Summer's simple pleasures

“Summertime and the livin’ is easy”-George Gershwin

Ahh.... Summer. The time of year when we linger with friends a little longer, allow our kids to stay up a little later and enjoy a less hectic day-to-day existence. For us, as soon as school is done, mornings become less rushed, meals are more casual and the ever present “to-do” list gets a little easier to manage.  

Although we are only a few weeks into summer (I know that officially summer doesn’t start until June 20th, but humor me), we’ve already made some great summer family memories, and almost all of them have been very simple.

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Watching our kids run through the sprinkler and laughing for hours.  Sitting on the grass and watching a baseball game on a Sunday afternoon while the kids danced and played with friends.  Planting a small vegetable garden with the kids and telling them stories about my grandparents’ garden when I was a girl.  Having dinner with friends and laughing over a good bottle of wine.

So, my Inspired Wining friends, please join me in my quest for summer’s simple pleasures by sharing your ideas and suggestions for fun and simple family activities.  Also, if you have a favorite bottle of summertime wine or beverage, please share that as well.  After all, the grownups need to make some fun summer memories of our own.

Michelle Gauffreau is a customer service consultant for Broadcast1Source and  a founding member of Inspired Wining. She is also a wife, a mother of two and an active volunteer in her community.

Making memories

Sitting in the parking lot at our kids’ elementary school in January, it dawned on me that we had only 7 more school years until our oldest would be finished with high school. Holy Cow! How could this be? Had Y2K really been 12 years ago? Was middle school really a few months away?

Well, of course, being the sentimental nut-job that I am, I came home professing to my husband that we needed to take some trips as a family, see the world, make some family memories- just the five of us.

Luckily, John was on board and I set out to plan the best educational Spring Break family trip ever. For months, I agonized over where we should go and what we should do. I read websites, bought books and read blogs. I asked friends and strangers about their ideas on where we should go. I spent hours doing comparison-shopping for hotels, for our tickets and our meals.

Finally, the decision was made that we would go to Williamsburg, Virginia. We would visit Colonial Williamsburg, Historic Jamestown, Virginia Living Museum, and The Mariner Museum and, of course, spend a day at Busch Gardens.

We recently returned from our trip, and we had a blast! I will spare you the nitty gritty details of our adventure. But what I really wanted to share, was what our kids told us at dinner as we sat around the table discussing our trip and reminiscing about our week away.

Question #1- “ What was your most favorite part of our trip to Williamsburg?” All three said- unanimously- “STAYING IN A HOTEL!” There was then much discussion about how thin the TV’s were, how the soap smelled fabulous, how cool it was to have microwave popcorn while watching a movie in the fold out bed, how great it was to have cereal from the individual serving boxes, and how awesome it was that they had gotten to have 4 consecutive days of Shirley Temples in the lobby at the manager’s reception. 

Question #2-“What did you learn on this trip that you didn’t know before?”
“There were rumors of cannibalism during the ‘Starving Time’ at Jamestown!” exclaimed Jackson (11 yrs old).
"JR – the skeleton in the Historic Jamestown Museum - died from a bullet wound to the knee!” declared Avery (daughter, 9 years old).
“That lady’s skull we saw in the box--- she died with only 5 teeth!” shared Charlotte (daughter, 5 years old).

Question #3-“ What was the funniest part of our trip?”
“Watching you (Mom) get drenched on the Roman Rapids at Busch Gardens,” shared Jackson with a smile on his face.
"Seeing Char terrified at the top of Da Vinci’s Cradle,” snickered Avery.
 And last, my personal favorite, “Locking Jackson up in the jail cell!” smiled Charlotte.

Summary: Memories can be made anywhere. Obviously, traveling to the unknown can be great fun and educational. However, an occasional hotel room with Mom and Dad, a spooky Scooby Doo DVD to watch, maybe an indoor pool, snacks and some Shirley Temples is really all it takes to make great memories.

Alexis Williams may not be a good housekeeper and she’s even worse at being the tooth fairy. But she loves laughing, traveling, spending time with family and being a part of a community that makes a difference. Alexis is officially Inspired Wining's “go-to girl” for just about everything from developing community partnerships to securing our venues for Inspired Wining on Location events. A wife, mother of 3, a church and school volunteer, Alexis is the sharp-witted sweetheart of the group.