Live: Summer Wish List Wrap Up

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Well is is with something of a sad heart that I have to admit to myself summer is over. So it is time to review how I did on my Summer Wish List.

1. Visit my brother's family in Virginia. - done and done! You can read all about my road trip with my sister here. 
2. Have a new profile picture taken for the blog (and all my other online haunts). - completed 
3. Grill out. - we sure did!
4. Swim. - yep, in a lake and in a river.
5. Spend a day on Big Water (that would be at one of the lovely Great Lakes). - while I didn't make it our to a Great Lake (I still have hopes for this fall), I did spend a weekend at a lake house with a bunch of my cousins!
6.  Go to the movies. - let's just say my girlfriends and I made good use of our local multiplexes $5 Wednesdays!
7. Visit with old friends. - yes and it was so great to see friends I haven't seen for years.
8. Bake a cake. - This one was completed by the skin of my teeth, over labor day weekend for my mom's birthday.
9. Go to the fair. - yes and we all fell in love with the miniature donkeys, so cute!
10. Watch fireworks. - nope 
11. Paint my front door. - nada
12. Organize the office. - I'm going to say this one is in progress.
13. Eat outside. - yes even in this summers killer heat.
14. Cheer on the Tigers at a game. - sadly I have not made it out to a ball game yet this season.
15. Visit a big city. - NYC baby. You can read about it here and check out my favorite pictures from the trip here. 
16. Take a road trip. - yes x 4. Virginia, Massachusetts, New York City and Pennsylvania. 
17. Wear a fancy hat. - no, so sad, must start wearing hats!
18. Drink ice tea. - yes, fave summer drink
19. Sew. - I tried my hand a making a few skirts,they turned out okay.
20. Read. - this was sorta a softball entry, I'm always reading.
21. Walk in a parade. - we did three I think!
22. Meet new people. - I feel like I've done a lot of that this summer.
23. Spend time with my family. - yes including a weekend spent with about forty of my relatives at a resort for my cousin's wedding.
24. Dance. - I attended three weddings this summer and danced like crazy and there were all those living room dance parties I held by myself!

Did you have a summer to do list? How did you fare? 

Next week I'll have my Fall To Do List!

Live: When you take a road trip with your 12 year old sister

A few weekends ago my sister Phoebe and I took a quick little trip to visit our brother and his family in Virginia. Would you like to take a look-see? You would? Great, lets go! To get started, when you take a road trip with your 12 year old sister you must first stop by the library to pick up a few books on tape (we went with a few Princess Diaries books and a couple  by Sarah Vowell, if this trip wasn't kinda last minute I might have also run out to Target and pick up one of those "Now -eight million and twenty-five" cds, those make for great road trippin' music.) You will also want some snacks and your sun glasses, oh and don't forget to grab money for the tolls.

After quickly getting yourselves out of Dodge (read: Michigan), you might end up feeling lost in Ohio, but once you fix the very unhelpful GPS you will finally feel like you are on your way. (Really it took us a million years to make it through, but we did finally wind our way through the night to the 10th colony. Arriving just after dawn at the Marine base Quanico, where we enjoyed spending time with out niece, nephew, brother and sister in-law. Maybe I'll share some of our VA adventuring later.)

When it is time to head home you might choose to do the drive over an afternoon, as it turns our drive home was perfectly timed, no traffic not much construction easy, easy, easy. You might also want to let your sister take over the camera for the drive home, she will try very hard to grab a shot of every state sigh you drive past (and do an okay job even if they are a little blurry), she will also try and take a picture of all the places that you say are a beautiful view even when they all look the same (none of those will turn out, oh well)!

One thing is for sure you will have to stop at Chick-Fil-A before you leave Maryland, because really how can you go to the south and not grab a chicken sandwich with a pickle on it? Plus they have the really good kind of ice!

When you drive through Pennsylvania you will find yourself saying over and over "isn't that beautiful?" and your sister will say yes even though this beautiful place looks just like the last five and they are all just farms nestled in among mountains and nothing all that great.

When there is a farmers market at one of the rest stops you will have to buy a bag of apples and an assortment of jams, fruit butters and relishes to take home with you. If only so you can say while presenting the gift of spicy Chow-Chow to your dad that you just picked it up at a rest stop!

On your drive you might forget all about getting cash for the tolls before you leave town, so your sister will have to pay them. She might take a picture to help you remember you need to pay her back.

As the sunsets and the land you drive through looks more and more like home, you will think that going someplace for the weekend is great, but getting there is half the fun!

 Finally when you go on a road trip with your 12 year old sister you will have to let her DJ from time to time. So I'll leave you with a little playlist she made of Phoebe's road trippin' jams!

P.S. The Princess Diaries books are a little dated I had to explain many references to my sister.

Also a quick google search tells me that there is a Chick-Fil-A in Toledo, Ohio so I guess they have been working their way into the Midwest.