In our kitchen we have a huge chunk of butcher paper pinned to the wall. It hangs in a place that we see it often and walk by it daily. It is our Summer Bucket List. This is the first time, perhaps since we became parents, that we are finally letting the idea of adventure seep back into our lives. Like adventures that can last longer without too much stress or complaints. Nobody is nursing, napping, crawling, or learning to walk.
Our Summer Bucket List is really quite simple. Baseball games, camping, and lots of friends and family. The little-big stuff that matters most. We’ve crossed quite a few things off, and a couple weeks ago we went on a day-trip and ended up on Vashon Island with some friends. By the time we got back home, with sandy hair and tired kids, I felt a sense of accomplishment. After our babies were snug in their beds, I grabbed a sharpie and headed to our list….but Vashon Island wasn’t on there. Barry knew this and laughed hard when I slouched because I’d wanted to cross something off on the list.
I sloppily tagged it on the list and immediately crossed it off, as if it’d been there the whole time. Barry said that wasn’t really that The Summer Bucket List was about, and I silently agreed with him, but we’d been gone all day and it felt like a bucket list type of outing. It was fun, it was random and very simple.
Our list crossing antics has been at a stand-still for a while. Not because we’ve stopped saying ‘yes’ to doing things or because we aren’t looking at it to guide some of our choices. I’ve noticed that some of our most recent, and possibly more fun, times have been from not what is planned, expensive, or anticipated.
We’ve had day trips to Anacortes to spend with family and friends that came up at the last minute. We hung a hammock in the backyard and it has provided endless hours of entertainment. We’ve loaded our bikes and ridden them all over town. We spent the day with my Grandpa, pounding nails in his shop and eating too many Oreos. We’ve gone to the lake near our home and paddle-boarded around, each of us at our own skill level. We’ve watched Barry do lots of races, cheering him on, his biggest fan club. We’ve had backyard crab feeds and BBQs with friends, soaking in the last of the day’s sun.
Because I’m somebody that likes to cross things off lists, and so does Barry, we’ll keep the list up. I’m not making promises that we’ll do everything on the list, but I can certainly promise that we’ll do plenty of things that aren’t on it.
*Images from a non-list outing to a lake near our house. (And for the record, my SUP skills have improved drastically this year. Bragging feels good sometimes.)
