A Couple of Boys (and a girl) Have the Best Week(end) Ever

Summer is here. School is out.  The pool is open. Vacations are planned.  Let the lazy days begin!

I had Marla Frazee's book A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever on my mind this past weekend.  It is a celebration of summer and boyhood.  The title kept running through my head as we began our summer vacation with a weekend trip to the mountains.  School finished up (for the students) on Thursday and we scooted out of town on Friday to ride the Creeper Trail in Damascus, VA.

It was not an idyllic weekend (too many bumps and scrapes and stings for that), but it will live in my memory as one of my favorites.  We stopped in Boone for dinner Friday night on our way to Damascus, walked around the small town after we arrived while Isaac rode his bike, spend hours on bikes riding down the mountain on Saturday, relaxed on the porch while Isaac played in the river, played board games, window shopped, and did an impromptu tour of Yadkin Valley wineries on our way home Sunday afternoon.

Some moments will live because of the stress they caused -- Matt's head-over-handlebars tumble, Isaac's two  bee stings with accompanying blood-curdling screams, Isaac's face plant off his bike in the middle of the trail -- but they do not detract from the overall enjoyment of the weekend.

I am trying to build in more weekends like this, especially this summer when our weekends are not taken up with soccer and week nights are not devoured by homework.  We may not get away for an entire weekend, but a day or night here or there to escape the routine and enjoy each other's company is a reasonable goal.

Isaac is going to camps for a few weeks and may very well have "the best week ever" with one of his friends.  But I will remember our weekend away that started our summer off at a relaxing pace and look forward to a few more like it before the routine begins again in August.

Happy Trails.