Last Day of Summer (Day 248, Year 2)

Well, friends, it's over. Summer is a wrap here in the radius. I love summer and I despise how abruptly my favorite season is forced to end. Other seasons merely fade into one another. Fall is suddenly Winter and then Spring pops out and then the days get longer and hotter until it is Summer. You don't even realize those other seasons have faded out until it is too late. 

But, not Summer. Summer is ripped from our hands and our children are shoved out the doors to school. 

I don't mind the last bit of sending the kids to school, as much as I mind the end of all this wonderful summertime-ness. And I know it will be back around again, of course, but I just wish I could keep it until I was ready to say farewell. 

We had a marvelous summer in the Adkins household. Swim team and field hockey and basketball and soccer camps. Survivor camp for Lily and new opportunities for rowing with new team in the Fall. England and France and Pearl Jam in Hyde Park, Ocean City, NJ and Hershey Park for all of us. And, of course, endless hours spent poolside at Crystal Lake Pool (the CLP) for all of us. 

While I was incredibly disappointed in the snack bar (DO NOT GET ME STARTED!) and of course, the lady who lives adjacent who feeds the geese who relieve themselves in the pool (ALSO DO NOT GET ME STARTED ON THIS ONE); the CLP has been my favorite place since I was pregnant with Nicholas. That summer, I would sit under a fountain in the Splash Pool, watching Lily (6) and Chloe (3) play and splash and bully other children for their toys. 

We've been CLP members before we even lived in the radius. It is such a wonderful part of our summer. I've written some of my best pieces poolside and managed several conference calls under the pavilion. It's untraditional and I am sure would cause many to feel stressed out, my ability to work poolside has given my kids marvelous summers. I love how much they all, almost always, agree to go to the pool with me. They see friends they've made on soccer fields and dance class and classrooms. And they have the friends they made at the pool--the three lovely Mitros sisters--that are part of our summer traditions, too. 

But, alas, the last whistle was blown, our children (briefly) refused to leave the pool, but then we all did. And tomorrow, my 11th, 8th and 4th grader will wake up and head off to another school yard, watching the seasons fade into one another, until friends, we are back in the wonderful, wonderful summer time.