10 on the 10th in July: 10 Special Summer Memories

 It's the 10th of the month and time for 10 on the 10th with Marsha. This month we're asked to share 10 of our favorite summer memories... 

Oh I both love and hate this prompt!  I can't wait to read everyone's favorite memories and I just LOVE summer... and yet I have an awful memory. I often say I am so thankful for the blog because I can look things up. That said I have tons of little snippets of memories-- my birthday is in the summer so just thinking of my birthdays and parties would yield tons of memories! I have no hope of narrowing this down to just 10!

I decided to focus on the summers from before we had kids-- every summer with the kids growing up on the lake and homeschooling is filled with lots of fun little moments but our "big" memories like family vacations almost always happened in the off season (Sept. or February usually). 

1. Growing up my stepfather owned a time share in Provincetown on Cape Cod and we used to go most summers but I mostly remember our times on the Cape since we always stayed in the same place and did a lot of the same things. I'll never forget the year my older sister brought a friend with her and she proclaimed (quite loudly) that she wanted to "drive through P-town (as it's called) and see all the gays"-- what can I say? we were not politically correct back then and P-town was one of the few places where LGBTQ+ people were known to be comfortable enough to be openly affectionate. I also think we stopped going there as often after that-- but more because my stepfather owned a studio timeshare and we were a family of 6 by then so it was getting quite small for us. Plus we wanted to see other places too since we could book a different destination through the timeshare company and often got upgraded to larger units.

2. My grandparents traveled a lot in their Airstream trailer and I fondly remember tons of trips taken with them every summer to places like Lake Placid, Jackson Ohio (where we toured the Airstream factory), Vermont, and they had a seasonal spot in Brewster on Cape Cod that we often went to for little weekend escapes. I have such fond memories of lobster rolls and chowder and dancing the bunny hop  and the chicken dance on one of the town bandstand's lawn; it was set in a little gully and we sat on the hill to see. 

Lake Placid; I have no memory of why we are in this parade.. 

In Ohio-- I'm in the red outfit

I think we came in second

3.I can remember middle school birthdays spent at amusement parks called Riverside (now 6 Flags New England) and Rocky Point. My mom and step father used to take 2 cars and loaded up me and a few of my friends and we spent the day riding rides and eating junk food. 

4. Each year through much of middle and high school we had a huge party at my friend Kelly's family cottage. We'd go boating and swimming and eat all sorts of goodies until well past dark. 

My husband in the sunglasses

5. The year I turned 16 my parents put in a pool and we had my first ever pool party. That was the summer I realized that this guy Ben who we'd been friends with for year was actually really sweet and I wondered why I had never really noticed him (or his crush on me!) before. That was the summer we started dating. 

6. The summer of '94 was a particularly good summer-- it started with a trip to France with my best friend and some members from our French class in high school. Then later that same summer we headed off to yearbook camp that was held at a local college where we got a dorm suite to share with 2 other girls and friends from our school. 

I'm in the back in navy

I'm second from the right

Yearbook camp

7. I remember being so jet lagged from my trip to France for Ben's family's 4th of July party at the lake; it was my first year attending and it is one tradition that is still going to this day. 

By the following summer (1995) we had a jet ski to play with (that my mother in law still owns and it still runs!)

8. 1994 was also the summer I started going to Old Orchard Beach with Ben and his family. His uncle used to rent a house and all his aunts, uncles, cousins, spouses of cousins, etc. all crammed into this tiny house (or in tents in the yard) and spent a week at the beach. We loved walking to the pier and getting lunch, playing mini golf in the evenings, and shopping. We went several years in a row and it was always a lot of fun. 

9. July of 1998-- Ben and my family threw a surprise party for me for my 21st birthday at our new home. Ben and I had just moved into our house on Sabin Street earlier that spring (or perhaps late winter-- I do remember house hunting in the snow and ice and that we were not old enough to buy any alcohol for our housewarming party). 

10. Ben and I got engaged in the summer of 2000; we spent a few nights at one of the Pocono's all inclusive resorts called Paradise Stream and had a great time swimming, biking, and hiking. 

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