Summer Bucket List

Several bloggers that I follow have been writing Summer Bucket Lists. One of my all-time favorite blogs, Karma-Continued, took the writing prompt from another blog, which encourages people to create a list with 50 things they hope to do over the summer. Well, clearly I am far too lazy (and pregnant) to even think about accomplishing 50 things. Instead, I came up with 10 things that I truly do hope to do during summer 2011.

1) Go to the beach. We live 10 minutes from the gorgeous beaches, and yet...last year we went once. Stephanie adores both water and sand, so I'm hoping to get her there more than one time. (At least twice, haha). And, to top it off, I will make it my goal NOT to freak out over sand in the car. Or the diaper bag. Or the rugs in our apartment. Or the shower.

2) Bring Stephanie to the Children's Museum and the Zoo several times. We have memberships to both of these places, but I can see myself being too lazy to drive north and actually go. But she loves them, and it isn't fair for me to keep her cooped up in the house just because i'm hot, huge, and miserable.

3) Go swimming. The water provides such wonderful, low-key excercise for a pregnant woman. We have several friends who have offered us their pool to use whenever we want, and I really hope to take advantage of their generosity.

4) Buy a maternity bathing suit. If I hope to accomplish numbers 2 and 3 on my list, than this is a must.

5) Spend quality family time in the evenings. So often Dan will come home at 5, watch Stephanie while I cook, we'll eat together, i'll give her a bath while he cleans up, and she goes to bed. Since it's summer, I would love to occasionally throw this schedule out the window and have some spontaneous family-time. I'm thinking taking a picnic dinner to the park, going for a walk on the beach, (or anywhere outside), having a bbq dinner on our patio while Stephanie plays in the yard, or even just letting her stay up late to play while we watch her having fun.

6) Take advantage of local events. Every summer, there are tons of fun events that occur in and around our town. There's a balloon festival, block parties, live music nights, and much more. Yet, again, we tend to get stuck in our routine and don't often attend any of these. I'm hoping to make it to at least a few this summer.

7) Go blueberry picking. I love picking fresh fruit at the local farms, and was very disappointed that we never made it to pick straweberries. However, there is still a chance for blueberries, and I am determined to do it!

8) Go for walks several times each week. I am pretty proud of my weight gain so far (12 lbs, vs the 21 lbs I had gained at this point in my first pregnancy.) In order to keep the weight down during my third trimester, I need to force myself to do low-key excercises, and what better way than walking.

9) Read a lot of books. One of the ways I make sure to take "me" time during the day is by reading. Often it only happens at night when there's nothing good on TV, but as i've noticed my body getting more and more tired, I've tried to take at least 15 minutes of her nap to rest with my feet up and read a book. I know that once Joseph arrives my reading time will be even more limited than it is now, so i'm soaking up as many books as I can.

10) Spend A LOT of quality time with Stephanie. This is the last summer that it will be just her and I during the day, and I want to make sure she gets as much bonding time in as possible. I want to really be involved with her play, take life more slowly and let her explore when we are out and about, and really be "in-the-moment" when i'm interacting with her.

I am excited about the prospect of accomplishing each of these items, and hope to make this the best summer yet for our family!

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