Summa Summa Summa-time

When I was in high school, The Fresh Prince himself, Will Smith, released a song titled, "Summertime." The title of this post comes from the chorus. It is a great song talking about all the fun that comes with summer time. For the most part I like summer except for two related aspects: Heat and Humidity. I'm a big dude, so I already have a natural propensity for sweating. In the summer, I run for air conditioning like new born sea turtles flee to the ocean.

Well, anyways, I want to talk about some of the things that I like/love about summer. I'll begin with food (Like I said, I'm a big dude). I love to grill and I love all things bar-b-que. Is there anything better smelling in the warm summer evening air than that of meat cooking over open flames? We love to grill, eat, take an evening stroll and then come back and roast marshmallows over the last of the coals. Some would argue that you can grill all year long, and that's true, but it is the best in the summer. Then there is all of the great, fresh produce that comes with summer. Sweet corn, green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon. Ooooo and what about homemade ice cream? I believe that I have perfected mint chocolate chip. Okay, last thing about food. We have some really good friends, Matt and Julie Sliger, and they (Julie, really) have a blog that covers a lot of stuff but my favorite part are Julie's recipes. She is a great cook and she, by her easy yet delicious recipes, is helping Melissa to be a great cook. We have probably made and devoured about 2/3rds of her recipes. Check out the link to their page.

Swimming. I have always loved to swim. If we could afford it, I would want to have a house with a pool. Last summer we received an invitation to an open house at the Germantown Athletic Club. We went and they had everything open to the public. The have a huge outdoor olympic size pool and a really amazing kids pool/splash park. Michael had just turned 2 then, so he was a little bit intimidated by all of the fountains and the bucketfuls of water falling all over the place. While we were there someone talked to us about having a free trail week. We jumped on that immediately. So, the entire next week we had a little miniature vacation or stay-cation. We would get there at 10am, right when the gates opened, and stay until around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. They have a snack shack there and we ate there every day. We loved it. We loved swimming and playing all week. The weather was great. About halfway through the week I discovered their gigantic indoor pool. The deep end is over 2o ft deep and they have huge diving boards. I LOVED it. So yeah, I love swimming.

There are so many other great things about summer. Baseball (Go Yankees!), fun movies, vacations, ice cream trucks, the smell of cut grass, staying up late, fireworks, tubbing down a river, road trips, smores, camping and going to the beach. And not to mention all of the fun stuff that comes along with youth ministry. In youth ministry, summer is big time. I love it. Well, I thought I would use this post as something fun and not so serious. I am still feeling my way through this whole blog thing and not real sure what my blog will be like. I hope you enjoy.