Almost Summer

I've always thought of summer as going from holiday (Memorial Day) to holiday (Labor Day). So that means next weekend, my summer officially begins! Wahoo! It won't be as leisurely as last summer, when I was making the transition between Wisconsin and Minnesota and spent three weeks in Montana, then the rest of the time here getting ready for school and finding a job. This summer I get to work. But hey, it's still summer and I'm excited. Here's what I'm looking forward to this summer:

1) Our house stays incredibly cool. It's nice to come home in the heat to a cool house, without even running the A/C. Thank you huge tree and super insulation!

2) Arnie Palmer. The best summer drink ever. Unless you count ...

3) Summer Beer. I know Pete doesn't care for it, but I LOVE Blue Moon. Scandia's good too :) I suspect I will be drinking that because Pete is incredibly pushy ;) My favorite seasonal brew: Glacier Brewing's Flathead Cherry Ale, which I will be drinking on my ...

4) Trip to Montana! Yay! Almost two perfect weeks of Western Montana summer, spending time with my three favorite people and my three favorite dogs.

5) Will my garden grow? The garden is a big experiment this summer and I'm excited to see how it goes. I have some plans for next year, but for now I want to see what does well and what the squirrels bother.

6) Riding with the Pete. Pete is bikey, and that means that I'm semi-bikey by association. We took the bikes out today for a nice little ride around Ft. Snelling and Minnehaha and it was fab. I'm looking forward to getting out more and making my legs as beefy as Pete's. Or not.

7) Grilling. We now have my Dad's old Weber grill that they were kind enough to haul out here for us. I love that grill and I love grilling, because it's tasty and Pete does it :)

8) Camping. It will be good to take the Hobitat out again this year. We have a group trip planned in July, and hopefully we'll find time to get out a bunch.


9) Swimming in the lake. Enough said. Now if J.Crew would ever ship the other back-ordered half of my new swimming suit, I'd be set.

10) Lots of delicious fruit :) And tasty desserts like fruit pizza, strawberries and ice cream, etc.

11) Freckles. Okay, I'm not really looking forward to these, but they're happening, so I might as well embrace them. I spend a lot of time outside for my job, and no matter how much sunscreen I put on (and I put on a lot), I still get freckles.

12) Pete's farmer's tan. Or should I say, cyclist's tan. It's already almost as bad as it got last year. He's been riding to and from work a lot, as well as a cycling class on Monday nights. I think it is so cute! You know you love someone when you like the tan lines they get from their Livestrong band :)