Freedom!

I rarely ever wish I was back in elementary school.  In fact, I only think about it around this time of year.  Summer. 

Summer was freedom.  No alarm clock, no bedtime, no shoes and no idea what each day would bring.  My only restriction was that I had to take care of my little brother.  No problem, we just got into trouble together!!  Troy was great, he always ate my undercooked "Easy Bake Oven" concoctions!  When we found a bunch of Atlas Moving wardrobe boxes, we made a complete town!  Each box was a different store.

After a summer storm, Boulder Creek (Boulder, Colorado) flooded and left behind the biggest mud hole you have ever seen.  Troy and I had a blast just playing in the mud along with every other kid in our neighborhood.  We had to throw those clothes away afterward but it was soooo WORTH IT!! Sure, we had summer camps and day camps that we went to off and on just "to keep us out of trouble" but those are not the summer memories I keep in my heart and to this day my brother Troy can make me laugh like no other person in the world.

To a kid, summer is freedom...and we adults need to stop over-thinking (and over-planning) it!