Throwback Thursday Stories : sweet summertime

My friend Jessica Turner of The Mom Creative hosts this fantastic link up on Thursdays called Throwback Thursday Stories. It basically takes the #tbt idea a little bit further and you can tell the story behind the photo.

I don’t know about you, but I can turn into a weepy mess if I start looking through my iPhoto account. I see pictures from pre-Todd days and pictures when we were engaged, and then married, and then we welcomed our babies. It’s so crazy that your whole life can appear right before your eyes in photos.

In honor of the beginning of summer for us, I chose this picture for today’s Throwback Thursday Story.

I love this picture of sweet, round, little 14-month-old Hudson. He’s carefree. He’s totally unaware of his extreme wardrobe (or lack therof) choice.

My mom, Hudson, and I had gone to Tennessee to visit my cousin and her daughter. She and Hudson are about five months apart in age, and we just couldn’t wait to get them together. It was in the middle of August in Tennessee, and we decided to let the kids run around in the sprinkler.

So we stripped them down to a diaper, put on some water shoes and a hat, and then somehow they found golf clubs. They ran around like this for an hour and just loved it.

This is summer to me. Maybe not so much the diaper part. But being outside. Running through the sprinkler. Soaking up the moments with your kids because they don’t care if you’re sweating and they really just want to be with you having some simple fun.

The pace is a lot slower and sometimes that’s hard on us. Too much time at the house can make us go a little stir crazy. But these days will be over before I know it. August will come back around and they’ll head off to preschool and Hudson will be in kindergarten.

I’m trying to say yes this summer. Yes to a random day trip to the beach. (Thank heavens we live within driving distance.) Yes to sprinklers in the yard. Yes to a bike ride when it’s blazing hot outside and I’ve already washed my hair. Yes to movies on a rainy day. Yes to staying up late just to hang out together. Yes to wacky outfits in the yard because it’s the carefree way to be.

Who’s with me?

What’s your favorite summer memory?