dam, otherwise known as the Lake Murray Dam. It's a fun walk, but we've never gone all the way across before. It's about 1.7 miles each way for a 3.4 mile round trip - essentially a 5K. Last time Jalen and I went, we stopped half way. At the time of its completion, the Saluda Dam was the world's largest earthen dam, creating the world's largest man-made lake.

We got to the half way point and Jalen wanted to turn back, but Baylie wanted to keep going. I encouraged them to set a goal and push for it, even though it was hard. I would like to think it was my rousing speech that kept them going, but I'm pretty sure it was actually the bribe of ice cream.

These towers are control the hydroelectric power produced by the dam. They're cool looking.

Jalen loves this electric cart that goes from the dam to the turbines. I'm half afraid he will crawl over the wall and try to get up there sometime.

Once we made it all the way across, we decided to walk down to a dock and soak our feet. It was a fun little break.

They decided to dunk their heads as well.

The deck was a perfect spot to walk out on with the last section just slightly under water.

Lake Murray has an interesting history. It was used for bombing target practice during World War II.

I was really proud of the kids for walking all the way over and back without complaining (much). I was a totally lame parent because I realized I didn't have any money and couldn't take them for ice cream. I'd left my purse at home and only had my driver's license. Fortunately, we had ice cream at home, so we settled for that instead.

The kids are counting down the days until we head to Utah.