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Staying up way past "school time bed time" and watching movies!

Hanging out with my sister and her family at their pool! Throughout the rest of the year our lives seems to be so busy, it is nice to enjoy the pool and family on a hot lazy day by the pool!

Eating outside!! It's amazing how even a simple cup of coffee just tastes better when it's consumed in the great outdoors! Then of course there's the BBQ's, picnics, day-trips, ferry rides, etc., etc....

There's an arts and crafts show we go to every summer. It's such a great drive there and the sellers are awesome :-)

Dutch oven cooking...especially our YUMMY dutch oven potatoes!

My newest favorite summer tradition is picking our own sun-kissed, juicy strawberries.

Mendocino County, camping, our best friends and their two kids, hiking, sunsets, fun and lots of laughter ... all in a matter of 4 days.

we love making toss around ice cream covered in newspaper! so fun!

Walking to the snowcone stand for a cup of flavored ice. yummy!!!

Our summer tradition is the 4th of July parade in Cumming GA. It's an old time, fun filled event, with free flags and ear plugs for all. Why ear plugs? Because they have an amazing amount of extremely loud, yet fun steam engines loaded to the brink with riders throwing candy and toys to the crowds. It's a blast!

We're all about the food....picnics, watermelon outside on the porch and grilling burgers. :)

Our favorite summer tradition is our family vacation to the beach. We go the same place every year and we love that we already have our fav places to eat and things to do!

Our favorite summer tradition is going to afternoon tea at a local and lovely tea room on the last day of school. My daughter and I love to mark the beginning of summer eating cucumber sandwiches, drinking tea and indulging in a bit of shopping in the lovely shops in the building. :-)

Dipping my toes into the ocean all summer long until it's finally warm enough to go swimming - long about August! As a kid I used to plunge myself into that cold water at the first opportunity, now that I'm a mom I understand why my mom waited all season, too. ;)

Going to Ralph's for Italian ices is one of my favorite summer traditions!

I'm hoping we started a new summer tradition in our family just this year...the women and children spending a day together making strawberry jam (nothing like fresh Oregon strawberries picked fresh from the fields near our home).

What's toss around ice cream? Sounds like fun.

We rent a group of cabins in eastern WA for two nights and raft and visit with our family and friends. A great way to reconnect and relax!

My favourite summer tradition is a family trip to our local AMAZING book store. It's one of those huge book stores with comfy seats, etc, but it's not a big chain, so it still has that 'mom and pop' feel. They have a restaurant in the book store that sells food that's grown locally. Our family spends one of our first days off of school (my husband and I are both teachers) eating lunch in the restaurant and picking our summer books. We all leave having spent hours looking for just the right book to entice us into reading over the summer.

My husband and I are both teachers so we have the summer off together, however we are on a "two teacher family" budget. Our summer tradition involves finding fun and thrifty (cheap!) things to do. I'm always amazed at the interesting things you can find to do in your hometown with just a little bit of searching.