Summer in the Gardner

Yes summer is here, especially at my house. My kids are slowly getting out of school and it is starting to get hot enough to need the A/C in the house, not to mention the boiling hot car. So what is it about summer that draws so many people out? Well, I know what the answers are for some, but let me tell you what it is in the Gardner house.
We like doing things together. For instance, my wife does not care for gardening or weeding or the like. I sort of do, however we both enjoy it quite a bit when we do it together. Sometimes it takes some instigation but it happens.
We like the fresh air. After a season cooped up in the house it is nice to get out and stretch our legs and lungs. Walking the dog has not been a tradition among us but now as my schedule is easing some, I think it is one I will take more seriously.
We like colors. Let's face it, even though Heavenly Father has made the Salt Lake Valley where I live, bloom in the desert, it is still a desert and at no time is that more obvious than in winter when everything looks dead and gray. With the onset of summer, the many colors of the flowers and the expanses of green grass over our yards make this desert feel much nicer.
We like the outdoors. Granted, those who know us know we have been camping as a family since my marriage fewer times than I have fingers. There is no real good reason why except perhaps my schooling has kept me busy. scary stories of kids being attacked or dragged off by wildlife has kept my wife apprehensive, but even then we still love the outdoors. For our anniversary recently, we went camping for the first time together without the kids in YEARS. We stayed three days and drowned in what turned out to be a heavy shower broken intermittently with light showers. The tent pad we had our tent on was only about 6 inches higher then the river level not fifty feet away. After the second night, the sandy pad had stopped draining and one corner filled with water. I had overeaten the previous night and threw up there about 2am. Miserable? Not at all. We had the time of our lives! Had the kids been with us that would have been different for them and us. I got to spend four days (we spent the last coming home and spent the night in a motel,) with my best friend and the kids partied with grandparents and their cousins. Sure it rained, but it was memorable and only increased our resolve to camp some more this year.
I am also a busy person. I don't sit idle for long. A multi-tasker by nature, I need to keep busy. Even most TV I watch is accompanied by some task, usually folding laundry. Yes I am a GUY! (Just a note in case you were wondering.) I like to fill my outdoors with working on cars, cleaning out and puttering in the garage, and general sprucing up of my domicile. Now that school is 99.9999999% over for me, I am already doing some of these things and prepared to bust loose on more.
To those who wonder what can be done for summer, I suggest looking around you, Your family is there, your kids are there, You have a yard or park you can enjoy. The best thing you can do is spend time. It is far easier to budget than money and the government has not found a way to spend your share of it. It is there if you want it and it generates more "wealth" than any other activity you could engage in.