Where The Heck Did Summer Go?

Labor Day weekend is considered the unofficial end to summer but we had our unofficial end to summer two weeks ago when the kids started back at school. At that point, we were all left wondering "where the heck did summer go?"

This was the fastest summer vacation I can remember. Even both kids felt it went by a little too fast. I guess it's because we kept so busy we never really enjoyed the lazy days. Or at least the lazy days just felt like recovery days where the kids usually hid away in another room to play video games or watch TV.

Back at the end of May, we had very few plans for summer vacation. Then one thing led to another and BAM it was over.

Here's a look back at some of our summer fun.


My summer vacation started with a Women's Fitness Festival 5K run.


While the kids were finishing up their school year, I darted off to Wyoming to meet up with some girlfriends.


I took the kids and friends to go see the corpse flower at UC Davis Botanical Conservatory.


The kids and I went to Yosemite for the first time.


Josh attended fire camp with Sac Metro.


Walt's dad, Grandpa Thiel, came to visit.


The kids and I went stayed at Lake Tahoe for two nights with friends...


... where we ended up on a ropes course.


The whole family took a mini-vacation to the coast and California Redwoods State and National Parks.


I drove the kids to Washington and back in order visit my family. We missed our annual visit last year so the trip felt long overdue.

The summer wasn't all about hustle and bustle. We enjoyed some simple pleasures too.


The kids played sprinkler Twister...


... which led to a mud fight.


We took silly photos at the playground.


We even roasted s'mores in our backyard fire pit.

And believe it or not, we actually did some stuff that I didn't document through photos.

So the summer may have gone by in the blink of an eye but looking through these photos reminds me that it was definitely a memorable summer.